Das Werk gep. Munitionsschlepper VK3.02 (DW35016) 1:35

[Mike]

gep. Munitionsschlepper VK3.02 (DW35016)

1:35 Das Werk distributed by Albion Alloys

 

 

The gepanzerter Munitionsschlepper was a product of Borgward, a German car manufacturer before the war, which designed a tracked vehicle able to carry a tonne of ammunition to frontline troops while protecting it from small arms fire, to prevent a large crater where the vehicle once was.  It was created as the VK3.01 and was first demonstrated in 1940, but the enlarged VK3.02 was preferred, even though it too had issues with crew space and the arrangement of the load area, plus a tendency for the drive wheels to clog.  Production was painfully slow however, and it was temporarily suspended then reinstated with more units being made, which finally saw service in 1943, with more joining them later.  They were used in both the Western and Eastern front, with a number of them having new drive wheels installed either at the factory or later on to improve off-road performance.

 

 

The Kit

This is a collaborative new tooling between Das Werk and Amusing Hobby, and arrives in a small top-opening box, with three sprues, an upper hull part, and a bag of four track lengths, all in the same sand-coloured styrene, a separate ziplok bag with decals inside, plus a colour instruction booklet with painting guide inside the back cover.  It's a small model with plenty of detail and additional parts for the long track lengths with internal detail moulded-in, whereas the parts on the sprues don’t have the link gaps moulded-in, so leave those there in case you have an oopsie.  Don’t forget the wise words on the box – figures not included.  Neither are the tanks, buildings ground or sky.  You do however get a little bit of air included in the box and within the bags.  Don’t let it escape!

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the hull, which received a floor and two-panel rear bulkhead, the latter then having track tensioners and numberplate fitted to the vertical part.  At the front, two side extensions are added with rivets and stiffening webs to improve the detail by the final drive.  Short fenders are also put in place adjacent to the glacis area, and a small convoy light is installed on the centre of the panel, with headlights that have slotted covers on the rear of each fender.  Small suspension parts are glued in before the wheels are begun, which comprise paired road wheels and two parts drive-sprockets, plus two-part idlers at the rear on the adjustable stations.  The crew compartment receives a front panel with two vision slots and another small slot in the door panel, which has a large stowage box attached at the mid-point.  A roof panel with clamshell doors that can be left open or closed complete the driver area, and this is backed by the front wall of the stowage area, which is built up from surfaces that fit like a pannier over the engine deck of the base vehicle, and inside are a few ejector-pin marks that you might want to clean up if you aren’t filling it with ammo.  There’s a fire-extinguisher on the right front fender, a short exhaust muffler and mudguards at the rear, plus another stowage box on the other side door and a towing hitch back at the rear.  On the glacis access hatch an eye and the S-shaped track tool are latched in place and then it’s tracks time.

 

As already alluded to, the tracks are link and length, with additional, more-detailed replacement lengths in a ziplok bag with the kit.  The top and bottom runs use these lengths, with separate links to make the highly curved areas around the ends of the track run, using 12 links at the front and 10 more at the rear on each side.  The lengths have small overflow pips at the edge of each link, which will need cutting off and making good, with two sprue gates and two overflow pips on the individual links.  You only have 44 links and four lengths to clean up though, so it shouldn’t take too long.  A scrap diagram shows the correct direction of the links on the vehicle, although I’m sure I’ve seen a picture of at least one vehicle with a track run on backwards, so it’s entirely possible to get away with it until your commander makes you refit it the correct way round.

 

 

Markings

It’s a teeny-weeny decal sheet with three each of black, white, and black and white crosses, plus two instances of the word “Klara” in black, which is used above the door vision slot on the sand-coloured vehicle, but wasn't depicted on the digital files we used (just imagine it's there).  The schemes aren’t documented as to where, when or who they were used by, but from the box you can build one of the following:

 

 

 

 

Paint codes are from the AMMO range, as the profiles have been penned by them, and the decals are perfectly serviceable for the task in hand with no discernible drift between the black and white on the three crosses where that applies.

 

Conclusion

This little workhorse would look great resupplying tanks, artillery or even troops, covered in mud like on the boxtop, unloading or loading up boxes of munitions of any type.  It’s a nice kit with plenty of detail on the exterior and nicely moulded tracks.  Just remember to leave the original lengths on the sprues.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Available in the UK in most good model shops.

Review sample courtesy of