After almost a year without modelling (after the disaster with my 1:35 Whippet) I decided to start again, this time with a braille scale kit. Yesterday I received Modelkraks Fiat Armstrong Whithworth and thought you might be interested in a little review of this kit since no one is available on the net so far.
Although quite a lot of armored cars of this type were built on the chassis of the Fiat 15TER truck, information about them and their performance is pretty scarce.Consequently I haven't been able to find too much pictures of it either. The following photographs were mostly collected from this forum if anybody has some more of this armored car I'd be really happy to see them.
Russia: Finland (all seem to show armored cars in service with White Forces) notice the modified rear axis with single wheels Germany In service with revolutionary soldiers during the revolution in november Inside the Stadtschloss in Berlin (notice the interesting apparently mottled camo) Strolch of Kokampf (this is the one I'm going to do) Strolch later in its life with a Lanchester (Rollsy Royce?) turret fitted in service with Marinebrigade Löwenfeld
The Kit
The kit comes in Modelkrak's typical sturdy card-box, there are no decals provided. The instructions are done in Polish, which isn't much of a problem as the kit contains quite few parts. A nice touch is the spare wheel and MG provided as well as the relatively small pouring stub on the hull. There's hardly any flash and the casting quality is good although there are some flaws especially on the main hull and the suspension.
Overall detail is nice even if a little simplified on the front part. The kit depicts a version with heightened turrets but converting it into the version with flat turret roof should be pretty simple with some effort and plastic-sheet. Unfortunately there are also some severe errors I have to mention. First the two (three?) piece armored cover for the driver isn't depicted at all, which is quite stunning considering the fact, that it is clearly visible on all pictures. The best solution here is again to use some plastic sheet.
The next flaw is, unfortunately, way more difficult to correct. Modelkrak provides two wheels per side for the rear axis while in reality it was a single wheel with two tires fitted (similar to the White Laffly). Of course with Russian armored cars, nearly everything is possible and I can't exclude the possibility that this configuration may have existed. But in fact their Fiat Izorski seems to share the same problem, which makes a mistake by Modelkrak highly likely. This is really unfortunate as it spoils an otherwise great little kit while fixing it will be tricky. On a smaller scale you'll have to add two missing pistol ports (see the pic of the Finnish one with the swastika for the exact placement) and of course you'll have to adjust small details like lamps and the front armor plating to the specific version you are building as hardly two Fiat Armstrong Whitworths were looking the same.
Conclusion:
While my review may have sounded quite negative I'm still more than happy that a manfacturer decided to do this rather esoteric but highly interesting little vehicle. Doing a really correct Fiat will be a challenge though...
Peter feel free to do so! Eric doesn't matter it still looks awesome, rather a slightly incorrect Fiat Armstrong Whithworth than the 20000. totally correct Panther
Started work on the kit annd discovered another flaw, the front wheels have to be moved to the front, it seems I really opened a can of worms with this kit If you're interested in some sort of in progress report just let me know.
Well in fact I'm asking myself whether I should really go ahead and build it. Ivan sent me a great amount of pictures (thanks very much again) and it's clear now, that the Modelkrak kit has way more (and pretty grave) errors than i thought in the first place. The turrets are massively undersized, as ist the bulge on the right side. The hatch on the right side seems to be pure imagination. To make things even worse the roof is warped pretty badly which becomes notable when you try to scratch the visor slots. Really depressing, especially since I found such a nice solution for correcting the wheels...
