There’s a couple of things that could use improvement with the kits crates that stow the rockets. I am contemplating scratching the crates, and wondered if anyone had some reference material in regards the crates, and sizing etc? they appear quite complex from photos I have seen and i’m trying to figure out there makeup?
AFV club supplies 6 x identical crates in the kit, but surely they must differ depending on the type of rocket?
Onto the rockets themselves, I think I have seen a photo somewhere showing a small auxiliary nozzle or similar project downwards just behind the main body of the rocket. Is that a thing? or was I imagining it?
Any thoughts or images would be appreciated! thanks in advance.
So I actually started a 1/25th scale Stuka zu Fus. The rockets are as you know in two sizes. 32.cm and 28.cm
You are gonna want to fid the Sturm und Drang Sdkfz 251. The book has great references
IIRC the crates are a standard size but have different rails inside them depending on the calibre of the rocket. A normal load was one 32cm to five 28cm. The old Almark “Field Rocket Equipment of the Wehrmacht” goes into a fair amount of detail about the rockets themselves, including the code rings painted around the body. The old Tamiya “Stuka zu Fuss” had one man carrying a rocket on his own! That doesn’t look very realistic looking at the photo at the top of the page!
SableLiger, MANY THANKS Sir… I am pretty happy with the crates. These things were massed produced in various places including work camps. And as we know with modeling, “the devil is in the details”
Too bad when you paint them, the details are kind of lost. I still remember the very old and long gone US Military Modeling. There was an issue that featured an build that wasn’t painted. MAN, THAT WAS AWESOME. Now adays that concept is done too death, but it was really cool back then.
Just as an FYI, that picture of the team carrying the Rocket in the crate is part of a series of photos, MY interpretation is that one man COULD move the rocket, BUT to load the Rocket and Crate onto the Sdkfz 251, you are going to need up to four soldiers, ESPECIALLY if you are trying to load it to the highest set, the last launcher. As we all know, the rocket frames are offset, or staggered, so that front frames are fixed lower, and then the middle a bit higher, and finally the rear frame is the highest set.
Mine is going to be part of the 29th Motorized Division surrounded at Stalingrad, The vehicle is heavily modified by the unit, The small rear seats removed, storage added. As well as storage boxes
I have had a potter with the AFV kit, and my loose plan is to be build it ootb, with exceptions of scratching the rocket crates, and scratching some new rear doors from sheet styrene to a closer scale thickness, and posing them as open (kit parts are way to thick). I have some DEF Model resin sagged wheels, and i’ll try and get a hold of some indy tracks to, DEF Model have or are about to release some I beleive.
I think I will try and scratch metal rocket crates, based on this photo:
