1:72 Captured & non-standard vehicles in Polish service

Captured machines in service

A vehicle taken from the enemy was a common sight in the war, and Polish units were no exception. Reconnaissance troops kept fast armored cars, headquarters commandeered off-road cars, and where equipment was short even a tank of its original owner went into service. Such a machine got a hasty new coat of paint, prominent identification markings and went on driving as long as it lasted.

Ten vehicles covered

The two oldest options belong to Egypt in 1942, where the Carpathian Lancers used an Italian armored car and a German medium tank. From the Italian front come an amphibious off-road car of the military police of the 2nd Polish Corps, a reconnaissance armored car of the headquarters of the Podolian Lancers and an Austrian-built truck. North-West Europe is represented by a light off-road car with a mounted rifle regiment, another amphibian with the engineers and a half-track with a short gun with the self-propelled artillery. The coverage closes with a medium tank and a later heavier type with an infantry division in Germany at the end of the war.

Working in 1:72 scale

The small scale forgives less than it seems. Here the insignia are often only a dot and a numeral, so a smooth gloss surface underneath them is essential and the film has to be cut practically along the edge of the print. It helps to lay the sheet on a light background so that the print is visible, and to transfer it with a dampened flat brush.

A tip for a diorama

Captured vehicles work well in scenes where they stand beside the unit's ordinary equipment. The difference in shapes and in finish is obvious at a glance, and the scene then tells a story by itself without needing a caption.