Friday, March 1

Preview - MiniArt's 35th scale Tempo A400 Lieferwagen. Bakery Van

MiniArt has made plenty of their A400 series 3-wheel tucks and vans. This one, we think has the most interesting marking schemes of the lot - not to mention it turns over a lot of dough! We look at the five marking choices, sprues, etch & info of the kit's contents in our preview...


Preview - MiniArt's 35th scale Tempo A400 Lieferwagen. Bakery Van

Tempo A400 Lieferwagen. Bakery Van
From MiniArt
Kit No #38049
1/35th scale
The kit contains three marking choices in the box.
Photo-etch & clear parts are included
The Subject: Tempo E400 3-wheel van
On September 25, 1928, the sales company Vidal & Sohn was established to distribute the three-wheelers of the brand Tempo in Hamburg. The name Tempo was attributable to the patented three-wheeler design of Gustav Ehlers. Although the cooperation of both parties ended quite quickly, Vidal & Sohn brought its own three-wheeled trucks on the market after a short space of time. The competition was enormous, but it turned out that both Hamburger had the right sense for the needs of petty traders. After only two years, in November 1930, the completion of the 1000th Tempo three-wheeler was celebrated.

The Tempo "boy" is an early model of the truck. The “Boy” versions had somewhat smaller engines than the man versions; a 10 hp 244 cc motor in order to qualify its use by a Category IV driver’s license, which was immensely easier and cheaper to obtain.
In 1936 a new type, designated with the abbreviation E400, was introduced. The number 400 signified the rounded up capacity of exact 396 cc and the letter E stood for “Eisen” (German for Iron). In plain terms, the new letter gave information about the state of the car body. The former mixed construction of the driver’s cabin and the chassis out of plywood and steel made way for a complete construction out of steel. Besides the choice of materials also the tire size was amplified by 1 inch to 18 inches in total.

The E400 restored in modern times
With his brothers – the E200 and E600 – the sales could be additionally pushed and Vidal & Sohn were pleased with full order books. The E 400, also known and available under the name "Athlet" at the dealers, was fitted with a water-cooled two-cycle engine, which was mounted on the steering. The engine had a performance of 12,5 hp, which was transferred through a 3-speed gearbox and a chain to the single front wheel.

The Tempo cars are sporty on the road, but the driver should slow down before corners.
Although the E400 was very popular, it could not reach the success of its small Brother; the E200. Totalled up 3,311 three-wheelers of the E400 were produced at the works in Hamburg during 1936 and 1938.

A restored van with a proud owner in modern times.
The Tempo factory in Harburg in 1949. The yard is well stocked with cars from their recent production.

The kit from MiniArt: 
The feature set of the kit is already known from the first release that we are showing the build preview.
- Two licence plate holder options for customization.
- Two-wheel cover choices and an alternate number plate position on the rear.
- Both the doors and the bonnet can be opened
- The highly detailed engine can be seen through a fine photo-etched grille
- The rear doors can be posed open or closed...
- The whole structure of the underside of the vehicle is replicated faithfully on this model

CAD shots of the sprues:
MiniArt has provided us with CAD sprue shots of the kit that give us a little more idea of the kit that is the second in their Tempo series.
The two sprues of bread are included as well as the photo-etch for the finer/ thinner parts of the kit.
Also, two deal sheets are supplied for five versions of the Tempo...
There are five marking choices, most of them in delivery or civilian service in the 30s - 50s...We think these are amongst the best seen so far in this series.

That is all we know about this release so far. See more about all of MiniArt's kits on their website...