Sunday, May 24, 2009

Verlinden Military Vehicles Vol.1


In 1942, mass production started on a small and light amphibious car for all terrain use. The Schwimmwagen type 166 featured an air-cooled 4-cylinder engine with an output of 25 horsepower. Top speed was 80 km/h on land and 10 km/h in the water. When in the water the front wheels served as a rudder, with the propeller, lowered by hand, at the rear. By the wars closing days, 14.276 type 166 Schwimmwagens were manufactured. They served on every front performing reconnaissance, scouting, liaison, and many other functions. Tamiya's kit is another example of their recent excellent molding quality and engineering. They can be made into an excellent scale miniature right out of the box. Tamiya is making it harder to improve the basic kit! For example, Tamiya includes a very finely detailed engine molded in plastic. VP's Schwimmwagen update kit 1419 offers some kit improvments and various extra accessories, including wide off-road tires. VP provides an all new MG 34. which is a vast improvement over injected-plastic ones. Photo-etch includes many of the smaller details such as latches,screens, wiper, licence plates, etc.

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