Roden 1/72nd SdKfz 233 "Stummel" By Matt Bittner

History

During the initial stages of WW2 heavy eight-wheeled armored cars of the SdKfz 231 (8-Rad), SdKfz 232 (8-Rad) and SdKfz 263 (8-Rad) types were widely used in all the major theaters of war with considerable success. Reconnaissance and support of the front line were still their primary missions; however, quite often when fulfilling these missions (especially on the Eastern Front) reconnaissance units met with strong opposition from the enemy, often including artillery. This problem could be resolved only by the introduction of a special support vehicle with a higher caliber armament, teamed up with the reconnaissance units, already equipped with the standard SdKfz 231 (8-Rad), SdKfz 232 (8-Rad) and SdKfz 263 (8-Rad).

As part of the experimentation, in 1942 at the Bussing-NAG plant, the 75mm KwK L/24 gun was mounted on one of the regular SdKfz 231 (8-Rad). Due to the short length of the barrel, this gun was nicknamed "Stumpy" ("Stummel"). Though the dimensions of this gun were insignificant, it was still too big for the armored body of the SdFkz 231 (8-Rad), therefore its design had to be modified. The turret was completely removed and most of the equipment unrelated to artillery support was as well. In spite of all these measures, the crew decreased from four to three persons due to the lack of free space inside the armored body.

The vehicle turned out to be very successful, but it was never put into serial prodction. Relatively small numbers of these vehicles were needed for artillery support; also after continuous military action more and more SdKfz 231 (8-Rad), SdKfz 232 (8-Rad) and SdKfz 263 (8-Rad) were being returned to plants in Germany. As a result, the heavy armored artillery support vehicle SdKfz 233 (the name of the new development) was built at the Bussing-NAG plant. Construction was undertaken using parts from its predecessors. However, unlike them, the SdKfz 233 did not have "8-Rad" in its type name, since the analogous six-wheeled vehicle did not exist.

The SdKfz 233 proved to be a serious weapon. The major threat for these vehicles came from ground attack aircraft - the big opening on the top of their armored bodies was very vulnerable to bombs or strafing. Despite the small quantity of SdKfz 233 built, they were actively used in every theater of conflict, from 1942 until the final days of the war.

(Hitory taken from the Roden instruction sheet.)

The Kit

Naturally the SdKfz 233 is a continuation of the earlier Roden 8-Rad series (the SdKfz 231 (8-Rad), the SdKfz 232 (8-Rad) and the SdKfz 263 (8-Rad)) so shares a lot of parts with those. However, since the upper hull completely changed along with the addition of the 75mm gun, there are new parts included as well. All in all, there are 114 injected molded plastic parts used in the SdKfz 233 (I say "used" because there are common parts in the series the SdKfz 233 doesn't use, but are still included on the sprue). Decals exist for four schemes. The first one is from an unknown unit on the Eastern Front, winter 1943. The second scheme is for a US-marked machine from an unknown German unit captured by the US in Tunisia, winter 1943. Number three scheme is for one of the personal armored cars of Rommel, late 1942. And the final scheme is for an armored car from the 10 Panzer Division, Tunisia, December 1942. Decals are nicely printed and in register.

Construction starts with the wheel assemblies. You'll have to repeat the first three steps three times since there are four wheel assemblies. Since the publication of the SdKfz 231 article in the June 2003 IM edition, it has come to my attention that if you follow the Roden plans and not glue certain pieces down, you can get certain articulation in the drivetrain which means that all eight tires should remain flat on the ground under almost all circumstances.

From here construction moves onto creating the base of the gun along with the rest of the interior pieces. There are some mold marks on this kit, though. Unfortunately sink marks appear in the seat bottoms that are part of the single-piece molded interior floor. However, since these are relatively flat, adding putty and sanding it away shouldn't be too big of a problem.

Now the instructions have you add the smaller pieces onto the fenders. Like my build of the SdKfz 231 I would recommend you leave these smaller items off until after you have the fenders added to the main hull. That way you won't have to remove these smaller pieces when you discover you glued them too close to the edge that meets with the main hull.

Now it's time to construct the largest portion of the model by adding the interior to the lower hull and glueing both upper and lower hull together. From there the final assemblies are put in place, those being the drivetrains and the barrel of the 75mm gun. It's nice to see that Roden has already bored out the opening of the barrel.

Conclusion

Along with the rest of their ealier 8-Rad series, the SdKfz 233 will build up into an impressive model, whether you build it out of the box or superdetail it. This bodes well for Roden's upcoming SdKfz 234 series. It's nice that Roden includes the main parts of the interior stock with the kit; however, there is a lot of room inside this model for modelers to add their personal touches as well. Another kit highly recommended from Roden!

My thanks to Roden and Squadron for the review kit.