Ola guys

Quite a long name for this exotic variant of the Krupp Protze I know

In my endless search for weird vehicles I really can't avoid that I find vehicles of which no injection molded kits exist. This is no exception. In this case it is about a very obscure vehicle where not that much pictures or information are available of. It is a vehicle in use by the Werhmacht telephone services based on the Krupp Protze chassis. As base I have used of course the Tamiya Protze:

And the cabin is from the German company Airmodel


Ok as you see the Airmodel set only offers you only the body nothing more nothing less... So the sides of the cabin the fenders some additional plates to close the vehicle and the roof. Actually you can built a neat looking vehicle but it is quite empty So I started a scratch interior which is primarily Evergreen and eventually some bits and bobs from the scratchbox

Ok enough Talk here are the pics so far. Take notice I did a quick assembly of the vehicle with the aid of medical tape. This makes that most of the things look a bit off and it seems to sit a bit weird on it's tires.








Down pictures show the start of the floor of the interior.. All made with evergeen and it consists of some very carefull guestimating



Next to this I als need to scratchbuilt a mobile generator, Antenna system for the roof./.. But that is all for later concern. First I have to finish the body

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

OMG...where'd you find that conversion kit at and can they still be had?! I've been looking for that conversion{radio wagon} for two years! -
Bob

Ola Bob

Sorry for this very late reply.

The company who produces this covnersion set is Airmodel from Germany. You can find their stuff here on their homepage
Airmodel Germany Homepage

It is a really fun comversion and just as I say it is basically a vehicle that is not that much information around and a lot of it comes to guestimating. But eventually you will end up with a really good looking vehicle.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Robert-- the last photo makes the front wheels appear to be toeing outward. Is that because you stuck them on the axles rather than glue them in at this stage of the work?
thanks
DJ

Ola DJ

You are right there... The wheels are leaning inwards. Just as I said in the first post in this topic... I haven't glued much yet the reason for this is that it is easier for me to handle the stuff. In the end it will all come right.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

hey,
I've got this same conversion.we picked it up on ebay afew months ago.and placed it in our spare krupp model,waiting for more info on the interior.only pic we've got is a front/side shot,it didn't appear that the front bench seat found in the tamiya model,is the same that was used in this vehicle,can you pass on some added info on there interior,or point us to some web site that has some better pics.

Joe

I have never heard about this one before. Very interesting model. I will check out airmodel to see what they have to offer

A very unusual looking vehicle.

Thanks for sharing

Bet you cant say that after a few Jars

Seriously, looking good cant wait to see this finished being something different

redleg

Ola Guys

Well as I said before this is a conversion with an absolute minimum on information. I have in an ols Waffenarsenal a sideview of the vehicle. And these two pictures I found on the web. Next to that I have some pics that were posted on E-bay... In total I have a collection of over 11 pictures of this vehicle. If interested drop me an E-mail. Again I have to say that the interior comes just to guestimating... same goes for the Exterior. I have seen several small differences what they had on the roof. On one it looks like it is a bracket for a ladder... Another has a huge aerial antenna. And I have even seen pictures of this thing with a huge telescopic antenna on the back.



Nice looking vehicle.

Since German is just a very bad translated Dutch (the germans are going to love me for this) It is not that big a problem to say it after a few jars... but it is true that this is a typical way of German vehiclelabeling by making the name as long as possible.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Robert,

Interesting vehicle! Would like to see progress shots of what you do for the interior. Thanks for sharing.

Very interesting thread, & I'm particularly taken with the Wehrmachtomnibus on the Airmodels site!
The last time I saw pictures of the telephone exchange vehicle was in "Wheeled Vehicles of the Wehrmacht", a 70's publication which I think was based on an old US Army manual, which in turn was translated from a Wehrmacht one. This body style was a standard type used for several telephone & radio applications. Some of them had a vertically planked wooden body (or at least that's what it looks like in the photos). The pictures don't help with internal arrangements, I'm afraid, being only of the outsides, but for what it's worth, some appear to have "frosted" windows so you can't see in! There is a Czechoslovak (I think) published softback called "Radio for the Wehrmacht", similar to the old Squadron "In Action" series in format. This gives lots of pictures of the interior of various German radio trucks, as well as radio equipment, including details such as desks, clocks(!) etc.
The vehicles were superceded by the standard "Einheitskopfer" (sp!) box type as fitted to the Italaeri 3 tonner kit.
I'm @ work @ the moment, so don't have access to my library. I could give you more details of these titles tomorrow if you think they would help.

Faust...you rule! Just put in for the radio wagon kit, the tanker kit and the bus kit! Thank you!!!!!!!
My friend gave me the whole mag{just had pics before}, of the build your doing ...Military Modeler May 1986{found it at a swap meet}. They call it the "funkkraftwagon-radio van"{to each they're own...}. My scanner is old, but I can try and scan the build pics...the windows on that one are dirty with no interior shots...also shows the #1046 heavy generator behind it.

Ola Steve

I would be very interested to those titles. I have some Waffenarsenals specially dedicated to german radio's and some of these picture in these magazines show the interiors of Radio and telephone trucks.
There are some differences in body though as this one is clearly a metal body... then you also as you pointed out have the wooden body but that one is more square.
I have the Blitz Einheitskoffer together with the Velrinden interior set which I'm planning to do after I'm finished with my Flakpanzer IA. I will do work on this vehicle as well.
As it appears after reading a lot of magazines there was some sort of standard interior filling but it seems to differ a lot from vehicle to vehicle.
By the way I also got that Omnibus and it is nice. Have a huge load of pictures of these busses also some interior shots.

@ Bob
I actually have the whole article digital I got that a while ago from a friend.
Was actually forgotten that I had it. I have the omnibus as stated above and it is a nice kit but you really need to get out those scratchbuilding skills as you only get the body.I also am at the moment waiting on an Email of a guy from belgium which I plan trading some stuff for Vacu Form kits probably am able to get something nice out of it... I know that one part of the trade was the Steyer 640 funkwagen with wooden body.

Nice stuff Vacu Form

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

hey,
I built the Opel tanker by airmodel.OMG!it was a nigthmare,aleast twice i came close to throwing it!!,beside the side having a deep crease in it.thiers no explaination on to mount it onto the chassis or use of the the orginal flatbed,and when finished it really ended up being to narrow,the rear wheels extend out past the tanker sides.Plastic seamed very heavy ,hard to work with ,and virtually no detail. its finished thou,looks okay,but i dont let anyone look at the underside,its not pretty.nowhere near the quailty of Schmidt/Airpress vacuforms

Joe

Ola Joe

For me that is the fun of doing Vacuform kits. As the kit really gives you nothing more then the basics. And Airmodel really only gives you the basics.
I have practically the same tanker but from a German company called TVA It is a combination kit of the Italeri Opel Blitz Einheitskoffer (only the parts you need like the chassis, the hood the axles and the wheels, A resin drivers cabin and a vacu form fueltank. Looks really nice.
In the picture below you can see the kit


It looks a very nice vacu form conversion in that set. And they certainly have thought out details as how to mount it on the chassis and such

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

hey robert,
i agree the vac kits can be fun and challenging,and we've done afew now,and we've got 8 vac kits from Schmidt,waiting .but that opel tanker by airmodel,it wasnt fun,and the cab is another issue,stated to be used with Italeri opel blitz ,but the cab on the instructions sheet and afew photos i found show the tanker as using the softtop cab.i finished mine about 2 months ago ,and then saw the TVA model of the Opel tanker on ebay ,just recently,with the soft top,i would have rather gone with the TVA.good luck on this project,iam watching close,like to see how you end up merging the vac body to the chassis.let us know if you encounter any major issue,as mentioned,we picked up this conver.afew months ago,but was hoping to get alittle more info on the vehicle,before we started
Joe

Robert, any new happenings with the build? I'm still waiting on airmodel to get back to me about the kits I ordered.

Robert, sorry about taking so long to get back to you. Here are the titles, I'm not sure about availability, particularly on the two books from the 70s, don't know if they are OOP. I did toy with the idea of scanning in some of the pages, but the radio book is the most useful, & I think I'd have ended up scanning in the whole book! It has a colour section in the middle with preserved original examples of a lot of the kit in the photos - definitely recommend it. What comes across is that as far as the vehicles are concerned, to the Germans the manufacturer was unimportant, the Sdkfz number was the most important, externally identical vehicles had completely different numbers depending on use, whereas completely different looking vehicles can have the same Sdkfz number! Anyway on to the books:-

"Wheeled Vehicles of the Wehrmacht", by Chris Ellis, published by Ducimus.

"German Military Transport of WW2", by John Milsom, published by Arms & Armour Press.

"Wireless for Wehrmacht in Detail", by Alois Vesely & Frantisek Koran, Wings & Wheels Publications.

Ola Guys

Bob
Sadly not yet new progress about this vehicle. I´m at the moment trying to find out about how the interiors of this type of vehicle were installed with all the wiring and such. Also things like colors. As soon as I know that kind of stuff I will go on

Steve
Thanks for those book titels. I will see what I can track down of those titles.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

hey,
this site has helped us with German radio questions

http://www.laud.no/ww2/

Joe

Ola Joe

Yes I'm aware of that site I know it already for a while. And I'm certainly going to use it for my radio's in both this vehicle as well as for the radio's in my Blitz Einheitskoffer Radiotruck.

Also internal colors and such I'm trying to find out. But that eventually will be solved.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Hello Robert,

I was very interested in your Kfz 19 Krupp vehicle as I am doing one in 1/76 (Braille) scale. In particular, I would be interested in getting copies of the 11 pictures you refer to. I only have the two here on the site, one from the Kfz der Wehrmacht site and one in the Krupp at War book. Unfortunately they all show on the left (drivers) side. I need to see how the shovel is mounted on the left side fender and also what if anything is mounted on the right side fender.
If you could send me them, I would appreciate it very much. I can let you know my e-mail address.
Also, how is the progress on your 1/35 vehicle coming?

Thanks and regards,

Neil Craig
Ontario, Canada