Photos by Marc Hobbs 
Text by Marc Hobbs and Andrew Martin

Introduction 

Here is the latest installment from Marc Hobbs: The Italeri Horch Command Car.

Note: All the thumbnails on this page are active and will take you to the full size graphics.

Marc Hobbs is a founding member of the Austin Armor Builders Society club. He lives and works in Austin, Texas.

History

In the early 1930's the German Army began promoting the idea of the "uniform personnel vehicle".  Unlike the American automotive giants, the German automotive industry consisted of many small independent firms. To achieve some level of mass production and to ease the logistics of maintenance, the concept of the uniform personnel vehicle was developed.

Originally these were civilian vehicles modified for military use, but by the late 1930's the Army was receiving more purpose-built vehicles. The SdKfz 15, or more officially, "Uniform chassis for medium support vehicle (with support axle) Type 40 referred to a generally standardized chassis produced by Auto Union or Opel with engines from either Horch or Opel and body work by either Horch or Wanderer. All had 4 wheel drive and 2 wheel steering.

While cosmetically similar, the models still had many differences. The most troubling in the field was that it was very difficult to swap the Horch and Opel engines. So while the vehicle was a great step forward for German industry, the German Army still did not enjoy the level of logistical simplicity as that of the American Army. The complexity of maintenance along with mediocre cross-country performance led to the type being discontinued in 1943 in favor of the Horch Heavy Personnel Vehicle Type 40 and the Steyr 1500.

The Model 

My model is the Italeri Horch Command Car SdKfz 15. This kit has been around for some time. I think the initial release was in the 1970's, but my example is dated 1996. The kit consists of 113 parts in dark green plastic, four windows and two headlights in clear and six black vinyl tires. Included in the 113 parts are a driver and officer figure and a nice little folding map table.

In spite of this kit's age, the overall molding is excellent. There are some punch-out marks in some rather annoying places, but I haven't built a kit yet that didn't suffer from this. Also the mold seams are heavier than on modern kits and there is one major fit problem around the bonnet, but the quality of detail is unmatched even today. Where this kit really shows its age is in the figures and accessories, they do not begin to compare with the sets now available.

The Body 

The car body goes to together nicely; however, there is a prominent seam that runs around the car between the floorboard and the sides and rear. Unfortunately there is a lot of nice texture molded into the floor that I did not want to loose by sanding. A technique that works well for tight corners like this is to mask off area with the detail (in this case the tread plate on the floor) and then airbrush about three coats of Gunze Sangyo Mr. Surfacer into the joint.

This is a fine leveling compound, so as it dries it fills the seam and leaves a smooth surface (i.e. no sanding!). It takes three or four coats to build up, but it is a lot easier and cleaner. I used the same technique later on the rear fenders and to blend the bonnet into the front fenders. It is a real time saver.

The seat cushions are molded open on the bottom and they overhang enough that, if you look carefully, you can see into them after the seats are installed. So, I blocked off the bottoms with sheet styrene, painted them Testors Leather, and set them aside until after painting the rest of the car.

I dressed up the dashboard by thinning down the kit part, drilling out the instruments and filling in the holes with an instrument made by layering an aircraft decal between a piece of clear acetate and sheet styrene. The decals were from the Revell/Monogram Pro Modeler 1/48 Bomber Instrument Panels and the acetate is a piece of an overhead transparency.

Getting the bonnet to fit 

The only real fit problem on the model is in step 4 when installing the bonnet. The bonnet is molded in five parts and it takes a little finesse to get it all together. Do not follow the assembly order suggested in the instructions.

First, I put thin plastic shims on the ends of the bonnet sides (parts 46 & 47). Then I glued the entire bonnet together (parts 19, 46, 47 & 50) and glued all this to the frame (parts 54). The shims help to hold the alignment so you can square everything up then the hood (part 48) drops right into place.

There should be seams between the hood and the bonnet sides. However there are not seams between the bonnet and the front car body (parts 19). Again I used Mr. Surfacer and some light sanding to clean up this seam.

Also note that Italeri does not provide any engine (not even a faux bottom), so I dropped in the bottom of the engine from an old Tamiya SdKfz 250 halftrack just so the frame doesn't look empty from the bottom (of course do this before gluing on the hood).

To prevent breakage during construction, I generally leave off any small detail parts until the model is ready to paint, so I move on to the chassis.

The Chassis 

The chassis provides the greatest opportunity for detailing, unfortunately, unless you display the model on a mirror, you can't see most of it. Still, if you must, refer to page 19 of the Schiffer book for a photo of the chassis taken from the maintenance manual. The photo is pretty blurry, but most of the detail you need is right there.

The first step is to clean up the frame (part 54), as there are quite a few punch-out marks along the frame and inside the wheel wells. There is also an Italeri logo and the words "Made in Italy " molded on the bottom of the auxiliary fuel tank. If you expect the model will be judged at a contest, you will want to remove this as well.

There are seven lightening holes along each side of the frame. I drilled these in with Dremel tool and then cleaned them up with some files. I also drilled small holes into the backs of the middle axles (it is a small detail, but you can see it from the inside of the car body). It is interesting to note that on these vehicles, the axle was not powered, but the wheels did roll to improve cross-country performance.

The all wheel independent suspension sub assemblies are little gems, but beware, they are fragile. There are some mold seams on the springs and some punch out marks on the wheel discs that are a pain to clean uparts I also found it handy to "trap" parts 59 and 66 without gluing them in place. This procedure helps to align the wheel discs later so your wheels don't end up canted.

Now you can detail away. I made the sides to the fuel tanks from sheet plastic (now that you can see them through the lightening holes), added fuel lines, brake lines and electrical wiring from solder and detailed the frame and gear box with Grandt line bolts and bits of plastic.

One easy detail that really dresses up the chassis is to add thin strips of plastic around the edges of the footsteps and some Grandt line bolts on the bottom of the supports. This adds some depth and it is actually visible from the sides.

Final Assembly 

Because of all the nooks and crannies, I painted the body and chassis separately with Model Master Panzer Gray. I had left off the doors until the final assembly because I wanted to show them opened and I was going to attempt to build my own hinges. This became the most involved step in the construction, but after much trial and error, here is a technique that seems to work:

• First, sand all the hinge detail off the model, but don't forget to take measurements before you do. Then, using the fine hypodermic tube from an empty Testors Liquid Cement, cut it into appropriate lengths (two per hinge) with a cutting wheel in a motor tool (a razor saw takes forever, and cutters do not work).

• Insert a wire core into the hinge (a piece of plain copper wire from an old phone works great) and glue it in place from the top of the hinge. One great discovery I made during this process is Formula 560, a strong white glue used by R/C modelers to glue aircraft canopies. It claims to be as strong as super glue, does not run and dries very slowly so you can take your time positioning parts. I used this stuff throughout the hinge construction and it worked like a charm.

Next I cut two pieces of plastic to represent the faces of each hinge. Using the Formula 560, I glue one piece of the hypodermic tube to each piece of plastic (at this point the copper core is only glued to the top half of the hypodermic) and you have a working hinge. Then you just mount two hinges to each door and add a little rivet detail. Once the doors are set and the hinges are glued in place, you can remove the doors and simply hang them when the model is on display, or position them and glue them in place.

At this point I added all those small pieces that had been left off from the previous steps. I replaced the front windscreen with clear acetate for more thinness. The shovel does not fit quite right, so I added a spacer made of sheet plastic to the bracket around the blade.

The lids to the side stowage boxes have some fit problems, so a little filling and sanding was necessary. I added wiring for the headlights, horns, turn signals and windshield wipers from thin solder and replaced the Notek light with one from the Pz IV set.

I replaced the front clearance markers and commander's pennant with ones made from wire and plastic and I added a small plastic disc to front where the hand crank engages the engine (Italeri gives you a hole, so I'm assuming the example they modeled is missing this cover).

Also I replaced the grab handles on the interior with new ones made from solder. You just bend them to shape, flatten the ends and attach them with a drop of Zaparts This is easier than removing the mold seams and the parts retain their round shape.

As noted earlier, the accessories are a little rough, so I replaced the three Jerry cans with cans from the new Tamiya German Fuel Drum Set, and I replaced the hand crank with one from the Panzer IV On Vehicle Equipment Set.

The last step of construction was building the folding canvas toparts The kit provides a top in the employed position and one neatly stowed and secured. I wanted to show the top down but not stowed.

In the field you rarely see a top neatly stowed and none of the pictures in my references show the top properly put away; it is generally just folded down and pushed out of the way in a rather random fashion. So of course, this is what I had to model. I considered borrowing the top from the Tamiya Steyr 1500 kit, but it is too wide.

The Steyr top had the look I wanted, so using it as a guide, I built a framework out of plastic strips. Then I folded a long piece of white tissue paper around the frame and saturated it with watered down white glue to hold it in place. Once this assembly had dried, I glued it in place and the model was ready for final painting.

Finishing 

The painting technique that works best for me is a five-step process.

• First, I base coat the model with enamel paint, in this case Testors Panzer Gray. This is followed by an acrylic wash. The third and fourth coats are done in oils, and then I finish with a lacquer flat coat. I have been told that alternating the type of paint in each layer will prevent successive layers from attacking the coats underneath. I don't know if this is true, but I do like the results. Since the body and chassis were base coated separately before final assembly, I just touched up the gray where needed.

• After the base coat, I apply the markings so they will be weathered consistently with the vehicle. I found a great picture of a car with the 200 Panzerjager Battalion driving alongside a column of tank destroyers (a potential diorama one day), so I decided to do that car. The license plates are from the kit decal sheet (the kit decals work fine), and the tactical and divisional markings are from the Tamiya German armor decal sheet. I applied all the marking with Future floor wax, and they went on great.

• Next a wash of 1 oz. water with about four drops of Polly Scale Dirt, four drops Polly Scale Black and one drop dishwashing detergent (this breaks up the surface tension and allows the paint to flow and dry evenly) was liberally brushed over the model (one coat topside, three coats underneath). This gives the model a good dusty worn look.

• Then, in a shallow container, I mix three parts raw umber, three parts burnt sienna and one part lamp black (Grumbacher oils) and mineral spirits until I get a dark wash. Let this mixture sit about 10 minutes until the pigments settle, then tip the container slightly to let the mineral spirits flow to one side. Use the sediment at the bottom to lightly outline every detail on the model. The paint is thin enough that a touch of the brush to a bolt head will initiate the capillary effect and it will flow around the entire detail. This step simulates shadows in the recessed areas of the model.

• Once this coat is completely dry, then dry brush with the oils. The underside is dry brushed with a mixture of raw umber, burnt sienna and white to represent dirt and mud. This color is also brushed up the sides to depict mud and dirt thrown up from the wheels. The muffler and exhaust pipe are dry brushed with burnt sienna only, and the topside is dry brushed with a mixture of the base color and white. Once this coat is good and dry, give the entire model a final coat of Testors Dull coat lacquer. Dull coat will fog clear parts so on cars and trucks be careful to mask off the windows. This gives the model an overall flat appearance and blends all of the colors together. Now the model is finished and ready for display.

References 

For reference I used the excellent German Personnel Cars in Wartime published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd. This book is the best reference I found for detailing. Unfortunately, the pictures are not reproduced very clearly, so you really have to study them. While you can find photographs of these vehicles in almost any book about the German Army in WWII, I also found Panzer Colors Vol. I, II and III by Bruce Culver to be particularly helpful.

The photographs are reprinted much more clearly and these books provide a wealth of information on painting and marking the vehicle. Another excellent source of "in service" photographs is the three volume set "Waffen SS" published by Concord Publications.

The instructions state the kit is a replica of an example in the "Deutsches Museum" in Munich. It measures out accurately to the specifications in my references. Italeri has done a really nice job capturing the shape and look of this vehicle.

It is quite possible to build this kit straight from the box and have a very nice model. However, if you like to add detail, there is still a lot you can do with this kit. Because I like to add my own personal touch to a model, I opted to take the detailing route. I guess it’s kind of like marking my territory.

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