Introduction
The following introduction is taken from the ICM website:
To provide hot meals to Wehrmacht soldiers in the field, company kitchens were set up to prepare meals. Qualified cooks were in charge of these issues, who also used the services of assistants. The cooked food was distributed either directly into soldiers’ pots or into special large thermoses (for delivery to units located at a certain distance from the kitchen). The Wehrmacht used field kitchens of several types: large kitchens for cooking for the number of soldiers from 125 to 225, or smaller kitchens for 60 to 125 people. They were transported either on a trailer behind cars or by a team of horses. They were also installed in the backs of trucks, such as the French-made AHN trucks in the Wehrmacht’s numerous fleet. Soldiers’ humour gave the field kitchens the name ‘Gulaschkanone’ (‘Goulash Cannon’).
Review
This offering from ICM arrives in a flip top cardboard tray, with a separate card lid showing the artwork. Inside the model is packaged in a single plastic bag. The moulding looks free of obvious issues beyond some ejector pin marks. Access for removal of pieces is generally good, and the gates are of a reasonable size.
This offering from ICM combining a LKW AHN truck with a mobile field kitchen is an interesting release which has caught the attention on a number of modellers. The AHN truck has been released a number of times by ICM and even once by Tamiya. Despite that the kit it its various forms goes back 10 years, the moulds appear to be holding up very well. There have been some complaints over accuracy, but regardless I still approve of the truck kit in its own right.
The truck offers very nice details inside and out from a detailed chassis, engine and gearbox. The chassis does require the modeler plans ahead in order to get everything aligned correctly. The cab interior meets expectations while obviously leaving room for improvement and personal touches that makes a model your own.
The mobile field kitchen is the type normally seen being drawn by horses, basically this consists of a simplistic chassis frame containing a wood fired stove for heating the food and storage areas around it. A simplistic braking system, with blocks coming into contact with the metal rim of the coach wheels is well represented in this release, and the whole thing is held in the correct orientation by a single leg on the towing area of the chassis. Due to how this has been done, I do not know how safe I would feel with this in the back of a lorry without any obvious form of restraint.
The areas around the central heating area of the stove have separate tops on some occasions, and so could be modified to show open access. I quite like the overall details of this aspect of the model, but I feel that ICM could have put more work into this aspect and so increasing its appeal to modelers. I do approve of the inclusion of various cooking vessels and food storage items, such as wooden crates and sacks. The combination of the 3 elements in the truck, the field kitchen, food and cooking vessels is a nice combo. But, this could have been greatly improved as regards desire for it, if a figure or figures were included preparing food or distributing food, only really requiring the addition of a trestle table and suitable figures.
2 finishing options have been included for each of the main elements, however, no details are provided as to what they specifically replicate. However, one is grey and the other yellow and that to me would indicate early and later in the war.
Conclusion
This offering from ICM is a pleasing combination in my opinion despite the negative comments some are making about the AHN truck. For me, this release really does need a figure or two and if you included figures distributing food you would greatly improve its appeal.