Roden 1/72 SdKfz 4/1 (15cm) Panzerwerfer 42
| KIT #: | 712 |
| PRICE: | $19.99 SRP |
| DECALS: | Four options |
| REVIEWER: | Scott Van Aken |
| NOTES: | |
The Panzerwerfer 42 auf Maultier weighed 7.1 tonnes, was six meters long, two meters wide, and nearly three meters high. It was capable of reaching speeds of up to 40 km/h. One of these half tracked vehicles generally carried a Nebelwerfer 42 launching system, which was specially designed to be mounted on the Opel-engine powered Panzerwerfer. The German engineers designed this system because of the conspicuous trails of smoke left behind by the Nebelwerfer batteries, which necessitated a self-propelled artillery piece. The system contained 10 missile tubes, and generally carried 20 projectiles, enough for the vehicle to fire two full salvos.
Roden adds another interesting subject to their growing inventory of 1/72 military vehicles. This is the late war rocket launcher based on the SdKfz 4 maultier chassis. Typical of these sorts of kits, there are a lot of very small parts, all in plastic as there is no photo etch fret with this one. The tracks are the single piece vinyl type, though it may be that these are deformable styrene.
Even in this scale, Roden has provided us with a complete engine and a well detailed chassis. The parts themselves are very nicely molded and quite scale. The builder will be best served to use a fine razor saw to remove many of the pieces and equal care when cleaning them up. The 'cockpit' includes a pair of seats, shift levers, steering wheel and an instrument panel, though you'll not be seeing much of this at all, especially if you leave the shuttered windows closed.
The back section, while enclosed with the upper body piece that holds the rocket tubes, does have detailed storage for the additional rocket tubes. This can be seen when one removes the turret for the Nebelwerfer. Of course, there are the usual tools to fit on the outer body to make things seem properly busy.
Markings are provided for three vehicles. One is an overall panzer yellow vehicle in France during May-June 1944. Actually, all of these are base coated in panzer yellow. The second has large segments of green and brown with the famous 'unknown unit' in Western Europe during 1944. Another is the box art scheme in overall white from March of 1945. The final one has very tiny dots of green and brown with the 7th Panzer Division in Pommerania during early 1945. The decal sheet provides all the markings, as near invisible as they may be on some schemes, and is nicely printed.
I am sure that Roden will do well with this as there is a strong cadre of 1/72 modelers with good eyesight who love these sorts of kits. For sure they are a good deal for the money as the modeler won't have this one done in a few days, thanks to the level of detail that is provided.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerwerfer My thanks toSquadron Products for the review kit. Get yours today at your local retailer or ask them to order it in for you.
July 2011
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Roden adds another interesting subject to their growing inventory of 1/72 military vehicles. This is the late war rocket launcher based on the SdKfz 4 maultier chassis. Typical of these sorts of kits, there are a lot of very small parts, all in plastic as there is no photo etch fret with this one. The tracks are the single piece vinyl type, though it may be that these are deformable styrene.