This is the start of my online build for the Experimentals Campaign.
The subject is the Minenraumer Alkett, a prototype heavy mine clearance vehicle.
With an unusual reverse-tricycle layout, the vehicle featured three enormous tracked wheels which were designed to withstand detonating anti-personnel and anti-tank mines and forge a clear path through minefields allowing other vehicles and troops to follow in it's wake.
A small turret, armed with two machineguns, sat atop the forward hull to ward off enemy troops.
Sadly, only one prototype was produced and was captured by the advancing Russians before it was fully tested.
It now sits in the tank museum at Kubinka.



The kit is the 1/35th offering from CMK and is cast entirely in resin. I've had the kit for quite a while and whilst I've built many resin figures and accessories, this is the first entirely resin vehicle I've tackled.



The parts are very cleanly cast in a sand coloured resin with minimal flash and almost no air bubbles or imperfections. The detail is very refined and compares well with the styrene kits of Dragon or Trumpeter.
The main parts of the kit are divided into a hull top and bottom, two large and one small wheel, turret and rear wheel housing.





The rest of the resin pieces comprise the track assemblies which wrap around each wheel.



A small fret of etched metal provides grilles, mesh vents, small detail for the tracks and other items.



Also included is a length of styrene rod and a small piece of chain.

First impressions are generally good. Inevitably there is a lot of prepping of parts to do before assembly can commence but it looks like it will be an enjoyable project.

More soon...

lian - - Interesting subject. Certainly unique. Good luck with it. How much did the kit cost?
DJ

A very interesting subject indeed, looking forward to seeing the progress.

Hi Iain. I'm very interested in this build. I'm almost done with the offering from RPM....I think everyone knows it's not the best or easiest kit to build. Lots of sanding and filing...although it looks pretty good when finished.
I have a question for you. I searched the internet pretty far and came up with differing stories on this vehicle. One says it was used at Kursk and captured, another says 50 were made in 1938, painted dark grey, etc. None of the stories were similiar. I was just curious about when this thing was used if at all. I have 2 or 3 pictures in a couple of books for reference and that's it.

Having been beaten down thoroughly by the RPM kit, I have longed for this one. I have searched Ebay religiously for it but have come up blank so far. From the pics you have put up, the kit looks to be all I have heard. I'm looking forward to folllowing your build.

I think I paid around £20 for this on eBay a few years ago. It certainly beats the RPM kit on detail but it has some nightmarish qualities of its own.
I've just spent the evening cleaning up the parts and all is not well.
There is a slight mismatch between the upper and lower hull parts which will require a fair amount of filler down one side. I'll get a pic of this up tomorrow.
Also the interlocking track pieces require a lot of cleaning up and are quite fragile so I managed to break about ten of them whilst sanding...CA glue came to the rescue but there's still a lot of work left to do to get them to interlock properly. You then have to make all the pivot pieces from the plastic rod that's supplied. This is definitely not one for the faint hearted!
As to the history, there is very little available on the net so I only have the brief information that comes with the kit and some photo's of the museum exhibit.
The colour scheme shown in the instructions is overall Panzer Grey...I was thinking of some kind of experimental splinter scheme if I can find a suitable reference of another "paper panzer" for inspiration
I'm planning on placing this in a diorama featuring the machine plowing through startled Russian defences.

the thing looks hideous but is definantely a unique build. look forward to inprogress photos.

preston

hey,
heres a very old modeling site!!dated 2003.about the RPM model of this beast.

history and review:
http://www.internetmodeler.com/2003/february/first-looks/RPM_Minenraumer.htm

RPM build:
http://www.internetmodeler.com/2003/april/armor/Minenraumer.htm

Didn't Maquette market a different turret for this beast?something in line like the 140/1 and 222 vehicles had?

Joe

Its history is obscure to say the least, this article from a Russian site includes a look into the drivers cab.

http://w3.uw.ru/msvirin.delete/tral/tral-e.html

David

There's also this

http://www.barbarossabooks.co.uk/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_jph1_info&products_id=13065

David

Thanks for the links guys.
From what I can gather from all the separate information, there is little solid evidence that this vehicle ever saw action.
I'm approaching this build from a "what if" angle as I think it will add some interest to what is already a very intruiging vehicle.

So, here is my first obstacle which is a bit of a nightmare but not insurmountable.
The major disadvantage of forming large pieces in resin is that, because the moulds are flexible, there can be some distortion in the finished parts.
After cleaning the large resin plugs from the hull parts I discovered a mis-match between top and bottom.
If the front edge of the top half is put hard up to the front edge of the lower half, then the rear edge is way out of alignment.
I found the only way to bring the two parts together was to align the starboard edge of the hull and leave a tapering gap at the front as in the pics....the rear edge is still a poor match but can be filled....

The front...





The back...





Although this now gives an almost perfect match along one long edge, the other edge falls short on the top section. I even left a small amount of the moulding "lip" on to help bridge the gap. Another problem here was a hidden air pocket on the rear quarter which resulted in the shortening of the part you see on the corner.
I will now have to beef up this side with plastic card and filler.

Matching edge...




Mis-matched edge...



Isn't modelling fun ...

More soon...

Iain

I began by masking off the surrounding panels leaving just the problem faces exposed.
I then applied some strips of thin styrene against the protruding edge. I glued these to the resin using CA.
Finally I covered the whole panel with Humbrol filler. I'll have to leave this to set overnight before I attempt to sand it.







I took care of the tapering gap at the front end by pushing some filler through from the inside so as it formed a bead on the outside. I then blended this in using a brush dipped in liquid cement to eliminate sanding.

I'll press on with the tracks now while I wait for the filler to harden...

A whole evenings work has resulted in one set of track assembled and the links prepared for the other two.
Here's the links for the main wheels...



Note the pins which have to be individually cut from the styrene rod supplied. These are a tight fit but allow the tracks to work. They are held in place by the wheel on the inside and by a small etched plate on the outside.

This is the track assembled with the final shoe left off until ready to fit to the wheel...



The track articulates like the real thing...



Test fit on the wheel...



Some of the pins need flushing off before the etched plates are installed but that's about it for the track assembly...

Some progress...

Here are the completed tracks...they still need the pins flushing off and the etch adding.
I'm planning on painting the inside faces then glueing the tracks onto the wheels as they need to be positioned with three of the shoes on the ground.



I've also sanded the hull to shape and brushed on some grey just to check for flaws...





The next stage is to start adding the details to the hull...

More to come....

Nice work on the fixes for the alignment. The tracks in particular are a neat feature with the pin construction.

Looks good, Lain. Interesting project to follow.

Looking forward to see more

Ha ha, I'll have to start using lower case for my signature as it's an 'i' not an 'L'...but thanks for the positive comments anyway...

iain

Word of warning to anyone thinking of tackling the RPM 1/35 Minenräumer kit - it's a dog!!!

I've heard this from several sources and in some ways I'm glad I'm building this one.
However, I think a lot of kits from the smaller manufacturers are unfairly written off because they don't stand comparison with Dragon or Trumpeter kits.
I actually quite enjoy sorting out problem kits and get more satisfaction from them than those of the bigger companies.
And to be fair to RPM, who else is likely to release a Minenraumer?

Boy you did a great job straitening out the hull,impressive!!

Thanks Bob, I'm quite pleased how the surgery worked out...

More progress...

The instructions require you to drill a 3mm hole in the rear face of the main wheels to a depth of 6mm. I did this only to find that the inner face of the wheel now grinds against the curved section of the hull.
To overcome this I glued on some styrene packers to bring the wheel clear of the hull.



Some of the sketches in the instructions show two narrow plates either side of the tail but no such parts are provided. Some of the photo's of the vehicle in the field seem to show the same thing although it's hard to tell for sure.
I decided to follow the sketch and fashioned these from styrene...if nothing else they add some interest and help disguise the seam.



The engine grilles on the upper deck are made from etched plates which require folding then individually gluing in position.
There are no locating marks so I started at the hinge end of the hatch and worked back from there.
The etched parts are EXTREMELY thin and are easily distorted...the work on these alone took about four hours...they look good in place but I don't want to repeat that anytime soon



The rest of the etched parts are attached to the hull. These include tiny two-part lift hooks...VERY tedious!...and a couple of brackets either side of the nose. Again no location marks are provided so it was all done by eye.
I can only presume that the curved piece in front of the drivers scope is some kind of steering guide that would be marked with angles to help the driver follow a pre-determined path through the minefield.
CMK provide an etched part for this but require you to make the needle part yourself from styrene based on a sketch.



The resin towing shackles were added at this stage. The positions for these ARE marked on the hull, however on second glance I think the front ones are slightly too far back when compared to the surviving example in Russia.
Too late for me though as the CA had already set so I will leave them be.
One thing that is notable is the lack of a headlight, something I will add as I want to depict the vehicle in a combat environment.
Another couple of annoying ommisions from the kit are the machine guns from the turret and, perhaps more bizarre, the rear axle.
CMK suggest using MG34 barrels from the Tamiya weapons set which is great if you have them handy but a pain if you don't, and a bit much to ask in a kit which was expensive when first released.
The axle could have been provided as a length of rod like for the track links but instead I'll have to hunt one out in my spares box.

Onwards....

Out of curiosity I went on the CMK website and, although the kit is seemingly unavailable at present, they do have these downloads of the instructions and a nice colour rendering which would have made a good boxart...















It's interesting that the instructions show the engine grille louvres facing rearwards, whilst the side views have them facing forwards...

Your work is great and I look forward to seeing this one finished. Germany made some very interesting war machines in WW2.