Sunday, May 2, 2010

Miniatures in Review - Modeler's Special Edition Guide to the Kubelwagen


Pat Stansell and I first began discussing this project in October 1998. Initially, I envisioned a series of articles to be published in Military Miniatures in Review, detailing the many uses of the Kübelwagen in World War Two. Yet, the more we dug and the more we talked, the more variants we discovered. It was finally decided that this project would launch a Special Issue series for the magazine. Rather than attempting to slap something together for the sake of selling a book, the research involved in this special has been, in a word, painstaking. For every mystery solved, four more surfaced; for every stone overturned, a new rabbit hole was discovered. I resolved that the vehicles presented in this book would be only those that could actually be verified by authentic wartime photographs, and which played a significant role in the story. One thing is certain—no two VW researchers anywhere agree 100% on everything. There exists a bizarre array of conflicting nomenclatures and designations, owing primarily to two points: a large amount of Volkswagen production data was destroyed in 1945 and the high volume of vehicles manufactured resulted in numerous modifications.

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Verlinden Modeling Magazine Vol.1 No.1


The V-150, an improved version of the V-100 (used extensively in the Vietnam War as the main patrol vehicle of the MP units), has a wider range of armament options which enables an army to purchase a fleet of interrelated vehicles which can, because of their different configurations, perform different roles, all sharing the same automotive parts. Cadillac Gage of Warren, Michigan, the company in question, offers a wide variety of weapon systems for the V-150 such as a 20 mm Oerlikon autocannon, a 76mm gun, an 81mm mortar carrier, a one metre dual machine gun, a missile carrier and even a 20mm Vulcan for air defense. The V-150 as found in the Verlinden box features the 90mm Cockerill gun turret of Belgian origin. This 2-man turret is Dectro-Hydraulically operated. The four-wheel drive V-150 with locking differentials has a special ballistic plate hull which provides protection against 7.62mm Ball ammunition.

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