German Pkw K1 Kübelwagen Type 82 (North Africa)

Plastic model kit for building a Volkswagen Type 82 Kübelwagen (North Africa)

• Scale 1:35
• open top
• 2 different headlight versions
• Windshield can be built folded up or down
• Including Karabiner 98K and canisters
• Vinyl tires
• 3 marking options
• Unbuilt / unpainted
• Paint and glue not included

The Kübelwagen (Volkswagen Type 82) is a German light off-road vehicle from the Second World War. The first prototypes were built between 1938 and 1939, and series production began between 1940 and 1945. A total of around 53,000 examples of this vehicle were produced. The Kübelwagen was around 3.74 meters long, 1.6 meters wide and had a total height of 1.65 meters. The empty weight reached 725 kilograms. The driving force was provided by a single 4-cylinder engine with an output of 23 hp or 25 hp and a displacement of 1 liter or 1.1 liters. The top speed was 80 km/h.

The Kübelwagen was developed for the needs of the German Wehrmacht as a new, light off-road vehicle suitable for transporting at least three soldiers and a light machine gun as well as a supply of ammunition. In order to minimize production costs and speed up research and development work, the design of the car was based on the civilian VW Type 1, the later popular "Beetle". Interestingly, it was originally decided to keep the chassis and rear-wheel drive (4x2) almost unchanged. After field tests, experimental combat use during the fighting in Poland in 1939 and a variety of smaller and larger modernizations, production of the Kübelwagen began in the VW factories in 1940. As a curiosity, the first batch was manufactured in Stuttgart, but production was very quickly moved to Wolfsburg. The Kübelwagen proved to be an extremely successful vehicle, used by the German army on almost all fronts - from North Africa to the Eastern Front - until the end of World War II. Based on this design, the Schwimmwagen amphibious vehicle was developed.