Tuesday, October 4

Preview: MiniArt's 35th scale Austin Armoured Car 3rd Series Freikorps Service. Interior Kit.

Another interesting variant of MiniArt's Austin Armoured car series is never far away, with the adaptations to make this 3rd series vehicle in service with the Freikorps in the early 1920s. We look at the real thing & this interior kit's colours, plastic & features in our story...

Preview: MiniArt's 35th scale Austin Armoured Car 3rd Series Freikorps Service. Interior Kit.

Austin Armoured Car 3rd Series Freikorps Service. Interior Kit.
Full Interior Kit
From MiniArt
Kit No #39012
1:35th scale
The Subject: The Austin Armoured Car 3rd Series in Freikorps Service
The Austin 3rd series had a modified rear section and in the driver's cab, rear driver post, MG side shields, bulletproof glass in front vision slots, with no big side windows and no rear hatch. It weighed 5.3 tons, with a road speed about 60 km/h and range of 200 km. A crew of 4–5 crewed the armoured car, with about 60 units built in total.

A captured Austin armoured car in service with the Freikorps. This is the box art version.
From a few captured vehicles were used during World War I on both fronts. Political turmoil and civil unrest followed the Armistice in Germany. Communists and workers attempted to overthrow the post-war government. The Freikorps, a pro-government paramilitary group consisting largely of former soldiers, helped suppress the revolutionaries. Their British and Italian armoured cars were probably captured during the First World War.

A group of the Freikorps members with their captured armoured cars. In the foreground is British Austin and in the background two Italian Ansaldos.
Four vehicles, two 2nd Series and two 3rd Series, were used in 1918-1919 by the Freikorps armoured unit Kokampf (Kommando der Kampfwagenabteilungen) formed in Berlin as Kampfwagen Abteilung Körting to suppress the German Revolution of 1918–1919 in Berlin, Munich and Leipzig. 

The kit from MiniArt...
This new 35th scale Austin Armoured Car 3rd Series Freikorps Service, a full interior kit from MiniArt, features the German vehicles in service in the 1920s, with five new colour schemes. Thess re fascinating and lovers of skull and crossbones will dig them...
Features of the kit
A highly detailed engine included:
All hatches can be assembled in the open or closed position
A full interior of the car is included.
Photo-etch and a decal sheet, of course, is included
The sprues of the kit
Four marking choices are included in the kit
This set will be available next month for modellers. You can see more about all of MiniArt's kits on their website...