Hello,

I have a few questions for the Wehrmacht experten. It's been years since I've built World War II German stuff. I've had several kits sitting in my stash unbuilt or half-built for a while, and wished to know what my options are for these.

With Tamiya's old Panzer IVD kit, I've already added the ventilated rear doors. My understanding, perhaps erroneously, is that these were added for service in Africa. But did Panzer IVDs invade Russia, or perhaps earlier, the Balkans, with these louvered doors, wearing Panzer Dark Gray? It would seem to me that if the Germans began adding these to the production run, subsequent tanks, wherever they were sent, would have them, but I'd rather not just guess at that.

I have Tamiya's old Sdkfz 7/1. I have a cheap picture book of World War II German hardware, and it captions one photo of this vehicle as in the Balkans campaign, in April of 1941. Did Germany really have these vehicles that early?

Thank you for any insights you have on these machines.

Hello,
I recall reading the same thing about the louvered doors on the Panzer IV but I don't know for sure if they were turned in to production run.
However the Sd.Kfz7/1 first appeared in 1938 and was destined to be used mainly as the tractor for the 8.8 cm FlaK gun.
Hope that helps

According to the info you can find here : http://www.achtungpanzer.com/2cm-flakvierling-38-auf-selbstfahrlafette-sdkfz71.htm, production of the SdKfz 7/1 began in April 1940...

HTH

Frenchy

It would be difficult to know if the Sd.Kfz.7/1 served in the Balkans without cross-referencing units who received them and units which served in that "sideshow" prior to Barbarossa. I have seen no photographs explicitly stating "Balkans," but there are simply too many unidentified snapshots floating around now on the Internet and in books about the vehicle.

It most definitely DID exist then, as Frenchy has already pointed out. As fair warning, you'd be better off selling the Tamiya kit for whatever you can get and building either the DML or the Trumpeter versions. That old kit will cost you $$$$ to bring it up to date, or will leave you greatly dissatisfied with the end results.

Thanks all for the replies.

With regard to Tamiya's old kit, I'm aware that both compare poorly to newer kits. These are practice for experimenting with finishing techniques, not contest entries. I figured I'd bounce the more arcane questions off the regular Wehrmacht fans so I don't build an obvious anachronism, but I'm basically finishing out kits I started years ago, as learning exercises.

Indeed, while I've got the thread going, I might ask another question: outside of Tamiya's old field kitchen and Esci's wagons, are there any good kits depicting the limber for German draft horses that can readily be used for field artillery? Has anyone written a specific book or article on the Wehrmacht and SS's use of horses for pulling, that might offer a source for judging the accuracy of these kits' limbers and harness? I imagine that might be something that requires original (archival) research, or at least a collection of photos from a wide variety of sources. I have some ideas for building a series of dioramas depicting the "real" German Army, on horse and foot, but my cursory searches have resulted in various photographs, but no comprehensive sources, outside stuff on the cavalry, and of a more general scholarly article.

Thanks!