Inbox Review - Italeri Kit #6549, Steyr RSO/01 With German Soldiers And Accessories

REVIEW ON ITALERI KIT #6549, „STEYR RSO/01 WITH GERMAN SOLDIERS AND ACCESSORIES“,
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2017*
(* The year of release is just for this set. Its contents were released before seperately.)

ALL LINKS AT THE END OF THE DESCRIPTION!

Hi guys! A couple of weeks ago I purchased a kit I wanted to build since I switched from 1/72 aircraft to 1/35 armour in 1981: the Italeri RSO/01 (Raupenschlepper Ost/Caterpillar Tractor East)! I built the RSO/03 before, but I always wanted the closed cab type!

It's got a very long history, starting in 1976 with the original release by TOMY. Italeri's first reboxing was released in 1981, the year I first saw it in a model shop – and didn't have enough allowance/pocket money to buy it! Now here's the newest re-release. The kit or set includes 7 figures and accessories. I was quite amazed when I found out that two of the kit's dates are the same as the most important ones in my modeling „career“ and so it seemed to call even louder than before: „Buy me!!!“ By the way, around 1980/81 Italeri also changed the company's name's spelling from ITALAEREI (from ITALIA and AEREI for aircraft in Italian) to ITALERI to make pronouncing the word easier. Somehow it didn't work! Mind your pronunciation! The stress is on the third syllable, hehehe!

If you should ask, why I didn't buy the Dragon RSO/01 which has definitely more and most likely better details, there are two reasons. The first one is that I love old kits like this. There's enough room for scratch building and that's what modeling is about for me. These classic kits can be a lot of fun, depending on their quality. The second reason is that I usually can't afford to buy kits that cost more than 30 €. This was 28.50 €, so it was exactly in my price range. Well, the „famous“ Dragon instructions may have been the third reason, hehehe. Oh, and the Dragon kit wasn't available anyway! Hmmm, that makes FOUR reasons altogether, lol!

EDIT: I found a review in a German modeling magazine and it seems Dragon made some bad mistakes with the measurements, because they used the wrong vehicle ("Gebirgsschlepper"/mountain tractor) which is smaller or at least narrower! If that's true, there are even FIVE reasons not to buy the Dragon kit!

This is my personal point of view, but the vinyl tracks are horrible and they'll go right into the bin. I'll order MasterClub tracks for this kit. They are easy to assemble and they look brilliant with their natural sag. You must think I'm nuts to buy those tracks for an aged kit like this, especially since they cost as much as the kit itself, but that's not the way I (can) calculate the costs. The tracks are necessary for the kit. Without them the project can't be started and doing it this way I can split the costs – and also have much nicer tracks than the Magic Tracks of the Dragon kit! If it still comes with Magic Tracks!

And now let's crack the box open and see what this kit has to offer – apart from the tracks. It comes as a set and that means figures and accessories usually don't belong to this kit. They look nice on the box illustration. Can we talk about new parts then? Well, let's see. I can promise you a real big surprise! And you get two reviews for the price of one! :)

NOTE: I DON'T OWN THE RIGHTS OF THE MUSIC, BUT I CHECKED CAREFULLY AND ACCORDING TO YOUTUBE AUDIO LIBRARY IT IS FREE TO USE. HOWEVER, IF THE OWNER OF THE RIGHTS OBJECTS, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH ME (THEDOGFATHERJT@GMAIL.COM). I WILL THEN REMOVE THIS MUSIC BEFORE YOU MUTE THE SOUND OR EVEN BLOCK THE VIDEO. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Music:

Deutsche Soldatenlieder (German soldiers songs): Annemarie; Erika; In einem Polenstädtchen; Mädel, gib mir deine Hand; Mir hat ein kleines Vögelchen gesungen; O, du schöner Westerwald; Wenn wir marschieren

Frédéric Chopin - Piano Sonata No. 2, III. Marche funèbre („Trauermarsch“), orchestrated version

Scott's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk9xJs8-dbKhYgQtiMr1p3g

All details on the history of the kit I used were found on Scalemates: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/1029692-italeri-6549-steyr-rso-01-with-german-soldiers

My videos on the Revell reboxing of Italeri's RSO/03 with Pak 40 (brush painted!) and Friul tracks: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkegaJPpgpKtKx6dL641ei19QTJoL2Wgl

Видео Inbox Review - Italeri Kit #6549, Steyr RSO/01 With German Soldiers And Accessories канала Non-Prolific 1/35th Scale Model Builder