Scale Plastic & Rail

1/35 Alkett VsKfz 617 from MENG Model

1/35 Alkett VsKfz 617
MENG Model
1/35 Stegosaurus Series
Catalogue # SS-001
Available from MENG Model and other good hobby retailers, for around Euro 59.50 (about GBP 50.00)

MENG is a new producer of plastic models kit from Hong Kong, China. With just four plastic model kits under their belt (two militarized pick-ups, an aircraft kit and the kit reviewed here) I can see a lot of potential of future kits.

Anti-tank mines have seen widespread use in WWII. A mine is a cheap but effective instrument to stop invading hordes of enemy tanks. One doesn´t have to completely destroy an enemy tank, it is sufficient to damage its tracks at least. By this the tank gets immobile and is an easy prey for anti-tank guns and troops. Running into a mine field will also immediately stop any assault.

Clearing a mine field by conventional means takes a very lot of time and is extremely dangerous. So, not only the German army in WWII was on the lookout for a way to do this work faster and less risky. Curtains up for the Vs.Kfz. 617!

To get straight at the point: this vehicle was a fail. I guess the engineers lost their way when trying to design a vehicle that could survive the enormous explosion of an anti-tank mine when driving over it. So they constructed it with a double bottom with the outer one being 40 millimetres thick and the spaced inner one having 20 millimetres thickness. Now, any tank track won´t survive such an explosion, but one would have to maximise the contact area of such a mine clearing vehicle for not to miss a mine. Having steel wheels could work, but when such a wheel gets damaged the vehicle has to be jacked up and a large and heavy wheel will have to be replaced. So they might have had the idea with the "shoes", large steel plates attached to the wheels by bolts. Have one of these shoes damaged or ripped off by a mine explosion one would have to add a new one without having to jack up the whole vehicle. "Simply" roll it on a replacement shoe, insert the bolt, and on to the next mine!

(Picture courtesy of H. Timmerman: http://henk.fox3000.com/)

Having finished the design of the Vs.Kfz. 617 ("Versuchs Kraftfahrzeug 617" or "experimental motorized vehicle 617") the vehicle got too heavy with about 50 tons, too large and useless for combat use due to being too slow and awkward to drive. Fortunately someone has been clever enough to cancel this project...

The kit:
The box cover shows a nice but not spectacular painting of this vehicle on a beach or grassy steppe. I would have liked to have at least seen one soldier or crew member on this painting to get an idea of the vehicles size.

From the point of view of the box art it is not easy to determine where the front is and where is the rear of this monster (the small wheel is on the back).

Inside the top opening box 380 x 240 x 80 mm in size the bottom lid is separated into three compartments with the largest one holding three independently packed sprues, one compartment with the vehicles two main body parts and the last compartment holding the Panzerkampfwagen I turret, a metal chain and a piece of brass rod.

But what first attracted my eye have been two plastic containers inside a sleeve neatly presenting the steel shoes and individual links for the tracks of this vehicle through a transparent lid.

MENG has given these steel shoes a special treatment I have only seen so far on an aftermarket resin engine for a Dornier Do 335 model: they have moulded theses shoes with a metal block inside! Doing so MENG added a feeling of weight to these parts, enabling them to rotate towards the ground with the vehicles wheels turning. And, by having the metal blocks inside the plastic, these parts can be added to the kit using the plastic glue of your choice. Clever!

The shoes and the individual track parts are moulded using a special process so there are no sprue gates, only some little mould separation lines that will have to be removed before gluing these parts together.

The assembly manual 170 x 260 mm in size leaves no questions unanswered. The drawings are clear and well-arranged. The manual repeats the colour painting of the box art on its front page with three painting suggestions of unknown (fictitious) units in Kursk. But MENG honestly writes that even the Panzergrau (tank grey) colour scheme of the box art is unproved. For this vehicle has never seen active service in WWII you can choose the colours and camouflage as you like.

The kits parts are moulded in grey plastic with most of the surfaces being matte which will improve paint adhesion. The moulding of the parts is first class; the detail on them is very crisp and beautiful. I could not find any flash on the parts so far!

As mentioned before the track and shoe parts show some mould separation lines but nothing to worry about. Other parts are very tiny so take care when removing them from the sprue! Some of the parts to be added to the vehicles body show very nice and impressive weld seams as do the body parts themselves. I think I would add some torch marks to the lower front armour plate's ridge, simply because this will add some interest here in my opinion.

Next I got out of the box where the two main body parts. I don´t know how MENG moulded them for I cannot find where their respective sprue attachments have been! I take a guess that these parts are slide-moulded but even doing so there should be any remains of the sprue. But there is none... Impressive!

Have a look at the detail everywhere, be it subtle and well defined weld marks, recesses or tiny rivets. Only thing that could be improved by photo etched mesh are the two fan grills on the upper hull. But on the other hand they are fine as they are for with the armoured guards glued over these won´t be this visible.

On the inside of the lower hull MENG moulded twenty-eight (!) stiffening ribs to prevent this large part from warping. Adding the upper body part to the lower one immediately shows that this works really good for the two parts clip together with not the least gap to be shown!

Here we see the body parts with the kit´s Pz.Kpfw. I turret added for fun in comparison to a Hetzer hull. All abutting edges on the Vs.Kfz. 617´s body parts show nice weld seams, on the junction from straight armour plates to the round wheel arches, everywhere!
The body parts of the Vs.Kfz. 617 have not been manipulated in any way to improve their already tight fit. No removal of (non-existent) sprue attachments, no sanding here! Just the two parts as I took them out of the box. A perfect fit. Awesome!

Sprue A is provided twice. First thing I mentioned have been the parts for the large steel wheels to which the tracks with the shoes will be attached later. The moulding here is impressive on the front and back side of this wheels.

Parts 17 and 18 are the bolts to attach the shoes to the track parts. Don´t mix them up! There difference in size is minimal and if mixed up they won´t fit the large front wheels and the small rear wheels track shoes!

Sprue B has all the parts to assemble the much smaller rear wheel. On the real vehicle this one was steered by simple chains attached to its support! Functional, but maybe not the kind of German superior technology the occupying allied forces would have taken home after the war...

On the bottom of sprue B we see the cut-out to have the two parts the metal chain will be attached to and the exhaust slide-moulded. Then we have the different parts to assemble the Pz.Kpfw. I turret armed with two 7.92mm MG 34. There is nothing wrong with the kit´s gun barrels but I would change these barrels to some aftermarket turned and drilled metal barrels.

The hatches, too, show some very nice details. The turret hatch even has some detail on the inside, supplementary boosted by minuscule parts. See part 34? It is this tiny I am afraid that my glue might weld it when trying to add it to the turret hatch, so I will use acrylic glue here! And it is a good example on MENG´s mastery to produce even such tiny parts in plastic injection moulding!

Parts 29 and 30 show some small indentations, so some putty is needed here, at least in my review sample. Again I would like to draw your attention to the beautiful executed weld seams on the tow hooks and body panels. Even under the magnification of my pictures they look convincing to me!

The Pz.Kpfw. I turret shows some interesting detail, too. I only would sand down the rivets around the four hatches on the sides for these look too overdone to me. A quick pass or two with a sanding stick should rectify this.

Last is the clear plastic bag with the metal chain for the vehicles steering system and a piece of brass rod. The assembly manual says this to be copper, but I am not sure about this to be correct.

So what do we think?
On the side of the kit´s box MENG writes this kit to be part of a "1/35 Stegosaurus Series". That is a very different way to name a series of military model kits compared to other manufacturers. But if this is an indication for MENG to do military plastic kits aside of the already beaten tracks, especially in the top notch quality of this kit we have here, I am looking forward to the things to come.

(Picture courtesy of H. Timmerman: http://henk.fox3000.com/)

At the risk of repeating myself: I am impressed by this kit, by its quality of moulding and the details here. For me this one here is a welcome change to other kits where the modeller has to assemble hundreds of parts to build a tank kit. The ingenious design of the track shoes and the consistent level of detail is promise of future kits from MENG.

Very highly recommended

My very best thanks to MENG Model for the review sample, and to H. Timmerman for permission to make use of some of his pictures of the original vehicle in Kubinka, Russia!

To buy this and other MENG Model products, click this link, or the banner below.

Thomas Mayer