Convoy's 1/76
Daimler Marienfelde Truck
 

On the Real Thing

Like the United Kingdom Germany entered the First World War with a "Subsidy" system. Under this system civilian companies were allowed to purchase vehicles at a lower price provided that they would hand them over to the military in case of war. Their number, however, remained too low to fulfill the German Army's needs in 1914. As a consequence an enormous variety of civilian trucks were impressed into military service when the war started. However, in the coming years of war, this variety mostly vanished, as many trucks were used up in the daily grind and the army could order more unified military trucks. On the average figure some 25,000 trucks were in German Army service at any single day during the war. At the same time about 40,000 new trucks were manufactured between 1914-1918.

One of the "Subsidy" truck designs that were kept in production throughout the war was made by Daimler Marienfelde (Marienfelde being the location of the Daimler factory manufacturing the truck). The truck was of modern design, went into production in 1914 and was used extensively wherever the German Army went. Technically it was a 3-ton truck with chain drive, using a 4-cylinder gasoline engine which gave it a maximum speed of some 30 km/h. Over 3.000 of these trucks were built between 1914-18. Many of these trucks survived the war and were used by civilian companies or the German Reichswehr Army during the twenties and thirties, with pneumatic tires replacing the old solid ones.

The kit comes packed in a small cardboard box typical of Convoy. With it also comes a plan.

The kit consists of some 30+ parts, moulded in a grey, rather hard resin. There is quite a lot of moulding flash, and some of the smaller parts are attached to big pour stubs. The moulding is pretty good, although not first-rate. But all the details are there allright. The assembly seems to be pretty straight-forward

As far as I can see the model matches the original well. It could do with a bit of extra detailing, though. More info will follow when I start building it.

This kit can be ordered directly from Convoys own site.

 

Verdict

This is a nice kit of a neglected subject. It is not perfect yet a bit more subtle than the other 1/72 Daimler Marienfelde, made by Reviresco. With a bit of effort this will result in a very fine model!