Hi!

I'm building Bronco's Topolino van (Bronco CB35171) and I'd like to paint the German version (Wehrmacht in Italy, 1944, dunkelgelb with red brown and green dots), unfortunately the kit does not provide any decals for this version (no license plates or markings of any type) ... I know this variant probably never existed but I'd like to paint it anyways ... what would be an appropriate license number and markings for this vehicle?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Hi Ruqui,

I'm not able to answer completely to your question, but for sure I can tell you this:

- The Topolino van in german service definitely existed. This car was very common in Italy at time and many of them were used by whermacth in Italy in the late war period;

- The 3-color camo is correct for this case but PLEASE, don't put any balkenkreutz, which was not applicable for such veicles;

- Plates: I'm not informed about german plates for this car, but FOR SURE the decals provided with Bronco kit are WRONG.

Then, hope other fellows are more informed about...

Cheers

Giovanni

Well, depends on. The decals in the box are, from what I´ve seen of the kit, civilian ones, probably Itailan origin.

I guess it would not be wrong to use either none, standard German, italian military or civilan ones, showing the "service history" of the car. Depends on which story you want to tell.
I might pull up this pic again?


The topload on the Sd.Kfz. seems to have Italian plates, while the truck behind (probably Italian origin aswell) has the standard WH-####### plates.

You can check out this thread on the Axishistory forum for inspiration :

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=141244

Dio idea ?



H.P.

Ruqui;

Hi!

The Topolino in all of its forms served in the Wehrmacht in mid- and later WWII - both in the Italian and Adriatic theaters and elsewhere. Topos shipped to north Africa for the Italian Army were "adopted" by the German DAK - and maybe repainted - or not.

Keep in mind that few or none were actually ever originally produced for the Germans - FIAT did make many for specific use by the Italian Army, and many of these were "seconded" by the Germans when Italy surrendered in 1943; the Germans seized most of the available Italian military stocks and materiel, along with whatever local civilian cars they could scarf up.

I mention this because... IF patterns seen in other Italian stuff (tanks, armored-cars, trucks, etc.) seconded by the Germans pertain, many "German" Topos served wearing their previous Italian colors and schemes (as versus being "obligatorily repainted in German colors), and many retained parts of their old Italian labels - old Italian military plates, etc. They "could" be "re-titled to the new owners and re-plated" or just used "as found".

So... In general, NO crosses, and maybe no WH or WL or SS black-on-white license plates needed, and often no numbers or labels of any kind. You could have an old Italian military plate left on an Italian military Topo - but probably no Italian civil plate on any camo'd Topo. Colors could be Italian types from before 1943, or they could be repainted with German colors from 1943.

Just a suggestion!

Bob

Hi Fabian,

Yes, I'm talking about this: the decals provided by Bronco are wrong for civilian italian vehicles plates during WWII.

Regards

Giovanni

Thank you guys for the help! After reading your comments, I guess it will be ok to leave the Topolino van without any markings or license plates, that's good news for me

Thanks again for the info!