DML's 1/35 Flammenpanzer 38t Hetzer

By Tom Kondziolka

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History

The Germans with their fascination with flame throwing tanks created this last version especially for the Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine), or as most Americans know it Battle of the Bulge. About 14 of these tanks were modified for the upcoming offensive. It was believed that these special units would help to neutralize infantry positions in the opening phases of the campaign.

This was the basic Hetzer with the 75mm gun removed and a metal plate welded over the opening. This plate had a small hole in it for the actual flame thrower projector. Since these types of vehicles are easily spotted and destroyed, a fake barrel and mantle was fitted over the flame projector to give the appearance of a normal Hetzer. Inside the vehicle contained tanks with the flame fuel and compressed nitrogen, manned by a crew of 3.

The Kit

DML released this kit awhile ago calling it the mid-production Hetzer with flamethrower barrel. It contains an extra sprue with the flame thrower components to build this variant. The other new sprue contains the components to build the mid production version, mantle, hatches new upper hull, etc. Since some of the components were the same as the early Hetzer kit, they are of the same high DML quality.

Construction

The kit build up is very straight forward, if you built the early version you will have no problems with this kit. Although the tracks are very small and very tedious to clean up, the individual track links really make the kit.

The only modifications I made to this kit are with the periscope for the flame projector and the opening for the old 75mm gun sight. The visor for the flamethrowers periscope did not look correct - especially since it is missing the periscope. I had previously made a mold of the periscopes from a Tamiya Panther Ausf G, so using my trusty Alumilite I cast a new one for this kit. The other change I made was to cover over the old gunner's periscope opening since it was obviously not used and would only let the elements into the vehicle. Making a round cover I placed a Grandt Line bolt through the center and glued it to the opening. On a previous kit I used Airwaves side shields but had such a difficult time with them, I just sanded down the edges of the kit shields.

Painting

Once construction was completed, I primed the entire vehicle with a dark brown color. After 24 hrs of drying time I sprayed a light coat of dark yellow over the entire vehicle then sprayed heavier concentrations on the open areas of the vehicle. Next came the dark brown color, then the dark green. Once I was satisfied with the overall paint job, I let the vehicle dry for 48 hours.

The weathering started with a 50/50 wash of Windsor Newton blue/black oil paint and turpentine. This was done to accent the recessed lines and bolts on the vehicle. Once the wash was dry, I started dry brushing with the dark yellow color. Slowly adding white to the colour until the highlights came out to my satisfaction. I then followed the same procedure with both the dark brown and dark green, then set the vehicle aside to dry.

The tracks were the next item to be painted; I started with a light rust color, which was then washed with a darker rust color. The surface contact parts of the track were then dry brushed with silver for that worn look. All tools and the remote control machine gun were then painted.

The only know markings on these vehicles were the letter 'S' with a number following. I used VLS dry transfers in one of their sheets they have an 'S14' that I could use.

I mounted the vehicle on a base from Specialty Wood Products, which just suited my needs for this size of vehicle. I used Celluclay for the ground cover, some static grass and rocks. Then the ground cover was painted and weathered then added a nameplate and it was done.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed building this kit; it was actually one of the quickest projects I ever built. This is one of those, "Let's build it straight out of the box kits" - (well almost straight from the box).