Datsun Off-Road Pickup

I agree with the reviews here that this little kit is short on detail, but as also noted, with only 50 pieces it is a breeze to build. An inexperienced builder will avoid the frustration sometimes connected with handling smaller detail pieces. I bought it to include in a beach scene diorama I am building, so it will be behind glass and not available for close inspection. Consequently, the lack of detail will not be readily noticeable.

Since this kit was so reasonably priced around 10 bucks from Hobbylinc, I decided to finish it with a post apocalyptic theme. For those of you who are devotees of the 1:1 vehicle, I assure you I meant no disrespect in giving the truck this treatment. As a matter of fact, this is more of an homage to this plucky little truck as I would guess it would be one of the few vehicles to actually survive and function in an apocalypse. First a bit about the kit, I really enjoyed building it. Just enough detail to look good but not so much to be overly fiddly and frustrating when you’re looking for a quick fun build. The parts required only a bit of cleanup with minimal flash. A couple of issues that I thought were minor; the rear driver side leaf spring had half of it missing – I don’t think I broke it because I couldn’t find it but I’ll admit it’s possible. It looks like a glitch with the molding. Also the truck body wheel wells don’t seem to fit centered over the tires. I should have tried a bit of reshaping with a heat gun but it was too late by the time I was ready to assemble it – body was painted, etc. I’d recommend checking this as to not make my same mistake. For the most part though fit was excellent as were the instructions making this a very straight forward build. OK this next part is how I gave this truck a post apocalyptic theme. First off I’d like to say that I borrowed heavily from the posted work of many modelers much more talented than I. To those folks – thank you for your inspiration. Even in copying I cannot do your concepts justice but I had lots of fun trying. The truck body’s holes scratched, etc. were done with a soldering iron. I primed most of the parts with Mr. Surfacer red oxide primer and employed the hairspray technique (thanks to my wife who got tired of me borrowing it and bought another one) spraying it on the various parts after the primer. When it was dry I airbrushed all acrylic paint (mostly Vallejo, some Tamiya) and scraped away at it with a wet fairly stiff brush (old tooth brush works) to get the rusted/chipping effect. The overall truck color is Vallejo beige. The wheels are Vallejo acrylic steel chipped away to expose the rust paint underneath. I used a number of various Vallejo pigments as well as AK enamel mud and fuel stains. The screens in place of the front and rear windows are stainless steel. Way too stout for this purpose but its what I had. The machine gun in the back was borrowed from an MPC Jeep kit. The mount fit perfectly atop the rear wheel wells in the truck bed. The barbed wire is I think 1/35 scale purchased from Hobbylinc. The next step for this is I plan to incorporate this into a post apocalyptic diorama (I know, not a very happy theme) with a couple figures and a toy die cast 1/24 Harley given the same treatment (see my review on the Mr Surfacer red oxide primer) – again no disrespect intended. I will post these when (if?) I finish something worth looking at as to not totally waste everybody’s time. However you decide to finish this model it is a bargain, fun to assemble and paint, and I would definitely recommend picking it up.

It does look pretty good when built up but this kit lacks a lot. Very poor engine bay. No distributor or hoses. This is the 4th time ive seen this kit released and the other 3 times they were snap kits. The sole difference is this kit has decals. Not stickers. On the plus side You'll save money on glue as this kit needs none