PMMS
Royal Models
RSO type 01

1/35th set No 272
For Italeri Kits

Review by Terry Ashley
This set consists of 13 resin pieces and two large etched frets and a length of thickish wire for the seat frames. The resin casting is good quality as is the etching, with this being as good as you will find these days.

The resin parts are the two crew seats which require you to bend the wire provided to form the frame, more on this later.
A front section of the engine with belt pulleys and other small items, this fits into the front of the cab with the engine bay door formed from the etched parts.
Other resin bits include the Notek light, cab side lights and gear level knobs plus a few smaller bits.

The etched metal parts are extensive and have many bits for the cab interior and exterior including interior windscreen framing and dashboard, plus the screen for the rear wall. All the handles and window winders on the door interiors are also provided and other small fittings.
The cab exterior sees the engine compartment door louvers and bits like the windscreen wipers and front bumper plus other small bits.
The rear cargo tray has all the side supports and fittings provided on the etched frets and make for a busy cargo tray and there are also some etched bits for the suspension.

Some minor surgery is required on the Italeri kit but nothing the average modeller can’t handle.

The instructions are in the form of a single A4 sheet with clear exploded view drawings showing the placement of the parts and should make adding the bits to the kit easy.

I mentioned earlier that you were given a length of wire, unfortunately there is no jig or former for this and it will be tricky to bend the four seat frame sides to match exactly, I would suggest making your own jig for bending the wire into shape. The wire comes partially wound up and needs to be straightened before forming the frames; a simple way of straightening bent wire is to take a short length of wire and straighten it as much as you can with your fingers, then lay it on a hard flat surface (a bit of hard plastic or desktop will do), now take a steel ruler and ‘roll’ the ruler at right angles to the wire length like you are rolling flour (firm pressure while rolling helps). Within a short time the wire will be perfectly straight and you can commence the frame bending, this technique works on any thickness wire, but try to keep the wire in short lengths (just the length you need at the time) so the ends don’t flap about as you roll with the steel ruler.

Over all this is a excellent update set and will add some nice details to the Italeri RSO kit.

Royal Models
Royal Models
The instructions
Royal Models
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Page created 30 December 2002

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