Trumpeter German Panzertriebwagen No.16. 1:35

[Shar2]

German Panzertriebwagen No.16

Trumpeter 1:35

History
Panzertriebwagen No. 16 (PO PzTrWg 16 or PT 16) - German heavy armoured motor car , powered by a diesel engine with an output of 550 HP driven by a Voith hydraulic transmission, was produced by the German company Berliner Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Actien vormals L. Schwartzkopff in 1942. It is based on type WR 550 D14 armoured locomotive, then fully encased in armour and equipped with two additional crew members for the armoured artillery positions on the two ends of the unit. They were initially armed with two 20mm anti-aircraft gun - 2 cm Flakvierling 38 - but were modified by the crew members. The armament was replaced with Russian 76.2 mm FK 295/1 artillery cannon (as found on type BP42 armoured trains). The thickness of the armour of Panzertriebwagen No. 16 ranged from 31mm to 84mm. This vehicle was the heaviest single-rail armoured vehicle. Only one copy was built, which fought on the Eastern Front.

In 1943, PzTrWg 16 was a reserve weapon, which was used to patrol areas threatened by the guerrillas. In the spring and summer of 1944 it was deployed to Army Group Centre. It saw action in the battles of Rawa Ruska and Lublin, then withdrawn to Radomafter, moving the front to the west. From August to September 1944, it ran the stretch of Kielce, patrolling the railway lines between Krakow, Skarzysko and Radom. In April 1945 PzTrWg 16 took part in the battles of Neuruppin. On 1-2 May 1945, it was captured intact in Neustadt (Dosse).

The Model
The first thing you’ll notice with this kit is the size of the box, it is big. A lot bigger than I had expected, and not only is it big, but when you open it is full to the brim with medium grey styrene. The most notable part is the single piece centre section, which houses the diesel locomotive. It must be one heck of a mould to produce this 340mm x 100mm x 100mm part, complete with openings and some very nicely moulded detail. In fact the moulding of this kit is excellent throughout. With no sign of flash or imperfections other than a few moulding pips and the occasion flow lines. There is nothing that should worry the sort of modeller that would buy this kit. The good news is that this vehicle is still extant so there are quite a few photographs on the interweb that will help with researching for this build. If you include the rail sections, there are eleven quite large sprues, along with fourteen separate parts, one sprue of clear styrene and three sheets of photo-etched brass. There is quite a lot of detail included in the kit, particularly for the engine running gear that unfortunately will not be seen that easily, but YOU will know it's there.

The build begins with the construction of the track bed consisting of two long sections, four short sections and the two end pieces, one of which needs to be cut down to fir, which is clearly shown in the instructions. The sleepers are then fitted from beneath the track bed, and again a section at one end needs to be cut down to fit. Turning the bed over you can then slide the tracks through the moulded ties cutting the last two lengths to suit. Each track join is provided with a pair of fishplates included in the kit. Now whilst the track structure can look pretty good out of the box, it may be worthwhile sourcing some scenic ballast, metal tracks, (1 Gauge), and fishplates to improve the realism. To do this it may require the moulded ballast to be sanded/ground off, otherwise it could look like there is too much. All the gear required to do this can be sourced from HERE

Construction then moves onto the gun trucks. Each truck is made up of eight wheeled bogies and each bogie is made up from two sides, to which the suspension springs are added. Each of the four axles is fitted with two wheels and capped off with poly caps and the three piece axle ends. Each axle end is then slotted into their appropriate position on each side plate, which is also fitted with eight brake shoes. The end plate is then attached and fitted with an seven piece mounting beam. The lower hull of each turret mount is then fitted out with eight brake actuators and sixteen axle end plates before the axle unit is fitted to the lower hull, ensuring the brake lever fit into the slot in each actuator. Nest, it’s on with the assembly of the buffers and associated coupling fittings. Each buffer is made up of three parts, upper and lower halves and the buffer itself. You need to assemble to buffers with globe ends and four with flat ends and fit one of each to each end of the vehicle trucks once fitted with their mounting plates and three part step which fits to an L shaped beam on the outside of each buffer. For more realism you can buy aftermarket buffers of the correct style, complete with springs, from RB models. The coupling links are then assembled from seven parts which look really good, but again you could possibly replace them with 1 Gauge gear if that is your want. The ends of the turret trucks are complete with the addition of more L shaped angle iron, hose connections, additional clamps, and two six part lamps. To the rear of each truck hull, three more access steps are added.

The decahedron style turrets have five fixed plates moulded to the roof and five separate plates which need to be carefully glued into position. The turret is fitted out with the mantlet, pistol port hatch, roof hatch, two additional plates and twelve PE rivets. The rather simple gun barrel is made up of left and right halves with a separate muzzle with an appropriately hollowed out end. Beneath the gun barrel is the prominent recuperator, which is also in left and right halves, and fitted with a PE frame. With the recuperator fitted to the barrel the gun is then glued to the turret base, which is then fitted to the turret. The styrene canvas cover then fits over the gun and glued to the previously fitted PE frame and the turret. With the turrets complete they can be put to one side whilst he modeller gets on with assembling the upper hulls of the turrets trucks. The single piece hulls are fitted out with hand and foot plates, hand rail, rearming and access hatch, which is protected by two protective plates. Although there is no interior the hatch can be posed open and held upright by two clamps on the protective plate ends. The upper and lower truck hulls are then joined together and finished off with the addition of the turret. Once again these assemblies can be put to one side whilst the construction of the engine section is carried out.

As with the fore and aft turret trucks the engine construction begins with the assembly of the running gear side plates. Each plate is fitted with the axle mounting plates, suspension fittings, and suspension springs along with the three piece brake accumulator. The plates are joined together via the rear mounted cab plate, and the two cross beams with the axles sandwiched between, unglued. The eight wheels, each with separate balancing weights, are then attached to the axles followed by the two, two piece connecting rod end bearing mounts. The brake mounting frame is then slid between the wheels and fitted with the separate two part brake pads. Each of the connecting rods are made up of four separate rods and connected to each other by bearing joints, after which the rods are fitted to the wheels and end bearing mount. The completed wheel assembly is then fitted to the engine floor which has a separate centrally mounted disc.

At this point the large engine casing ends are fitted out with front and rear access doors, hand holds, and viewing ports. On the roof there is another large access hatch fitted both at the front and the rear complete with PE eye bolts, along with two command cupolas, each made up of twelve parts and fitted with six PE parts, mounted fore and aft The large central roof opening is filled with a grill section and fitted with the exhaust cover. The moulded on hatches on the roof of the engine are fitted out with numerous PE brackets and two hand rails. The engine floor with running gear is slide into the body of the engine which is finished off by the fitting of the hinged side plates at the base of the main body. The two turret trucks are then put on the rails and joined together by the engine, thus completing the build. There is only one paint scheme shown on the colour printed sheet, and that is of the train in overall Panzer Grey.

Conclusion
Whilst this kit is not really that difficult to build even though there are quite a few parts, the result will be a really impressive and unusual model to have in your collection. As mentioned above there are plenty of opportunities to add further detail it should look great out of the box with the addition of weathering to both the tracks and the train. As with all of Trumpeters rail kits the tracks can be joined together form each kit to make a long and more complex train or diorama. Very highly recommended.

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