1:35 Sd.Kfz.3b with Flak 38 Truppenluftschutzwagen

Metal for the Maultier half-track with the Flak 38 cannon

A photo-etched set in 1:35 scale, made for the Sd.Kfz.3b Truppenluftschutzwagen armed with the Flak 38 cannon. The package contains a metal fret for finishing a plastic kit; the vehicle itself is sold separately.

The truck that shielded convoys from air attack

The Maultier came about from an ordinary three-ton truck by replacing the rear axle with a tracked suspension derived from a light tank. The designation Sd.Kfz.3b belonged to the version on the Ford V3000S chassis. When a 20 mm Flak 38 automatic cannon was set on the bed, the result was a vehicle for protecting marching columns from the air, for which German had the word Truppenluftschutzwagen. The crew fired from an open bed with drop sides, so on a model the whole fighting compartment stays uncovered.

Where the metal helps most

On open vehicles the most conspicuous things are the thin sheet parts: drop sides, steps, brackets and grilles. A metal part manages them at a thickness an injection mold cannot give. Work from the parts that will be hidden inside toward the outer ones. Then dust the finished whole with pigments; fine dust on the fenders and around the tracks turns the model into a vehicle that really drove in the field.

Who it is for

• For builders of German equipment of the eastern and African fronts
• For a diorama with an uncovered bed and a gun crew
• For modelers used to working with tweezers and a scalpel
• For a collection of Wehrmacht half-track vehicles