Clark CA-1 Airborne Dozer
1/35 Kit #35031
Review by Terry Ashley

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Image of finished model courtesy Calibre35

This kit from Calibre35 is a full resin kit with 160 parts in light cream resin plus a small etched fret with 10 parts and a short length of copper wire.

The quality of the resin parts is excellent with cleanly cast detail on the very small and delicate parts as well as the larger parts and I didn’t find any blemishes of any sort on the parts.

As you would imagine in such a small kit with 160 parts many of these are very small and extreme care is needed when removing the casting blocks as well as during assembly.

One notable feature of this kit is the fully workable track that is engineered in the kit exactly as it is in the full sized vehicle. Each small track link casting has the two different link types which fit into one another with a small pin holding the links together although the instructions don’t actually tell you how many links are needed for each track.

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The track pins are a very snug fit through the track link holes and to help slip these into place I lightly ‘bevelled’ the end of the pin, only enough to take the square edge of the pin so it would slip into the holes better and of course the holes on each link must be exactly lined up as there is no movement and the pins held in place without glue such is the good fit and the assembled track articulated well.

Assembly of the main body is helped with small location holes and corresponding pins in some of the parts that govern how the rest will line up and this really does help get the alignment right during the early stages of assembly and is a very helpful feature.

The large front radiator has the etched grill fitted inside the cowing with a separate radiator inside the cowling as well as etched data panels and the front dozer blade assembly can by made workable with some minor modification to the hydraulic cylinders and dozer arm attachment points which shouldn’t be that difficult to achieve with a bit of care to add some animation to the finished model.

Radiator cowling with etched screen in place and separate radiator

The rear winch assembly is made up of eight parts and fits to the lower rear of the body and there the two large storage boxes on either side of the tractor with the only extra items you need are the flexible hydraulic lines to the blade cylinders which can be made from this plastic wire or rubber tubing available from some accessory sets such as those from Verlinden.

The instructions are the usual Calibre35 exploded view drawings with the parts called out by number and despite the number of parts I found these very easy to read and follow but as usual with a resin kit you should always test fit the parts before gluing.

Conclusion:
This is a superbly detailed little kit with intricate details and the test fitting of the major components showed the fit is very good and shouldn’t pose any problems but due to the number of fine parts in such a small kit care will be needed.

This kit is definitely not for the inexperienced resin kit builder but will provide an excellent replica of this little vehicle and the features of fully working track and dozer assembly adds to the overall detail definition as does the addition of etched detail parts.

Highly recommended for allied vehicle fans or for anyone who wants a well engineered resin kit that will add something different to your dioramas.

Thanks to Calibre35 and Andrew of SouthEast Hobbies for the review sample.

Page Created 4 September 2004