Eureka XXL 1/35 German 200l Fuel Drum sets

[nmayhew]

1/35 WWII German 200l Fuel Drums

by Eureka XXL

 

Eurela XXL make a wide range of armour and diorama accessories, mainly in 1/35 - you can view their full range here. Today I look at two resin / PE update sets for German armour, each containing four 200l fuel drums, the only difference between the two being the services that used them.

 

#E-011 Wehrmacht (2 designs) 

#E-012 Waffen SS & Kriegsmarine

 

 

Each set contains parts for four 200l fuel drums. These drums were used variously by the Wehrmacht, Waffen SS and Kriegsmarine - I am not sure if they were used by the Luftwaffe, or indeed the Luftwaffe Field Divisions. I suppose you would most often see them in refuelling / maintenance pictures, although I have seen Tiger tanks with these lashed to the back. Their scope for use in dioramas and vignettes is pretty extensive.

 

 

There are four resin parts in each pack - and these are identical across the two packs as far as I can tell. The design of the resin drum cylinder is the same, but the castings are subtly different: two are fairly 'clean', whilst two have various dents and bashes in the main plate / drum sides. At first I thought the two prominent rims around the middle of each drum were hopelessly over-scale, but the Germans did in fact make them like that - these were used to roll the drums along the ground without damaging them I imagine.

 

 

The only problem I can see with the casting is that these prominent rims are completely blemish free, and even if made of finest steel would surely have attracted the odd dink and dig here and there? That being said, this is nothing you couldn't add yourself in a few seconds if desired.

 

 

The other features in the resin are a delicate single seam line which runs down the side of the drum, and the filler cap and surround which is located between the two middle rims. The seam does, on very close inspection, run over these rims which it should not actually do, but this is a 30 second sanding job. In fact, I am not even sure it would be visible after even a single coat of primer it is that fine.

 

 

The other part of each set is a fret of PE brass. Each fret contains eight barrel ends, and these are the main pieces which differentiate the sets. E-011 contains two Waffen SS drums, and two Kriegsmarine drums. The latter can be used on your super large Italeri S-100, but I can't help thinking that a set of four solely SS drums would be far more popular? E-012 has two varieties of Wehrmacht drums. 

 

 

The filler caps are completed by three smaller parts of PE. No instructions are provided in the sets, but as is the trend these days, this information is provided on the Eureka website: no explicit guideline to construction, but some nice shots of the completed barrels, compete with painting guide. There are also three pictures taken from Bundesarchiv showing the drums 'in action'. 

 

 

Conclusion

 

Two very simple sets which are difficult to find real fault with. The use of two different media is spot on here - I can't imagine the drum ends and all the lettering working if the whole thing was cast in resin. A set devoted solely to SS fuel drums would probably be a better seller...

 

Highly recommended

 

There is a list of Eureka XXL suppliers worldwide on their website here and a number of shops stock their products on eBay.