Aufklärungs 140/1Reconnaissance Vehicle

Manufacturers: Attack withPart Photo Etch Upgrade Set

by Dave Showell

Attack Models of Czechoslovakia burst on tothe scene a few years back with a new line of 1/72nd scale modelsof subjects that were not really available previously. TheAufklärungs 140/1 is a good example of this kind of esotericsubject. While these kits build up satisfactorily out of the box(with some careful work) they are hampered by the short runinjection moulding techniques which Attack has available. Theseare definitely NOT Revell kits (note: Revell of Germany currentlysets the standard for moulding quality in small scale armour). ToAttack’s credit, they do include photo etch anti-grenadescreens for the 140/1 and the tracks -improved I think from theoriginal Panzer 38 (t) kit - are length and link.

The Attack Aufklärungs 140/1 suffers fromsome pretty heavy handed and often soft detail. Large componentsare often thick and the fit can be poor for major assemblies suchas the hull. Fortunately, Part of Poland has come out with aphoto etched brass upgrade set which essentially replaceseverything above the tracks. Between the two kits you can buildup a pretty impressive recon vehicle.

Construction begins with putting togetherthe hull. This required the removal of a fair amount of flash -an operation which required considerable care not to lose thebevelled edges which are necessary to line the sides upcorrectly. The heavy flash also led, at least in my case, to theparts which should have been completely straight and square to beslightly askew. This in turn caused the lining up of the hull tobe more difficult than I had anticipated. The eight bogey wheels,although also a bit flashy, were actually quite nicely detailed.Much care had to be taken in lining them up when attaching themto the hull since the alignment holes were a bit large for thepegs. The drive wheels and idlers are very softly moulded on theoriginal kit. The Part set provided replacement outside wheels,but doesn't really explain how these should be mounted. I endedup using the Attack plastic pieces but filing them down toreceive the etched brass covers. This was not an ideal solution,especially since the teeth of the drive wheel did not match theholes in the tracks. I had to bend the teeth down to fit thetracks around the drive wheel. The tracks are just okay - betterthan one piece rubber jobs but not really up to other length andlink standards. The return rollers (two on each side) are abysmal- I wish I had replaced them.

With the exception of the back deck and twoside sponsons this was pretty much the end of the Attack kit asfar as this assembly was concerned. I painted the running gearand began the photo etch.

Now I began to run into the problems causedby the non-straight hull. The p/e is, of course, completelystraight. It does not match up very well with the approximateangles of the hull. The result was fairly visible seams in manyof the places where brass met plastic. As far as I know, youcan't file etched brass very well and sanding the plastic wouldremove whatever detail exists. I puttied where I could get awaywith it and left the rest as is.

Part photo etch is really good - welldesigned with generally good instructions. The component piecesfolded and went together very well. Items like the aimingreticule for the 20 mm gun, the pierced box thing on the frontfender, the anti-grenade screens (which are finer than theAttack-supplied p/e ones) and the two seats that hang down underthe turret are fantastic. Some of the stuff provided, like tools,are less useful since they are an attempt to portray 3D rounditems with flat brass - I used tools from other kits instead. Iespecially like the jack which comes with the Part set - youbuild it up out of several flat pieces.

The final part of the original Attack kitwhich I used was the 20 mm gun. It's not perfect but I couldn'tfind a really suitable replacement. The co-axial MG-42 machinegun was taken from an old Fujimi infantry set - normally Iconsider these mg's a bit thin but it was the only gun I couldfind that would fit the slot in the etched brass turret.

I had a problem with the placement of thebox which holds the antenna - neither the Part nor the Attackinstructions were really clear where it was supposed to go. Iattached it to the turret, which of course was wrong. It wouldhave interfered with the opening of the screens. I had to removeit, after painting and move it down to the hull. The exhaustsystem needed some thought as well. The attack kit offers twodifferent muffler versions but neither is really useable. I foundan old ESCI muffler from their Marder III which seemed better.From the 1/35th scale kits that I could find, I noticed thatthere seemed to be a pipe running from the muffler to the top ofthe engine deck - this was completely missing on the Attack kit.I replicated a pipe from a paper clip (easy to bend) to representthis.

Given that there were not many 140/1s built(approximately 100) and they appeared at the end of the war (fromApril 1944 onwards), there is not a lot of information availableon colour schemes or markings. The Attack kit offered twosuggestions - a white wash over yellow version attributed toPoland in late 1944 and a three colour scheme (possibly inpre-war Czech paints - they sure don't look like standardcolours). Markings provided are limited to three choices ofbalkenkreuz. I chose to paint my vehicle a generic panzer yellow(Humbrol 83 Ochre) with only two crosses for markings (Archertransfers). I used a wash of medium brown around protrusions andnon-wear areas to darken the overall effect somewhat, the drybrushed the kit overall with a lightened ochre to make the detailstand out better. The exhaust was done in a mixture of browns andreds.

I added an antenna from stretched sprue. Onreflection it may have been more appropriate to have a"crow's foot" antenna (the 1/35th scale kits seem tohave these). Some pieces of personal gear, a folded cammo net andjerry can were also added.

The final step was the base, flocked withmodel railroading turf and a few scattered rocks of kitty litter.

AMPS Outcome

I took the completed model down to the AMPSNationals in Maryland in April. For a bit more of an explanationof the AMPS judging process please see my build article on the MRModels Sherman Composite . While Iwas worried about the gaps between the plastic and the photo-etchI figured it would do okay. Here are the results of the judgingtaken from the scoring sheet:

Total = 24 out of 30

(with 4 judges the lowest score is dropped,if 5 judges are available, highest and lowest are dropped)

According to the tally sheets, which eachjudge fills out on each model, I lost points on:

• the basic hull and body work (-0.5 for the seams),
• hull, chassis and turret detailing (-0.5 for the seams again)
• finish and markings application (-0.5 for the dry brushing)
• weathering (-0.5 heavy handed)

The judging marks were remarkablyhomogenous - I got hit for the same errors by each judge losing 2points from each of the three counted scores for total of 6negative marks.

A score of 24 did put me firmly into thesilver medal category. I was extremely pleased since for thefirst time this year I was competing in the "advanced"class rather than the "intermediate" which I had beenin last year. Once again the AMPS judging process provides a goodindication of where you need to improve your building skills toproduce better looking models.