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Hasegawa 1/72 54cm Mörser “Karl” 041 With Munitionspanzer IV. ausf F |
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Kit Number MT56 |
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Reviewed By Jim Pearsall, #2209 |
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MSRP $38.95 Imported into the US by Dragon Models USA Thanks to Hasegawa for the review kit. The Mörser The 54 cm version of the Karl was one of those super weapons which makes engineers’ mouths water. It’s BIG, it’s IMPROVED, and it’s (did I mention?) BIG! Karl was developed to breach the fortresses of the Maginot Line. But the problems of developing such a large weapon, making it even marginally mobile, and then getting it built meant that the Karls missed the French campaign in 1940. They were used in the Russian campaign of 1941-44, particularly at the siege of Sebastopol. They also bombarded Warsaw during the 1944 uprising. Because of the massive size, the obvious problems in production, and the fact that there just weren’t that many fortresses left in Europe, production was stopped after 6 units. All were originally produced as the 60 cm Mörser Karl, and they were Adam & Eve (1st Battalion) Thor & Odin, (2nd Bn) and Loki & Ziu. The 60 cm version had limited range (only 6800 meters or 4.2 miles), so three of the units (Looks like one from each battalion) were modified with a new longer barrel of 54 cm bore. This improved the range to 10,400 meters (6.4 miles). There is some speculation that the “old” barrels were kept, and the units could change from 54 cm to 60 cm. I somehow guess that this would NOT be a “field” change. There is one Karl (60 cm) in the Kubinka Armor Museum in Russia. The Munitionspanzer OK, we have this big hunk of metal out there MILES (1.6 kms) from the nearest supply point, railhead, road, etc. How you going to get that ammunition out there? Since each round weighed about 2 tons, the average truck just isn’t going to hack that program. So the Wehrmacht fell back on a tried and true solution. This was a converted tank (in this case a Pz IV) which could carry 3 rounds. I suspect that the Munitionspanzer IV had limited off-road capability when fully loaded, but then it probably had no problem going where the Karls could. This is another of those unglamorous vehicles which no one pays much attention to. I found a lot of results on Google for the Karl and Munitionspanzer, but only mention of the kits. There were several web sites about Karls, but none of these were in English. And they didn’t mention Munitionspanzer. There was one web site (auf Deutsch) about Munitionspanzer in general. But without those rounds, the gunners may as well be out there shouting “Bang”. The Kits: This kit appears to be a reissue of the earlier 60 cm Karl by Hasegawa, which also had the Munitionspanzer. There is a whole new hull for the Karl, as well as new suspension with new wheels, and (of course) the longer barrel. The Munitionspanzer has a new set of wheels. How can I be sure of this? Because Hasegawa left all the parts from the previous 60 cm Mörser kit on the sprues. The only indication of which are the “correct” parts comes from the instructions. |
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My first impression was “Golly, there’s a lot of parts here!”. Even
with the extras, this kit has a LOT of parts.
The kit contains one complete Karl, with markings for 2 different vehicles, Thor and Loki, and the Munitionspanzer, which is anonymous. Everything is cleanly molded, with no flaws or voids in the parts. Everything fit nicely. Since this is a re-release of an older kit, there is a little flash, but nothing that can’t be taken care of with a knife and file. These photos were taken 2 minutes apart. |
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The tracks for both vehicles are a continuous piece of flexible,
rubbery plastic.
Assembly: The instructions take the Munitionspanzer first, then the Karl. The only problem I ran into with the Munitionspanzer was the ammunition crane. The cables for rigging the crane are not supplied, and I had a merry time trying to get the cables which support the crane arm to the same length. If one is longer, with thread or stretched sprue, the longer one will not have tension on it, and will sag, curl, or otherwise advertise that something is not right. Everything fits tight, and I had no need for filler anywhere on this part of the kit. |
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Then the Karl. I really think Hasegawa has done a good bit of
correction on this kit. New road wheels for both vehicles, a new
hull and suspension for the Karl, speaks to me of a company which
really cares about its products, enough to fix inaccuracies when
they reissue a kit. The mortar has lots and lots of parts, spread out over a bunch of sprues, and it seemed that the one I needed was at the bottom of the pile in the box. Much of the building of this kit was spent finding the correct parts on the correct sprue, and then keeping track of them after removal. I managed to break one of the tracks during this period. I also discovered that close reading of the instructions is critical. I managed to assemble the main deck onto the hull upside down. Fortunately I caught it before the cement had cured, and was able to pry it off and reassemble it correctly. |
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One nice thing about 1/72 armor kits is that they are generally
pretty simple, and assemble in a fairly short time. This kit is
much larger and more complex, so the project took a lot longer than
the average. So at one point I lost focus, and managed to cut the
60 cm gun off the sprue, assemble it, and clean up the seams before
I caught on to the fact that I HAD THE WRONG BARREL. Fortunately,
the little light came on before I assembled the barrel into the
breech. Despite these problems, the kit assembles pretty nicely. I had to use a little putty where the hull meets the rear decking, but otherwise, it looks just fine. At least there’s no huge space between the suspension and the hull where, if you don’t put in a piece of plastic sheet, you can look to see if there’s an interior, a “feature” found on many other tank kits. |
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| The gun itself has a couple of those features you don’t look for, but when they’re there, they’re cool. The barrel has a working recoil mechanism, with springs returning the gun to battery. The pin assemblies which allow the gun to elevate fit tightly, but without binding, allowing a clean movement which stays where you put it. | |
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The tracks were OK to get on. I managed to put the break (remember,
I broke it!) under a road wheel, where CA holds it in place, and
it’s invisible. I’m also not sure what type of plastic the tracks
are, but when I used Testors liquid, thickened with tube glue on
them, the connecting pieces melted. I wound up using CA to put the
ends together. This worked. Decals: The markings were pretty simple. I alluded to the fact that the Munitionspanzer is anonymous. No markings. No crosses, not even a license plate. The Karl had individual markings for either “Thor” (Unit #6) or Loki (Unit #5). There’s a decal for the side of the gun breech/recoil assembly with the unit’s name. The only other markings are roman numerals for the unit number. There’s also an errata sheet for the decals included. Whoever laid out the original sheet put IV for Thor. The errata sheet has the corrected VI. Didn’t matter. I did Loki (V). But it was a nice thought. For some reason there are a whole bunch of German crosses on the decal sheet, which just aren’t used anywhere on either vehicle. I’ll use them some time, so thanks, Hasegawa. Figures: The box also includes 2 identical sprues with 12 figures on each sprue. The figures are molded OK in the same grey plastic as the vehicles. 5 of the figures have positional arms, and one of these also has the lower and upper torso split at the waist to allow different positions. The other 7 are fixed poses. The molding is OK. There is a very slight mold line which runs up the sides of both legs and arms, and along the side of the body. Fortunately these are quite fine, and can be removed with little or no loss of detail. Detail is all there, but is just the tiniest bit “soft”. It’s all there, and in 25mm it’s hard to see any missing details, let alone a slight lack of crispness. I painted one of the figures, and it looks fine. |
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Overall Assessment:
I liked this kit. It is a project for an experienced modeler. Not because of the level of difficulty, which is actually easier than a lot of other kits, but because of the skills needed to keep track of all those parts, and get everything together correctly. I once again proved that in modeling, anything you can screw up, you can also fix. I salute Hasegawa for the new suspension and road wheels. They didn’t have to do it, but they have a sense of responsibility to their customers. |
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Somewhere in my stash is the original issue of the Hasegawa Leopold
railway gun, partially built. Perhaps I’ll get it out, and finish a
companion piece for the Karl. Thanks to John Noack for providing another adventure in scale modeling. |
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Information, images, and all other items placed electronically on this site are the intellectual property of IPMS/USA ®. |
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