M35 Mittlere Panzerwagen

[digger303]

Or to everyone else the ADGZ-Daimler

Now this is definitely a weird machine it looks like turning would be a no no. It was no light weight either tipping the scales at 12t.

In 1934, the Austrian Army (Bundesheer) needed a new heavy armored car for police duties, under the designation "M35 Mittlere Panzerwagen". Steyr had already developed a vehicle tailored for urban operations, with sloped armor and symmetric body helping the vehicle to maneuver quickly and retreat without having to turn around. The prototype was successfully tested and accepted into service in 1935. Production spanned until 1937 with 27 vehicles being given to the army and the police. All were captured by the Germans and pressed into service after the Anschluss. In "ADGZ", AD stands for "Austro-Daimler", the official designation was "M35 Mittlere Panzerwagen".

The ADGZ was a massive, twelve-wheeled armored car, the two external axles with their independent leaf spring suspension, and the central twin axle, with double wheels (eight in all), mated on a common suspension. It was intended for maneuvering off-road, but also for urban usage. The sloped armored body, uniformly 6 mm (0.23 in) thick (except the top and bottom) was welded and almost entirely symmetrical, with the engine at the rear, and two drivers whom could operate the vehicle from each side, switching almost immediately thanks to the dual transmission.

In 1939, a detachment took part in the operations in Danzig, Poland, at the opening of the war. Three SS Heimwehr Danzig armored cars were engaged and one lost in action while taking the post office. In 1941, 25 additional vehicles were ordered by the SS and used in various units in the Balkans, for police operation and fighting partisans (like the "Prinz Eugen" division).

So not really a lot of them about, but they do grab my attention.






I will use these instead of the supplied decals


Cheers

[KalebB]

That's a very cool armored fighting vehicle, the double road wheels in the center gives it a very interesting look. Appreciate the short history of it as I've never even heard of this ww2 machine, always love learning about new ones to me.

Excited to see it built!

[Stokesy44]

Tasty looking kit. Always nice to see something a bit rare being built

[Garion77]

Indeed never saw one of those ! seems to be a massive armored vehicle.

[psmithmags]

Looking forward to seeing this Digger. I know I can rely on you for 1. Vehicles I have never seen before (or even knew existed) 2. A comprehensive history of the said vehicle 3. A damn good build and posts regarding the build.

[digger303]

That's a very cool armored fighting vehicle, the double road wheels in the center gives it a very interesting look. Appreciate the short history of it as I've never even heard of this ww2 machine, always love learning about new ones to me.

Excited to see it built!

Tasty looking kit. Always nice to see something a bit rare being built

Indeed never saw one of those ! seems to be a massive armored vehicle.

Looking forward to seeing this Digger. I know I can rely on you for 1. Vehicles I have never seen before (or even knew existed) 2. A comprehensive history of the said vehicle 3. A damn good build and posts regarding the build.

Thanks guys, I do like the odd ball stuff.
It seems despite it's clumsy appearance it is very adroit in getting around the small cramped streets in Europe.

The kit has some of the thinnest molded panels I have ever come across, but then it also has some of the largest attachment points for a relatively modern tooled kit.


I haven't gotten a lot done tonight , but this is the last 2 days worth.



I stuffed up the attaching the differentials and put them around the wrong way. So I had to create new part attachment points as there was no way of getting them apart due to sprue goo being well and truly set. Still it looks ok and I just have 4 holes to fill and some goo to shape.

[KalebB]

Looking good so far! It'll be a good looking machine

[Mpfiend]

Nice start.

[digger303]

Looking good so far! It'll be a good looking machine

I hope so.

Nice start.

Thanks.

Added a few bids and bobs and some Pe that was supplied with the kit. It is also pretty obvious with those big ventilation louvres
that the interior is pretty empty.


Opps the replacement barrel end slipped out of place. Yep I broke the kit one.

I'm going to try to box the empty space in and paint it black.


I've sent for some replacement wheels too. The kit ones are a bit ordinary. There is no writing on the walls ( probably minor ) and seam line inside the treads running around the centre line. Also the poly caps are a loose fit as are the tyres on the rims.
Hopefully they should arrive Wednesday.
Cheers guys.

[KalebB]

As I was reading about the louvers making it easy to see that the interior was empty, I was wondering if you were gonna fill in the empty space.

I had my answer once I got to the end

Good stuff Digger

[digger303]

As I was reading about the louvers making it easy to see that the interior was empty, I was wondering if you were gonna fill in the empty space.

I had my answer once I got to the end

Good stuff Digger

Thanks, The paint wasn't real dry and some of the black came off. I'll fix it.

Added a few more details.




The turret doesn't have a proper locating ring so it's tricky to centre it and cement it in place. So I added some.

and now it's a nice neat fit.

cheers

[KalebB]

Bit odd they didn't have tabs on the turret, nice going making your own

[digger303]

Bit odd they didn't have tabs on the turret, nice going making your own

Thanks.

I forgot to mention the hull to deck mating I thought was perfect until I added the cement. Then it appeared to be just a slight difference causing both ends not to fit correctly. As I glued the centre first and then the ends. If I was doing it again I would remove the locating pins on both ends or perhaps slightly trim some of the end body panels 0.1 mm. I did dry fit first and all appeared well of course I may have turned the deck 180 degrees and caused this myself, but there is no indication of what the orientation should be.

[Tomcat64]

Now that's a really unusual subject - and some really unusual approaches to kit design from HobbyBoss to go with it!

Nice to see it taking shape & good idea to box in that empty bay under the louvres too

[digger303]

Now that's a really unusual subject - and some really unusual approaches to kit design from HobbyBoss to go with it!

Nice to see it taking shape & good idea to box in that empty bay under the louvres too

Thanks TC.
Message today from Australia post to come and get my package from BNA. My wheels are here I just have to go pick them up, unfortunately I won't be able to do that until Wednesday afternoon.

[Mpfiend]

Really nice progress on an interestingly shaped vehicle.

[digger303]

Really nice progress on an interestingly shaped vehicle.

Thanks. Your right it is a interestingly shaped machine, but I believe it is the wheels that will really highlight this. Its a shame they aren't positionable.

[digger303]

I got my wheels from Panzer Art as said before, cleaned them up and tried fitting them and that's where the trouble started.
They don't provide the brake housings so the original kit part has to be employed. Unforunately they don't make it easy to get it centred
so I added a few bits to pad it out and hopefully it is now close to centre.


Also they have these centre spacers between the tyres which is authentic, but they aren't straight and my venture with hot water wasn't successfully as they cooled they returned to the way they were. They are also slightly irregular lengths and trying to get them to fit positively and evenly is damn near impossible.


Which is caused by the inner rim being all distorted which throws those spacers out of line.

[KalebB]

The detail on those wheels look quite nice!

It's a shame that you've had such trouble with them Digger

[digger303]

The detail on those wheels look quite nice!

It's a shame that you've had such trouble with them Digger

I thought Panzer art would be better than that, but I am reminded of a comment I read somewhere that their opinion of them wasn't high. I can now totally understand why.


Ps.... After I wrote this I thought damn it I'll contact BNA cause it isn't really good enough.

[digger303]

I decided after having a closer look there was no way I was going to be able to correct this problem.
Not only is the inner rim distorted in this upward manner it also made the round centre not round.


I did decide to persevere with them and opted to make a brass ring to insert between the rims. As they won't be seen and use that as the way to secure them together as duals.



As you can see the centre is a mess and the brass ring I made to help overcome this problem.


The other little cylinder is meant to go into the centre and I presume it is also meant to have the axle inserted into it. Unfortunately I encountered another problem. It would have fitted perfectly if it was for the previous problems except it was way to long and needs to be shortened and the axle hole has to be drilled too perfectly central. Hopefully I might get that sorted today.
So much trouble over what is supposed to be a drop in replacement.

[krusty69]

improvise, adapt and overcome. you go ahead and beat that into submission way to hang tough.

[KalebB]

Good lord that is most definitely not round, they must have some serious QC issues over there.

Unfortunate that the replacement has turned into such a head ache but you are solving it quite handily sir

[digger303]

improvise, adapt and overcome. you go ahead and beat that into submission way to hang tough.

Good lord that is most definitely not round, they must have some serious QC issues over there.

Unfortunate that the replacement has turned into such a head ache but you are solving it quite handily sir

Thanks for the encouragement fella's
I did a quick comparison and I think I'll keep the bogie Panzer art specials despite the out of round feature.



I think they will still look better than the originals.....mostly
I did mess up a bit myself there filing a small flat spot onto the tyre where the casting block was. Unfortunately I didn't check properly
and the 2 tyres don't quiet match. Being slightly offset from each other cause PanzerArt like me didn't think and they cast all the other tyres
exactly the same and you have to rotate one a little to get them sitting right.
Oh and that wheel will get turned a little to hide as best I can to hide the problem I made worse.
No answer from BNA as yet, not even a acknowledgment of my message....hmmm


Edit...Got a answer from BNA and they are contacting the manufacturer.

[KalebB]

They may be out of round, but darn they look good

[digger303]

They may be out of round, but darn they look good

Yeah depends on the viewing angle as to how bad they look. BNA are asking for Panzer Art for a replacement and if they won't then BNA has pledged to
offer a refund.
I'm using them for now as they are just on poly caps and I can swap them out later.

Right now I thought I'd try some pre shading for those deep recesses. So I sprayed them with Mr Hobby h-32 Field gray

The a lighter grey H-31
When I did this I got the shakes again and it's not that tight


It's not quite there yet and I need to respray.

[KalebB]

Well that's nice of BNA to offer a full refund in case they don't replace them for you.

I really need to try preshading myself. I've yet to try that technique and it helps quite a bit with shadowing.

[BigWall]

Yeah depends on the viewing angle as to how bad they look. BNA are asking for Panzer Art for a replacement and if they won't then BNA has pledged to
offer a refund.
I'm using them for now as they are just on poly caps and I can swap them out later.

Right now I thought I'd try some pre shading for those deep recesses. So I sprayed them with Mr Hobby h-32 Field gray
The a lighter grey H-31
When I did this I got the shakes again and it's not that tight

It's not quite there yet and I need to respray.

I'm glad BNA is working to make it right. Hopefully Panzer Art can come up with a good set for you.

Damn shakes! I had to have my son finish tightening up a few screws last night because my hands just wouldn't cooperate.

Nice start to the painting!

[digger303]

Decals on. Bit disappointed with these as they are the STAR brand which I thought was fairly good.
However this batch seems to be so thick they look like stickers. I really poured the strong decal solution on them and didn't
make a dent in them.


I'm afraid I left the solution on so long it caused the varnish to stain.....Another problem
On the bright side the new wheels do make a lot of difference.

cheers

[Mpfiend]

Decals on. Bit disappointed with these as they are the STAR brand which I thought was fairly good.
However this batch seems to be so thick they look like stickers. I really poured the strong decal solution on them and didn't
make a dent in them.
I'm afraid I left the solution on so long it caused the varnish to stain.....Another problem
On the bright side the new wheels do make a lot of difference.
cheers

The decals and wheels look good.
If the edges of the decals are bothering you, you can build up some layers of clear coat over them and the surrounding areas then once cured you can carefully wet sand it back until the area is completely flat, this will also fix the staining caused but he decal setting chemicals.

[digger303]

Decals on. Bit disappointed with these as they are the STAR brand which I thought was fairly good.
However this batch seems to be so thick they look like stickers. I really poured the strong decal solution on them and didn't
make a dent in them.
I'm afraid I left the solution on so long it caused the varnish to stain.....Another problem
On the bright side the new wheels do make a lot of difference.
cheers

The decals and wheels look good.
If the edges of the decals are bothering you, you can build up some layers of clear coat over them and the surrounding areas then once cured you can carefully wet sand it back until the area is completely flat, this will also fix the staining caused but he decal setting chemicals.

Thank you friend.
I did start to sand the staining, but I didn't do it wet and I didn't add any extra varnish........I'll have to go over it lightly again using your method.
Cheers

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Your build is very interesting to follow, i have this kit on my stach and the design is really surprising (but not as much as the Turtle Czechoslovakian armored car!). And i hope you can fix the decals problem very soon .

[digger303]

It's all done now.
Dusted up and faded a little with some paint variation.






The turret is deliberately pointing to the rear.
Its got the crappy substandard wheels on and I reckon I should have closed the engine vents up more and I may have put the doors handles on the bottom half of the doors where there shouldn't have been any. It may have just been a finger hole with a internal latch. The pic's weren't real clear so I whacked them on.