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Topic starter
20/11/2025 12:08 pm
This KdF Type 82 "Kübelwagen" or bucket car is a variant of the Ferdinand Porsche's "People's Car" or Volkswagen built in many variants, and similar but much lighter than America's Jeep. KdF is the acronym for "Strength through Joy" which was a city built in the 1930s originally to provide better conditions for German workers but, for the war effort, a Volkswagen factory was converted to produce the Type 82 variant. The KdF was renamed "Wolfsburg" after the war and continued as VW's main production center. 53,000 were built from 1940 to 1945 with 2490 of those built in 1945 for the British Army. I love tin type models for their clever designs of stamped sheet metal folded and embossed to create an accurate model with operating features, here, including doors with working latches. The model is augmented with metal casting of the engine and mounted MG 42 machine gun as well as rubber Continental tires.. These WWll military German and American soft skins are made by the Czech company Gonio in 1/24 scale. This model is liveried and finished in Afrika Korps Gelbbraun (yellow brown).
20/11/2025 12:38 pm
I assume this vehicle formed the basis of design for the Volkswagen "Thing" that showed up in North America in the 70s. I though it was pretty cool for a basic utility grade convertible....kind of funky. I'm not sure why it fizzled out....does anyone have info on that?
20/11/2025 6:51 pm
Love the model and pictures of a model I had never seen before.
Rich Sufficool reacted
Topic starter
20/11/2025 7:55 pm
20/11/2025 8:02 pm
@rich-sufficool That is an outstanding model Rich. I never got into military models but I like them a lot.
Jack Dodds reacted
Topic starter
20/11/2025 8:54 pm
@bob-jackman I'm fascinated with how you can bend and fold 2 dimensional sheets into a 3-dimensional model. It's such an exercise in spatial relations that's mind boggling to me... and I had to master this stuff as part my entrance exam way back when.
Jack Dodds reacted
21/11/2025 7:24 am
@rich-sufficool I have always been interested in how things were made when it seemed impossible. As a dentist I'm sure you had to have dexterity.
Topic starter
21/11/2025 10:36 am
@bob-jackman This phase wasn't about dexterity. For that, we had to carve a sculptural shape from a block of chalk. This was a mental exercise to look at flat 2-D patterns and assemble it in your mind into a 3-D object. I don't even know if it's a requirement any more. I tried to look for test examples on the web and it seems to have been replaced by questions of 3-D imaging and printing which it necessary for ceramic restorations that didn't exist in the mid-'70s. It's probably about your brain power being replaced by AI. The professions today are so much more reliant on this technology (as are we all I suspect).