Germania Figuren 1/72 Renault EG WWI Truck
By Matt Bittner
Overview
From Wikipedia:
"The Renault EG was an all-wheel drive truck/artillery tractor produced between 1914 and 1919 by the French manufacturer Renault."
There were about 1100 delivered to the French army by the end of the war. They were one of the main trucks to supply the French during the Battle of Verdun.
While Germania Figuren has been around for a while, they were mainly producing figures for all sorts of genres and as I'm not a figure modeler, there were only a few sets that caught my eye (and a few I plan to pick up eventually, namely the WWI French and German aces sets). But seeing as they're now producing 3D printed vehicles, I decided to pick up this Renault EG at the Euro Scale Modelling show back in November, 2025.
The Kit
The Germania Figuren 1/72 Renault EG consists of eight pieces of 3D printed resin in gray; the one-piece body, all four wheels, the steering wheel and gear shift column, plus the cover over the driver's compartment. The pieces are nicely printed with few - if any - print lines and most of the parts were already separated from their print columns by the manufacturer, a nice touch. There's still cleaning to do, but it will be minimal as it's all on the underside. The chassis is nicely detailed, but with the necessary holes through the "floor" so everything will print correctly. I'm thinking some really thin plastic sheet will do wonders to close these holes - unless you decide to permanently mount the kit to a base then there's no need.
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While some might think some of the parts aren't printed "as fine" as they should be, the good news is they are less prone to breakage, especially since you don't have to remove the print columns. I personally like how everything came out and it will all look good under a coat of paint. Needless to say, there are no decals as this was a typical "working truck", but you could cobble something together if needed. There are also no instructions, but with the minimal parts, it won't be difficult to figure where everything goes.
You'll definitely want to paint all the parts separately before assembly, but once painted having a complete truck won't take a long time. Study photos of the real thing to see how they were used and weathered. Oh, and thank Germania Figuren for making this a right-hand drive, which was correct for the time period.
I really do like this truck and hope for more vehicles - especially WWI-types - from Germania Figuren.