The Tamiya Steyr 1500A/01 is currently on the bench and I will be recreating one of the vehicles captured by the National Republican Greek League (EDES) some time around 1944.



The kit goes together like a charm and I've completed most of the work





I should be able to do some work tomorrow.

Cheers,

Christos

Now, this is a nice idea! Keep it coming

Cheers,
Cristian

Thank you Cristian!

Looking at the pictures below, do you think I am going overboard?




Technically, construction is complete, but need make up my mind whether I get some figures for this or not

All comments are welcome!

I'm not keen on the small rear wheels but otherwise I like it a lot

Hi Steve,

Thank you for the good word and taking the time to comment, much appreciated!

To be honest, I don't like them either and I will be switching back to the original setup, as the steyr with the ballon tyres does not have the rear fenders, which means I can't replicate this particular vehicle.

Hi Christos, Either way, I think it's up to your personal taste and your artistic license. Will you be including what looks to be a Pak 38 (I'm guessing here)?


Looks like some very interesting subjects in the reference images. I think figures would be a great addition to a diorama/vignette setting ... so why not!

—mike

Hi Mike,

Thank you for comments and the support. Truth is I did not expect the balloon tyres to be so much smaller, that's why I am booting them!

It looks like a pak 38, but the wheels seem to be spoked and all the kits I have found, seem to have solid wheels; will pass on them on this occassion.

I have found a nice figure set and will get a head or two with beards to try and be as accurate as possible!

Cheers

In case you ever need one, Italeri has a Pak 38 with both wheel types included.

Looking forward to progress!

—mike

Thanks Mike, but this is the pak97/38 (7.5 cm, L36), which is based on pak38 (5 cm, L60). Italeri does a pak38, as well, but not so easy to find.

I really like were you are heading with this build!

A thought:

To produce a similar affect for the rear tires without having to use the smaller balloon tires you could simply turn the stock rear tire around so the rim faces inward.

To do this you will have to remove the center hub and lug nuts and put them on the other side of the rim but this shouldn't be too difficult.

The Germans intentionally used a somewhat narrow rear axle on the Steyr so the truck version of this vehicle could utilize dual rear tires but for the lighter field car a single tire could be put on facing either way. The Germans chose to reverse the single rear tire to give the rear wheelbase the widest track possible for stability.

Apparently the Greeks choose otherwise.

Also it seems the Greeks raised the rear of the vehicle for whatever reason. (Even with the hitch loaded with the weight of the towed gun the rear is sitting significantly higher than normal.) Do not know how or why they did this but today we would simply put longer shackles on one end of the leaf spring mounts. Back then I suspect a welder would have had to take off the rear most frame mounts for the springs, weld in a riser block of some kind and then reattached the spring mounts to these new riser blocks.

Raising the rear end would further distinguish this captured vehicle from the stock German Steyr!

Hope this is of some assistance.

Yep, that is a PAK 40 - even heavier than the PAK 38. This gun is probably maxing out the towing capacity of the Steyr. Probably the reason for the raised rear end, to better handle the heavy load without bottoming out the vehicle on rough terrain.

Hi Michael,

Thank you very much for your comments and input. Considering that the Greek League was not as organised or as big as ELAS (Greek People's Liberation Army, the main and most powerful Greek resistance group), I would assume they did not have the resources to perform these changes to the Steyr. In addition to this, it is highly unlikely the Greeks also captured a kubelwagen with balloon tyres and then switched the wheels. I believe all the work was done by the Germans.
After all, during their last days in Greece, the Germans did not have many resources and used all they could get their hands on

This kubelwagen has a balloon tyre as a spare, another tyre fitted to the rear wheel and yet a different tyre at the front. The picture is from the IWM archive, shortly after the German forces of Sturmdivision "Rhodos" surrendered to the British.

I don't think the gun is a PaK 40 as the muzzle brake seems to be different, but the picture quality is not good enough to allow proper identification

On a different note, I switched back to the stock wheels and it is looking so much better now.

I really like Vallejo's acrylic primers, but their adhesion is pathetic, even when thinned with Vallejo's airbrush thinner.



On the other hand, adhesion is excellent when thinned with IPA or any alcohol-based thinner, the only downside is that it requires very intense shaking and stirring to dilute properly.

Christos;

I am pretty sure that the gun in the pic is a 5.0cm PaK 38 - based on the apparent muzzle-brake form, barrel length and diam and the evident shape of the shields. The 38 would have been marginally towable by the Steyr under typical conditions - while the larger and heavier 7.5cm -40 would seriously over-tax that vehicle, specially on any grade or on anything other than a nicely-paved level road.

Cheers!

Bob

Hi Bob,

Thank you for the information, I also think it is a PaK 38. I do not know much of the towing capability of the Steyr; Mind you, for a while I wanted to make a dio with this Steyr towing a Flak 43 - that would be fun!

Take care!

I applied the base coat and then brush painted some of the Steyr details




I left the seats unpainted to add some tonal variation, but the vallejo dunkelgelb primer is too bright and too yellow, so I will have to tone them down and blend them with the rest of the kit

Being busy with a couple of other builds, but there is some little progress with my Steyr


Looking at the reference photo, I realised I need to reshape the cross, as the cross's arms and body were considerably narrower on the real vehicle and extended down to the hood lock

All comments welcome!

Spectacular!!!

Εκπληκτική Δουλειά !!!

Thank you very much!

Σ' ευχαριστώ πολύ!

Hi Christos, I see what you mean here — hope it's not too difficult to remedy. I must say though ... I wasn't really prepared for the cross on the hood at all; I think it adds a very pleasing, contrasting and interesting splash of color to the Steyr!

Well Done!

—mike

Hello Mike,

Thank you very much for the good word, much appreciated!
As far as the corrections are concerned, there's nothing some masking and brushing can't fix!

I made the adjustments with a brush; not the best outcome, but the cross now looks closer to the real thing

Work has been a little hectic, but did manage to find some time for the bench






Thanks for watching

Looks great. Nice to see a subject out of the ordinary.

Thanks for sharing