Scale Plastic & Rail

1/24 Krupp Titan SWL 80 from Revell UK

1/24 Krupp Titan SWL 80
Revell UK
Catalogue # 07559

The German Krupp company began production of vehicles in 1919 and built trucks and dump trucks until the late 1960s. With its headquarters in Essen, production occurred at several sites; after WW2, vehicles produced at some sites carried the "Sudwerke" name rather than Krupp. The first major post-war vehicle was the Krupp Titan which was introduced to the world at the 1950 Paris Motor Show. It was immediately identifiable with its uniquely styled large cab; overall, it was an extremely imposing vehicle that always caught the eye . Over the next five years, a variety of variants appeared, with differences in powerplants, transmission systems, wheelbases and load carrying capacity. The SWL 80 was a short wheelbase variant that remained in production for over 4 years in this period. Today, particularly in its native Germany, there is a large following for these classic vehicles and they often appear at motor shows (below). They are thought of as much more attractive than its successor, the Tiger, which lost all of the curves which became flat surfaces.

Credit and copywrite: Wikipedia

There have been a couple of kits of these trucks over the years, including a really nice 1/43rd resin model from Taira Models in the late 1990s which I remember a friend in Bedfordshire building at the time. Now in front of me is a very large kit from Revell of the SWL 80 version. I believe from the background that I managed to research that this 1/24th scale kit was first released by Revell in the 2003-2004 period; I do not know if it was a new kit at that time or a reboxing of another manufacturer's product. Nevertheless, it has now been re-released and certainly looks an attractive truck on the box top with its very different style of nose and cab. I had not been aware of the kit in its previous incarnation (s) so was interested to see how good a kit lay within the large box. Inside, we have 12 sprues of parts (3 white, 6 grey, 1 silver grey, 1 chromed and 1 transparent), a small decal sheet, the tyres and the instruction booklet.

The first white sprue (below) sets the tone for the whole model. The quality of the mouldings is good without being of the highest quality Revell achieve with their new car kits. Most of the major parts for the cab are given on this sprue. Replacement of the poor door handles will be needed but otherwise the parts can generally be worked with.

The second white sprue (above) gives the modeller the front mudguards, radiator and the rest of the parts for the cab. The radiator detailing is frankly poor in comparison to many parts in this model. The grill louvres on the cab front need a little attention with a needle file to sharpen them up but then should look alright. The third white sprue (below) moves to the lower body of the truck, being dominated by parts for the chassis, along with the rear mudguards, flaps and the transmission. The edges of these mudguards is slightly thicker and will need thinning a little; otherwise most of these parts are fine.

The first of the grey sprues (above) gives a wide range of parts for the vehicle, including the main exhaust system, strengthening plates and supports for the flatbed. The detail on some of these parts was a little heavier than on some other sprues and will need to be attended to by the modeller. The second grey sprue (below) gives the major parts for the flatbed. The wood finish on these parts is alright, without being of the very best quality in this scale available currently in model form.

The next sprue (above) provides the four parts of the canvas cover. The detail on these parts is of a high quality with even the folds in the material being well represented. What will require a good degree of modelling skill is to disguise the joins on these parts so that a realistic result can be achieved. Next we have the mouldings for the wheels (below); these are very good representations of the style of wheel hub carried by many of these vehicles.

The next grey sprue (above) gives more parts for the flatbed including the hoops for supporting the canvas cover. These need attention since they are a little on the heavy side and need thinning down somewhat. The last grey sprue (below) is another multiple part sprue, giving the remainder of the detail parts for the kit. Included here are the main fuel tanks, brakes, suspension and cross-members amongst the parts; the brakes are the standout parts with their excellent detail on both surfaces.

The single silver grey sprue (above) comprises of most of the parts for the Krupp's specialist 6-cylider engine (built to the occupying forces' directives, it was a twin banked block with 3 cylinders on each side). This is probably the strongest area of the kit, since the parts compare exceptionally well to some plans I managed to obtain. A close-up of some of these parts (below) shows the good detail level and good overall surface finish. Some modellers may wish to replace some of the wiring with sprue or fuse wire, but with careful painting and a little extra detailing, a really good engine will result.

Site readers will know that I dislike chromed sprues; thankfully, not many parts are present on this kit's chromed sprue (above); the standard of chroming is not that bad, but the size and position of some of the attachment points will not aid in easy cleaning up without damage to the chrome. The transparency sprue (below) is clear and without distortion. I have to report, however, that a fellow modeller building this model told me that the plastic is very, very brittle and great care must be taken in removing the parts from the sprues and removing the attached sprue points.

The tyres (above) are really good mouldings, with excellent width, style and depth of tread pattern. Why Revell cannot always attain this high standard is a bit of a mystery, but sadly this is often the case. Anyway, these are excellent and after a coat of paint and dirtying up will look really realistic. Finally, we have the small but full decal sheet (below). 2 options are offered, the Rheinisch-Westfälische haulage company vehicle portrayed on the box-top and a Baumann freight forwarding truck. The sheet is well printed in Revell's usual manner.

So What Do We Think?
One or two or Revell's recent re-releases have not really come up to modern standards. Although this kit will need a lot of work to make a great model, most of the basics are there and some of the detailing is rather good. Particularly in the engine bay. At least it offers a different truck from the plethora of US model vehicles available in this scale.

An interesting reissue

Our thanks to Revell UK for the review sample. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit www.revell.eu

Robin Jenkins.

Discuss this set on our very own forum at www.sparforums.com. Register and join our friendly modelling community.