Review

The days after D-Day and indeed after World War 2 had concluded there was still plenty of tasks that needed to be dealt with relating to the war. A few of these was the issue of moving destroyed heavy armour off of road routes and repairing structures such as destroyed roads. One of the most useful vehicles for aspects of these tasks was the bulldozer. MiniArt has previously released a bulldozer in 1/35th scale suitable for the task and followed up with a crew for it; MiniArt has now added these items together and supplied them for the modeller.

A close inspection of the provided mouldings has revealed no issues as regards castings that concern me. I checked for the most common issue which are ejector pin marks and flash and I found none that are an obvious issue. Everything looks sharp and that is especially true of the figures that have especially well done creases in the clothing, a look at the hands also reveals the quality of the figures. The figures are both civilian rather than military and the finishing options are civilian in nature and this places the figure in a post war setting. I myself want to place this in a wartime setting only needing and change of figures and a (paint it green order).

The dozer itself has been tackled in great detail from engine, tracks to body. The result of this high level of detail is a high parts count that with care will build into an impressive model. That high parts count does include photo etch; fortunately the photo etch is of a decent size for the most part and should not over tax you provided care is taken. I do wish that MiniArt would stop packing photo etched frets with decals and clear plastic parts as it is a high risk of damage in my book. 

The tracks are individual links consisting of three parts and are intended to be workable. Looking at the construction method I feel it will be very difficult to keep them workable and why would it be needed anyway. For me the plus of this is that the detail is very pleasing. The cable that lifts and lowers the blade, this is acceptable for the intended purpose but I would look for a metal cable of your choice to replace it and give a higher level of realism. 

The engine really is worth the effort as it is exposed to a very high degree and so has the possibility of being a diamond in the rough. Once assembled, installed and painted the modeller will have plenty of fun weathering it and bringing it to life (I look forward to seeing peoples efforts of adding smoke to the  exhaust). The cab is open to the weather and so another area worth the modeller really working on it with the paint as all of the needed detail is present. I kind of hope that MiniArt release the military option with figures. Two of these pushing a destroyed German heavy into a hole to be buried could make for an appealing finish.