AMC Model's 1/72 Sturmtiger By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

What do you get when you take a heavy tank and slap a huge mortar on it? A Sturmtiger, that's what. Based off of the powerful Tiger I tank, the Sturmtiger replaced the standard turret with a fixed turret sporting a 380mm projectile launcher. The projectiles were originally designed by the German Navy as an anti-submarine weapon and were used by the Sturmtigers as barricade demolishers. Only a handful of these strange vehicles were produced and they saw action mainly on the Eastern Front. Considering how few of these were built, it is surprising that at least two survive in museums to this day.

The Kit

This is the second kit in AMC's lineup and it's based on the same parts as their first kit, the Bergepanzer. Instead of the standard upper hull, though, this kit supplies the large fixed turret of the Sturmtiger. All the parts are molded light green and like their previous release this kit sports vinyl tracks and an etched brass fret.

Construction of this kit is quite simple, mainly because of the large fixed turret on the upper hull. This is molded as one piece to ease assembly. Unfortunately this results in a small problem, at least in the review kit, in that the top of the turret is slightly bowed in. This shouldn't be too hard to fix, though, with a bit of hot water and some bracing inside.

Like the Bergepanzer kit, this kit has a small etched brass fret supplying the rear engine vents and other small details. Zimmerit is molded onto the sides of the hull, but not on the turret. I will need to do some more research, but I'm thinking that this isn't very accurate, as I'm sure they would have applied zimmerit up the sides of the turret as well.

One area that could probably have used some extra detailing is the "barrel". While the shape is there, this is a very large bore weapon which results in much of the interior being visible. It would have been nice if AMC had molded in the rifling on the inside, especially since it will be difficult to add. The front of the barrel is also lacking in detail, and this has some very noticable holes that are even depicted on the boxart. This would have been a simple thing to add to the brass fret and would have added greatly to the final look.

Like the Bergepanzer there are no decals and there are no painting diagrams. The only color information is in the brief history, stating that the prototype was overall Dunkelgelb and the others were painted in the standard Dunkelgelb, Olivgrun and Rotbraun.

Conclusion

With a bit of extra detailing this kit will really look sharp in any 1/72 armor collection. For those brave souls who don't mind kitbashing, you could easily take the best parts of the Revell-Germany Tiger I kit and this one and come out with a very nice-looking tank.