Revell Germany 1/35 conversion
MAN 6 x 6 Truck with LARS

by Ian Diaz Whittleston

HyperScale is proudly supported by Squadron

Background

Information on this vehicle has been difficult to find, however I will provide an extract from Ian Hogg’s Twentieth Century Artillery.

“This system entered service with the German army in 1970, but has now been almost entirely phased out and the equipments have been given to Greece, Portugal and Turkey, where they will doubtless serve for several more years. The rocket has a solid fuel motor, and the standard warhead is a high explosive fragmentation type with pre-formed fragments. There are also training and smoke warheads, and a cargo warhead which carries eight anti-tank mines and releases them over the target area. The launcher is an 18 barrel unit carried on the back of a standard MAN 6x6 military truck” (Hogg 2000, p.310)

The Kit

This model is a conversion of the Revell-Germany MAN 6 x 6 army truck kit in 1/35 scale.

The kit itself is nicely detailed and molded in a somewhat brittle, forest green styrene. The clear parts for the windows are not worth keeping, they are far too thick. There was little noticeable flash on the parts.

For the price, it builds into a large model, about the size of Tamiya’s FAMO half-track but for a fraction of the cost.

The truck was assembled per kit instructions, minus the tray and soft cover which is provided. The tires provided with the kit are molded from vinyl rubber and are prone to cracking, and unfortunately I encountered almost every possible problem which can be brought about by these tires after assembly (in full accordance with Murphy’s law).

I understand that one can also get tires for the MAN diesel series by Revell cast in resin from an aftermarket company. This might have been a worthwhile investment as the vinyl tires are a real deathtrap.

The windows were replaced with transparent sheet styrene of a very thin gauge, however due to the wonderfully oppressive Queensland summer heat, and having cut the windows to fit too snugly, some of them have warped, which can be seen in the photographs. From this experience, I would like to suggest to any modelers who wish to replace kit windows with really thin sheet styrene to cut the windows so they do not fit too tightly in their frames.

The LARS (Light Artillery Rocket System) is scratchbuilt from Evergreen styrene sheets and aluminium tubing, with reference to a very small illustration in Hogg’s book, and a handful more from the net. Most of the detail has been improvised due to the nature of the reference that I had acquired.

The model was painted in a mix of Tamiya acrylics, Desert Sand and Flat White mixed together. The markings are completely fictitious, as I (in my infinite wisdom) lost the decal sheet for this kit. The markings are from leftovers of various modern armour kits and are not meant to depict any particular unit.

Weathering was achieved with watercolour washes and ground chalk pastels applied with various sized brushes, and sealed with Testor’s Dullcote.

 

In conclusion, I enjoyed this build of this fantastically bizarre truck. It has been a good test of my patience and skills (making fenders from folding and gluing styrene sheets is a good way to lose your sanity for a week, I guarantee it!).

It is by no means a magnum opus of plastic modeling but I am happy with it, and it looks imposing (and large) together with other 1/35 scale vehicles.

References:

Hogg, I. 2000, Twentieth-Century Artillery, 300 of the worlds greatest artillery pieces, Brown Books, London.

 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Text and Images Copyright © 2005 by Ian Diaz Whittleston
Page Created 13 April, 2005
Last Updated 12 April, 2005

Back to HyperScale Main Page