Tomcat's Das Werk 1/35 Raupenschlepper Ost

[Tomcat64]

Following on from the 1/16 StuG I decided my next build needed to be something a bit smaller so I've settled for this Das Werk rebox of a Dragon kit

Intro

Here's some info courtesy of Wiki & Tanks encyclopedia
Raupenschlepper Ost (German: "Caterpillar Tractor East", more commonly abbreviated to RSO) was a fully tracked, lightweight vehicle used by the Wehrmacht in World War II. It was conceived in response to the poor performance of wheeled and half-tracked vehicles in the mud and snow during the Wehrmacht's first autumn and winter on the Soviet Front.

The RSO was a contemporary with somewhat similar Allied full-tracked small artillery tractors in use in other armies (such as the Soviet STZ-5 "Stalingradets", and the U.S. Army's M4 Tractor), mostly originated from the pre-war light to medium series of Vickers artillery tractors.
Two variants of this vehicle were built: the basic cargo carrier, and a self-propelled antitank vehicle armed with a PaK 40 gun. Both shared the same chassis.

History
After the Wehrmacht's first fall and winter (1941–1942) on the Eastern Front, they found that the extremely primitive roadways in the USSR and seasonal mud required a fully tracked supply vehicle to maintain mobility. Steyr responded by proposing a small, fully tracked vehicle based upon its 1.5-tonne (3,300 lb) truck, the Steyr 1500A light truck, already in use in the army. The vehicle was introduced in 1942 as the Raupenschlepper Ost (RSO).

Initially designed as a prime mover and artillery supply vehicle, it eventually served in a wide variety of roles. Immediately after the vehicle reached the Eastern front, the combat units started using it for general transport duties. It gave outstanding service due to its reliability, its ease of maintenance, and its capability to take over a variety of roles - in every kind of terrain - that other vehicles lacked. The four road wheels per side, all in a single line as part of a "slack-track" system with no return rollers, comprised a much simpler suspension system, much more able to handle the rasputitsa mud season and Russian winter conditions, without mud or snow freezing between the wheels of the complex overlapping/interleaved Schachtellaufwerk suspension systems that German half-track vehicles like the Sd.Kfz. 7 possessed. Soon the orders for the RSO surpassed Steyr's production ability, and more manufacturers joined the vehicle's production in order to meet the ever increased demands.

Description
The original version had a pressed-steel cab with a truck-like configuration similar to the wheeled trucks. The next two versions – RSO/02 and 03 – had a simpler, soft-top, slab-sided metal cab. All models had wooden, drop-side cargo beds typical of light trucks of the era. It had a ground clearance of 55 cm (22 in) and was originally powered by a Steyr V8 petrol engine of 3.5 L giving 85 PS (63 kW), which in the RSO/03 Magirus-produced vehicles was replaced by a 66 PS (49 kW) Deutz air-cooled diesel engine.

The later model used a Cletrac-type final drive (instead of the automotive-type differential unit used previously) along with many other improvements. The engine was mounted on the floor of the driving cab with the drive taken through a single plate clutch to the transmission. The transmission had four forward gears and one reverse. The suspension consisted of four large pressed-steel disk wheels on each side, mounted in pairs with elliptic springs. Steering involved upright steering levers to four hydraulic brakes on the sprockets and idlers. A spring-loaded pintle was fitted at the rear, and towing hooks were fitted in the front. It had a speed of about 30 kilometres per hour (19 mph).

Kit

Onto the kit itself; as I mentioned earlier this is a rebox of a Dragon kit from about 2012 and I've seen comments about it not being entirely accurate in places, but frankly that's not going to be an issue for me as long as it looks more or less right...

On opening the box there is a lot of empty space


Here are the sprue frames once they've been debagged




The bag in the top right hand corner does worry me a little...


Instructions are included


And certainly have a certain "Dragonness" about them...


And I'm hoping one of these lads might fit in the cab

All being well I'll be able to make a start on cutting & glueing this weekend

[aur0ra145]

Looks like some off-roading good fun!

[digger303]

Bravo a interesting kit not built too often and I've got the RSO-3 while the cab is different I'm still very interested in how this builds up.

[Tomcat64]

Looks like some off-roading good fun!

Yup I suspect that mud may well play a part later in this thread

Bravo a interesting kit not built too often and I've got the RSO-3 while the cab is different I'm still very interested in how this builds up.

Bravo a interesting kit not built too often and I've got the RSO-3 while the cab is different I'm still very interested in how this builds up.

The 03 is the one with the armoured cab?

I saw that Dragon also do a version with a PAK mounted on the rear deck so might try & pick one of those up if this goes together ok.

[Tomcat64]

This is now under way in a small way

First off a note on the sprue frames... there are two Es and two Js and they're different; one set is labelled in black and one in blue so going to need to pay attention. There are also three Ms, an M an MA and an MB


Also at the bottom of the first page are the instructions to build these bits - needed to carefully redrill a couple of the locating holes to get the shaft to fit.


And the prop shaft - this was quite fiddly so needed a bit of patience, drilling & swearing to knock into shape


Onto the next page and we make a start on the engine proper; not too much to report here aside from lots of small, fiddly bits and a suitable vagueness about where E5 actually goes


It goes here - there are actually a couple of locating "dimples" on the engine block


Hmm... from this angle I might need to refit that a bit.


And that'll do for starters, I'm going to leave a couple of bits separate for now until I've painted them up - I don't think much of this will be seen once the cab is installed but always like to paint an engine for completeness

Thanks as always for looking

[BigWall]

Very cool model! I want to add one to my stash at some point

[digger303]

Looks like some off-roading good fun!

Yup I suspect that mud may well play a part later in this thread

Bravo a interesting kit not built too often and I've got the RSO-3 while the cab is different I'm still very interested in how this builds up.

Bravo a interesting kit not built too often and I've got the RSO-3 while the cab is different I'm still very interested in how this builds up.

The 03 is the one with the armoured cab?

I saw that Dragon also do a version with a PAK mounted on the rear deck so might try & pick one of those up if this goes together ok.

No armour.
RSO/3 produced exclusively by KHD had a simplified slab sided metal cab with soft canvas cover and wooden rear cargo bay of the RSO/2 but was powered by the Deutz F4L514 5.3L 4-cylinder air cooled diesel engine.

https://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/ ... r6684.html

[Tomcat64]

Very cool model! I want to add one to my stash at some point

Yup it's definitely another fascinating adaptation to the conditions on the Eastern Front - will see how the kit turns out

The 03 is the one with the armoured cab?

I saw that Dragon also do a version with a PAK mounted on the rear deck so might try & pick one of those up if this goes together ok.

No armour.
RSO/3 produced exclusively by KHD had a simplified slab sided metal cab with soft canvas cover and wooden rear cargo bay of the RSO/2 but was powered by the Deutz F4L514 5.3L 4-cylinder air cooled diesel engine.

https://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/ ... r6684.html

Ahhh ok - my bad, I hadn't realised just how many variants they bodged together off the base vehicle

[Tomcat64]

Steady if slow progress on this one this weekend, but taking my time to enjoy the build process...

At the bottom of page 2...


Having completed the engine components last time, we start to put the running gear together with a set of sprockets; fit here is a bit on the loose side with plenty of play in the locating pins & sockets.


And a kind of sub-chassis with the road wheels


Normally I'd leave the wheels off for ease of painting the tyres but since these are all metal rims I decided to go ahead and fit them permanently.

The only other slight gotcha was the bracket thingies over the wheel hubs (MA3); I think the holes in these are designed to fit over a pair of the wheel nuts but after mucking about with the first two I decided it was too much like hard work and simply chopped the nuts off before fitting the brackets.

OK over the page...


I decided to do section 5 first for some reason and assembled the other set of sprockets... I nearly missed a couple of parts as they were lost amongst the OTT indicator lines for the paint colour...


One thing that did occur to me was that both sets of sprockets are fixed in place, so I'm hoping there's enough give in the slack tracks to accomodate them.

And then the main chassis tub


I had a real problem getting the rear bulkhead and beams (A21 & B8) in place and ended up kind of bodging them, but hopefully they'll be ok.

Finally I popped in the part-painted engine block & dry fitted the two sections together to see how it works...


That's all for now - it's been a little fiddly in places but overall an enjoyable build so far

Thanks as always for looking

[aur0ra145]

Nice work so far! That undercarriage has way more detail than I was expecting. Das Werks seems like an amazing kit manufacturer.

[digger303]

Lovely, your making the it look easy.

[Stokesy44]

Looks like a weaponised shopping Trolley!

Nice work so far, interesting subject too, do I suspect another white wash effect heading our way?

[Tomcat64]

Nice work so far! That undercarriage has way more detail than I was expecting. Das Werks seems like an amazing kit manufacturer.

This is actually a reboxed Dragon kit but yep the detail is good

Lovely, your making the it look easy.

Stay tuned - that's about to change

Looks like a weaponised shopping Trolley!

Nice work so far, interesting subject too, do I suspect another white wash effect heading our way?

There is a distinct possibility of white-washing

[Tomcat64]

Well this report covers last weekend's activities; work went to nuclear grade muppetry again this week so I've not had chance to post it... but settle in for muppetry of a different sort...

We start with this innocent looking page of instructions...


I had debated leaving the running gear off to aid painting but in this case all the wheels are steel rimmed so there's no faffing about masking for tyres so decided to put it all together. The first to be tackled were the drive sprockets at the back. Fit was suboptimal - basically in order to get stuff lined up I had to split a couple of joins; not to worry we'll stuff some filler in there later


I nearly missed A6(5) (which I'm guessing are mud cleaners or something as there's no obvious mounting points on the sprockets - although they could be related to the brakes I guess. And as you can see I've added the main pram wheels; fit is loose again and it took some fettling and the removal and reinstallation of one of the springs to get everything more or less attached. A25 has a pin which is supposed to fit through the end of the spring and attach to a mounting point on the hull... this is just too big so was removed & replaced with wire


Down the front be careful of the previously installed hooks as mine got well battered & bent with all the mucking about; oh and keep an eye on the arrowed slots as we'll be coming back to them later


Fit of the front idler sprocket assembly was suitably vague but I installed it here along with MB8 (photo etch)


Now there's a PE assembly to make up a sort of undertray... I'd started putting this together and then realised I'd folded it the wrong way (pay attention to where the single hatch should be) so pulled that apart & tried again. If you glance back at the instructions it seems to imply that the PE should fit outside the hull... but it's nowhere near wide enough...


And also with the idler assembly in place it just doesn't fit and stands proud of the front beam


So I tore it apart and left it like this on Saturday evening


Starting in again on Sunday I finally figured out that the PE strut thingies should fit into those two slots from earlier and then it would slot down into the assembly like this


But what about the idler assembly? It just didn't fit... So I headed to t'interweb... Now, this is the instruction section to build the assembly in question


It's a pack of fibs... Dragon forgot that they'd included updated parts and Das Werk didn't correct it either - frankly I was less than impressed by both companies and may have sworn a bit... anway A20 is replaced by E16, A9 by E20 & A10 by E21. Here are A20 (right) & E16 (left) after I'd pulled the assembly apart


And behold!! It fits!!


What I did do though was drill out the sprockets and add stub axles so they're rotatable which may help when it comes to lining the tracks up later


This is going better at last and things are sort of lining up


With that puzzle solved I switched back to the PE to finish off the hatch assembly... Dragon/DW would have you believe that MB6 will fit through the holes in MB7 & MB4... yeah right


0.2mm brass wire was broken out again and fumbled into place


Here it is installed


And finally, midway through Sunday afternoon I'd got to where I'd expected to be by the end of Saturday


With that excitement over I made a start on the cab


One note here is that the instructions omit the passenger seat even though it does exist


I'm going to leave the main controls out for now as I want to try and fit a driver in, so we'll see if that works and then attach them later


And finally I started on the cab exterior... there are some sink marks to sort out


Also, the instructions would have you believe that the Notek assembly (H3) would fit in from the front but that's obiously incorrect


Here it is perched in place


So it's finally starting to take shape, but it's been a fighter!

Thanks as always for looking

[Stokesy44]

Some nice work with the old shiny shiny stuff. Cant beat a little PE pimping here and there!

[Tomcat64]

Some nice work with the old shiny shiny stuff. Cant beat a little PE pimping here and there!

I think there's some teeny stuff to come later

[Tomcat64]

Ok... after the last session at the bench, the weekend before Christmas was a little more straightforward

I filled in the gaps in the transmission - it needs a little tidying up but will be mostly hidden on the finished item so not planning on too much finessing


Then back to finish the cab... the instructions will have you believe that the windows will fit onto the interior door panels and then into the doors... this is utter dog's dangly bits; the door panels fit into the doors and then the windows fit into the expected gap...


I'm not sure who I'm more disappointed with... Dragon for issuing crap instructions in the first place or Das Werk for simply reissuing them without an errata... anyway, here are the doors


Onto the cab front and I installed the radiator louvre - this needed a little pressure & persuasion to stay in place. Also of note here is that the part was bent (note the witness marks on the A-Pillars)


So it was gently eased into shape and held in the time-honoured manner with loads of tape


The sink marks were filled & sanded, and there are a couple of gaps at the front of the doors which will get a swipe of filler on the inside prior to paint


With the cab done, I started on the load bed... I decided to leave off the PE & other small bits until this was built & set as I think I'd have pinged things off manoeuvring things into place otherwise


And wonder of wonders it fitted onto the chassis


And a dry-fit of the cab also fitted... so it's definitely taking shape now


Next up I'll finish the load bed and want to try & fit a driver in if I can...

Thanks as always for looking

[Stokesy44]

Cool, but are you sure that's not Postman Pat's van?

[Tomcat64]

Cool, but are you sure that's not Postman Pat's van?

[Stokesy44]

Cool, but are you sure that's not Postman Pat's van?

I love it! That really made me chuckle!

[Phillip1]

Tomcat64-Really great progress on a build that seems to be making you work for it!

Phillp1

[Tomcat64]

Tomcat64-Really great progress on a build that seems to be making you work for it!

Phillp1

Thanks for stopping by, Phillip & apologies for the delay in responding

[Tomcat64]

Blimey - I knew it'd been a while since I posted an update but I didn't realise it was last year

Ok so I have been pottering around with this from time to time but haven't had chance to post anything so apologies in advance if this gets a bit disjointed as I try to remember what I was doing...

Let's start with the cab - this was already assembled last time so it got some paint


I did partly assemble a figure but fit was a little dubious without major surgery so I gave up on that idea


This was beaten up a little to give some wear & tear


The shell had the windows masked & fitted with PVA; the kit does include masks but I couldn't get them to conform so just used Tamiya tape trimmed in place. The front windows are an odd shape and only fit properly in one way (hence the arrows on the masking


Once the windows were installed the cab interior was fitted using PVA to try & protect the transparencies from fumes. Later on the wipers were fitted & the headlights were masked & fitted. The latter had a coat of silver to act as the reflectors.


Ok... onto the chassis... I decided to paint out the internal "bays" in oxide primer (just coz); so gave everything a coat of Ultimate grey followed by Vallejo dark yellow then masked off the necessary sections before using AK interactive primer


As you can see the prop shaft was then picked out in a dark grey and the engine was completed & dropped in to see how it looked


I'll be honest & say the tracks had been worrying me a little... but here's the instructions which reckon 70 links per run


So I started with the easy bit and ran together two lengths of 17 links which would run between the centre points of front & rear road wheels


This was followed by a run of 25 links to wrap up & around the rear sprockets. The front runs needed 26 links on the right side & 25 on the left. I used Revell Contacta for the tracks, linking & cementing everything together & leaving it for about 5 mins so it was partially set before folding it around the sprockets


So that's a total of 68 links on the right side & 67 on the left; but could I get them back off again for painting... apparently yes


With the tracks in the paintshop I installed the engine after dirtying up the oxide sections with some starship filth and a test fit of the cab showed that it was fouling so a little surgery was done


Next I painted up the two long exhaust pipes


and then realised they needed to run behind the indicated brackets


They wouldn't fit through those gaps so it was either chop & refit the brackets or strategically chop the pipes - I went for the latter and got them installed with a bit of fiddling & tidying. This was entirely my fault for bucking the build order, but I'm not sure how easy it would have been to paint them otherwise


As you can see from the last shot I also managed to reinstall & connect up the painted tracks


And stacked things up to see how they were going (this was obviously before the installation of wipers & lamps)


Ok back onto the load bed


The instructions would have you believe that MA7 would fit between the bracing strut things - nope not gonna happen. I chose to chop a bit out of each affected strut


These things were also a challenge to fold into the require U-form but we got them installed in the end


I left off MA4/5 for now as I don't think the armoured plates will fit underneath them; so with that done I finished off the frame which was a little fiddly to line up but otherwise not a problem and that was it done


All the subassemblies are now in the paintshop so hopefully we'll get it finished off fairly soon.

Thanks as always for looking

[Stokesy44]

Coming along nicely Squire

[aur0ra145]

Coming along nicely!

[digger303]

Very nice build.

[RangerNeil]

Looking good!!! Are you going to put the canvas on somehow or just leave the bare hoops and sticks??

[DRUMS01]

Enjoying this build string, for sure. Can't wait to see how the rest of the build goes.

[Tomcat64]

Coming along nicely Squire

Coming along nicely!

Very nice build.

Looking good!!!

Enjoying this build string, for sure. Can't wait to see how the rest of the build goes.

Thanks for checking in folks - much appreciated

...Are you going to put the canvas on somehow or just leave the bare hoops and sticks??

I'm going to leave the canvas off but intend to put a load into the bed - probably fuel cans & drums looking at what I've got in the stash

[Tomcat64]

When we left this the cab & load bed were bare plastic so I've given them a coat of Ultimate grey primer followed by Vallejo Dark Yellow. Once this was fully dried I also added the few decals required.

Here's the cab (as usual my point n shoot camera is struggling to capture the dark yellow properly)


A couple of notes here based on the colour instructions... 1. The decals are noticably bigger in reality than on the instructions (orange arrow) and 2. The red arrowed parts show up in the painting instructions but I can't find them anywhere else in the instructions although I have found them on the sprue frames so just deciding whether to install them or not...


Talking of missing parts I also noticed there was a small handle missing from the front of the cab...


This was obviously another defect in the Dragon/DW instructions right??! Err...no... this one was all my own work... the evidence m'lud


Finally for this update the load bed got the primer/paint/decal treatment


I've started in with the basic weathering and will post up some more pics once the oil washes have dried.

Finally here's a bonus video I found whilst browsing t'interweb


Thanks as always for looking

[digger303]

Nice, getting lose to putting all the sub assemblies together.

[Stokesy44]

Camera sees yellow, decides to show beige!

Nice decal session. Gotta love armor kits.

[digger303]

Just thought I'd pull the pin and chuck this in....

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003 ... bC0Oa&mp=1

[Stokesy44]

Just thought I'd pull the pin and chuck this in....

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003 ... bC0Oa&mp=1

Enabler

[digger303]

Just thought I'd pull the pin and chuck this in....

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003 ... bC0Oa&mp=1

Enabler

[Tomcat64]

Nice, getting lose to putting all the sub assemblies together.

Camera sees yellow, decides to show beige!

Nice decal session. Gotta love armor kits.

Thanks chaps

Just thought I'd pull the pin and chuck this in....

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003 ... bC0Oa&mp=1

Enabler

I think I'm safe this time around with the amount of assorted junk I've got to chuck in the load bed but thanks for trying

[Tomcat64]

Ok with the weapons-grade muppetry continuing at work and Mrs TC being under the weather I've had this update waiting for a week without getting chance to post it, so there maybe some photos in here that I don't know why I took them... let's see how it goes

I sorted out a grimy wooden deck with a mix of acrylics & oils


I think this is showing the finished tracks...


A rough coat of whitewash was slapped on


That was then manipulated to start weathering it in... and the windscreen masks were cut to the blade sweep (and accidentally cut into the screen due to lack of attention)


A coat of grime sprayed over everything and the final masks removed


Down the cargo bed and I added the metal plates to the racks on the side, but the came up short...


Checked back on the instructions and yep they said four of each on each side for a total of eight right? But counting up on the diagram shows a total of ten plates per side


So the four "spares" were grabbed off the sprues (thankfully I hadn't binned them already) and were quickly painted up and attached to fill the racks


For anyone who's wondering like I was what these plates were I found a couple of reference photos in Panzerwrecks 25 - I'd guessed they were some kind of track but it turns out they're a really impractical "snow shoe"


The lower hull & running gear was also grimed up


And this is how it stacked up at this point


Right... onto the cargo load and I broke out some fuel drums & jerry cans and quickly put them together and base coated them


Then beat them up a bit


Griming up continued on the three main subsections and I added a length of chain to the front tow hooks just for effect


The grimy cab


And the cargo bed


Which then had the fuel can load installed along with another length of chain and a couple of planks (in my mind they're for rolling the drums up); I also added some fuel stains to the load bed not least because it helped disguise some stray CA


And with everything stacked up again


From the front


At this point I thought I'd probably finished but it looks like the snow effect I mixed up for the tracks was too wet and as it dried all the snow vanished so I'll revisit that this weekend and I've also found a couple more things to chuck in the load bed too so not quite there yet...

Thanks as always for looking & happy Easter

[Quax]

Definitely looking like it’s been worked hard! Great job done

Paul

[Stokesy44]

Very nice work. Looking properly weathered and wintered.

[digger303]

Lovely work and the tracks even after the snow disappeared on you still don't look too out of place.
I was wondering what those plate were for too.

[Tomcat64]

Definitely looking like it’s been worked hard! Great job done

Paul

Very nice work. Looking properly weathered and wintered.

Lovely work and the tracks even after the snow disappeared on you still don't look too out of place.
I was wondering what those plate were for too.

Thanks chaps... I think I really have finished now

[Tomcat64]

In amongst the frantic egg-building I also picked away on this...

I added a tool box & some pioneer tools from the Miniart tools set


Here they are in place in the load bed


And a couple of final shots including the additional snow on the tracks






I'll finish off with some shots with the grown up camera once I've finished the egg build

Thanks again to everyone that stopped by - it's always appreciated

[digger303]

Nice.

[RangerNeil]

Thats a cracking job - truly impressive!! As always!!

[DRUMS01]

I missed the last couple updates but now that I see it I have to say, well done... well done indeed.

Ben