Tuesday, March 26

35th scale Sd.Kfz. 234/2 "Puma" Schwerer Panzerspähwagen from MiniArt.

MiniArt have made good on their MO and presented a faster to make / no interior kit of their new Sd.Kfz. 234/2 "Puma" Schwerer Panzerspähwagen in 1/35th scale. The kits features in CAD are on show in our preview...


35th scale Sd.Kfz. 234/2 "Puma" Schwerer Panzerspähwagen from MiniArt.

Sd.Kfz. 234/2 "Puma"
From MiniArt
1/35th scale
Kit No#35419
The Subject: Sd.Kfz. 234/2 "Puma" Schwerer Panzerspähwagen
The Sd.Kfz. 234 was a family of armored vehicles developed and built in Germany during World War II. The first and most famous version, the Sd.Kfz. 234/2, was equipped with a turret featuring a 5-cm KwK 39/1 tank gun and a coaxial MG 42.
This armament was originally intended for the VK 1602 Leopard, a planned tank in the Panzer II class. The switch to this armament was documented on July 1, 1942, and on November 2, 1943, the production of 100 vehicles with this equipment was announced. A total of 101 vehicles were manufactured between December 1943 and June 1944. The designation Sd.Kfz. 234/2 was used from March 1944.
A trio of German reconnaissance armored cars. In the foreground is this subject, the Sd. Kfz. 234/2 8-Rad "Puma", midground is an Sd. Kfz. 234/3 8-Rad and an unrecognized armored car in the background.
This version of the Sd.Kfz. 234, with its relatively strong armament for a reconnaissance vehicle, often tempted crews to engage in combat instead of just performing reconnaissance tasks.
The Kit:
This kit is exterior detail of this kit is exactly the same as the full interior kit that MiniArt released last week - just without an interior. Those who like a simple build and don't want to show all that detail off, this one is for you!

The full interior and the no interior kit which is our subject today...
We have some nice CADs of this kit providing some details of the makeup of the model. A walk around of the whole armoured car, with the golden parts representing the photo-etch and the blue items shown below showing the options like openable hatches etc.
Take a look at all the options you can access with this kit, the blue shaded panes show everything that can be opened or closed on the kit. Vision ports, stowage compartments are all just begging to be shown opened up and under inspection by the German owners or the new custodians in a post battle - or WWII scene.
You can see the photo-etch parts of the kit shown in the gold shaded parts of the illustrations...
The basic internal turret parts are shown in this illustration. The mount and the insides of the gun, radio & cans for the commander are shown in this simple drawing. The Puma's 5 cm L/60 main gun is moulded in full, showing the whole mechanism here.
The "Jerry" cans on this kit are attached with photo-etch.
Some do not like this, but with just the right amount of glue, these sandwich together tyres give you a full tread with no sanding seams involved. Another feature of this vehicle and correctly of this kit are the independent suspension and tunable wheels & tyres.
This kit from MiniArt will soon be available - Until then, keep an eye on the MiniArt's website or just look in here for more info on MiniArt’s new stuff.