Review

Hobby Boss' LWS adds variety to military model collections. It is molded in light gray plastic and shows excellent surface detail. Complex molding techniques have allowed Hobby Boss to mold the hull in one piece, as well as the deck and cabin. Many parts have ejector-pin marks, and while they are mainly in hidden areas, some require filling.

The kit provides basic interior components and features one-piece vinyl tracks. Also included is a small photo-etched metal sheet with grilles for the engine deck and die-cut masks for the clear parts. The instructions feature clear diagrams, but several parts are not called out, especially where they are duplicated on each side of the model. Typical of many kits, no detailed painting instructions are included. A two-sided color markings diagram covers two vehicles. The decal sheet provides additional numbers if you wish to individualize your LWS.

Assembly starts with the running gear. As is my preference, I leave this off until the main painting is complete. The fit of the deck to the hull is very good. I painted the interior of the hull flat black around the areas where the engine deck screens go to make the hull look less empty.

I painted the interior of the cabin flat white, picking out several details with different colors. The instructions add most of the exterior details to the cabin before installing it on the deck, but I waited until after gluing the cabin in place. The fit was excellent.

Cabin hatches can be posed open or closed, but because their interiors were marred with several ejector-pin marks, I glued all of the hatches shut. The tracks fit well, but the one-piece vinyl tracks don't sag as they should.

The finished model closely matches the dimensions given in the Standard Catalog of German Military Vehicles by David Doyle (Krause Publications). The model was short by only .1 of an inch in length and was about .2 of an inch wider. Because these vehicles were built by several different shipyards, they no doubt varied slightly in construction and size.

While information on the LWS is a bit sketchy, most references indicate that the vehicles with Panzer IV-style running gear are later versions. But, Hobby Boss calls this an early-version vehicle.

True Details has released a nice set of resin cast rope bumpers for the Hobby Boss Land-Wasser- Schlepper. Virtually every picture of the LWS shows it adorned with a set of the bumpers, but they would be almost impossible to accurately represent in injection molded plastic, and none is included in the kit. The six resin pieces are easy to remove from their casting plugs.

The fit of the parts is very good, but required some tweaking to soften the resin slightly; I used a hair dryer for this. I also had to shorten the rear piece slightly to get a tight fit to the rear of the LWS and peg each piece at its joins with a short piece of plastic rod. Once painted, washed and dry brushed, the detail in the castings really stood out and dressed up the kit.

Any modeler with a little bit of experience should be able to build Hobby Boss' LWS. It's a unique subject and can make for a very nice diversion from building other armor models. It will also add variety to any collection of German World War II armor. True Details offers resin upgrades for the kit, and while the vinyl tracks don't have the sag that real tracks would, they can be painted to look nice and remove the sometimes time-consuming and frustrating task of building tracks link by link.