Model Forum / General / Models / December 2006

Kit Review: SDV Model 1/87 Scale Military Series Kit No. 87 052; Tatra
813 4 x 4 Vojensky Tahac Navesu (Military Tractor for Trailer Haulage);
81 parts (39 in olive green styrene, 32 in black styrene, 10 clear
styrene); price in Czech Koruna Kr 225 (equal to US $10.71 at the
source)

Advantages: different tractor to use with both military or civilian
cargo trailers, many options with this kit

Disadvantages: old-fashioned molds (normal for small run kits) may be
hard to work with

Rating: Recommended

Recommendation: for all modern small-scale softskin fans

    Unlike many western truck manufacturers, many European companies come
up with one good design for specific engine and transmission
combinations, as well as wheel arrangements, and then offer them in
whatever combinations the customer needs. This is common with companies
such as Daimler Benz, MAN, KaMAZ, and Tatra, among many others. One of
the best known of these families are the Tatra 813 series trucks, which
come in 4 x 2, 4 x 4, 6 x 6 and 8 x 8 arrangements among many others.

    This kit is SDV's offering of the dedicated military tractor for
heavy semi-trailers, the Tatra 813 4 x 4 variant. These trucks are
semi-rear area ones as it is hard to move a semi-trailer cross country,
but permits moving heavy palletized or containerized cargoes close to
the combat units; they are often seen towing heavy bulk fuel tankers as
well.

    SDV's kit is a "limited run" kit, so it is designed to be
offered by a small manufacturer and in some cases the molding seem a
bit crude. However, with care and careful cleanup, the kits build up
into neat replicas of vehicles not offered by other manufacturers such
as ROCO or Kibri. This kit uses some of the conventions that Kibri
does, such as snap-on axles for the wheels, but provides a wide variety
of nice bits such as individual headlights, driving lights and
taillights - 8 in all.

    Construction requires a number of subassemblies so care will need to
be taken with cutting the parts from the sprues as well as assembly.

    No markings or painting instructions are included, but as with many HO
scale vehicles the model comes molded in the correct colors for each
part so painting is not expected. Some logical finish points can add to
its appearance or painting the parts the colors they come in on the
sprues will help give them a more realistic finish.

    The directions are in Czech and German, but some monkey-see-monkey-do
"international" flags cover the basic points in the directions, and
there are not a fistful of parts at stake here, so it should be
sufficient to get a clean job of assembly.

    Overall, this is a handy little beast for HO scalers and with a
suitable trailer should be a nice addition to either an HO model
railway or wargame army.

    Thanks to Jan Podubecky for the review sample.

Sources for SDV kits:

Stevens International, 706 N. White Horse Pike, P.O. Box 126, Magnolia,
NY 08049;
phone (856) 435-1555 fax (856) 627- 6274; e-mail:
info@stevenshobby.com;

Fidelis Models, PO Box 1021, Poway, CA 92074; e-mail
fidelismodels@cox.net;

Howard Hookham, 11 Belle Vue Terrace, Blackwood Hall, Luddendenfoot,
Halifax HX2 6HG, Yorkshire, Great Britain; e-mail
futureplanes2000@yahoo.com.

SDV Model website and e-store: http://www.sdvmodel.cz