Hard to believe the same
country that raced through Europe with its panzers in
1939 was responsible for this ungainly behemoth in 1918.
With a crew of 18(!) and a breakneck top speed
of 6 1/2 miles an hour, the A7V has to remain firmly in
history's "What the hell were you thinking?!?"
file.
Emhar announced this kit well over a year and a half ago
and it finally arrived from Hannants this morning (30/08/02)
courtesy of my somewhat humourless postman, who I'm sure
is as tired of bringing me packages as I am of him waking
me up at the ungodly hour of 9:00am. I don't do mornings....
Clicken for der grossen picturen.
So, was it worth the wait?
I would have to say yes, it certainly was. This is a simple
kit of a pretty simple subject - a giant brick on tracks.
Two sprues of dark gray plastic hold 30 nicely moulded
parts with subtle raised rivet detail and recessed panel
and door lines. I was a bit disconcerted at first to see
the tracks, wheels and suspension moulded as one complete
unit per side, however on closer inspection these are
actually very well done and as most of it will disappear
under the hull anyway I think this will work quite nicely.
The hull bottom has been simplified somewhat as this should
be open framework but unless you're going to display the
thing toppled on its side (not an uncommon fate for the
A7V, unsurprisingly) in a diorama I wouldn't worry too
much about it. For the ambitious types that may want to
attempt it there is an excellent picture of Leutnant Stein's
"Elfriede" in just such a position in "Tanks
and Trenches" (see references below) that clearly
shows what's under these things.
Some small details such as handles are missing from the
kit but these will be easy to add from fine wire or plastic
rod. Guns are nicely done and are designed to swivel and
elevate. Crew entry doors and viewports are moulded closed
and there is no interior detail included so you are on
your own if you want to add this and open the doors.
Decals
don't look too bad although the white looks like it will
be a bit translucent. The crosses are a bit odd in that
the rear and side ones have one arm bigger than the other
three! Curiously this error has been repeated on the artwork
on the back of the box. I don't think these will be a
problem to replace from my oodles of WWl aircraft decals.
You get four decal options. Well, five actually. Two different
versions of 506 "Mephisto" - the happy skull
and cross bones on the box art and a later version with
a running devil that appears to be carrying a surfboard(?!)**
under it's arm. The other choices are 505 "Baden",
507 "Cyklop" and 502. Most of these are printed
in white and don't show up in the scan.
"Mephisto"
is the only A7V surviving today out of the 20 built and
is on display at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Australia.
Pictures of it may be seen here.
According to this site "Mephisto" was manufactured
with machine gun only armament and the cannon was added
later - the mantlet is apparently different from those
that were originally equipped with the cannon. Emhar's
kit has the same mantlet as "Mephisto" so I'm
asssuming they used this tank as their primary source
of reference.
This is a nicely done kit that should be a fun weekend
project and I'm glad to finally see it in my favourite
scale. Rumour has it that Emhar are also scaling down
their 1/35th Whippet tank and in fact, according to the
back of the A7V box, it's already been done! Yes, I'll
be having one of those too Hannants, thank you very much.
I'm sure my postman will be ecstatic.
References: Tanks
and Trenches
Edited by David Fletcher
Grange Books 1996
**
Just had another look at
the pictures on wwi-models.org. The "surfboard"
is actually, I think, a British tank! Also note the devil
should have a black nose and beard which is not depicted
in the kit decals.
Decals
don't look too bad although the white looks like it will
be a bit translucent. The crosses are a bit odd in that
the rear and side ones have one arm bigger than the other
three! Curiously this error has been repeated on the artwork
on the back of the box. I don't think these will be a
problem to replace from my oodles of WWl aircraft decals.
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