Sd.Kfz.3a Maultier (Early Production)

MiniArt, 1/35 scale

Reviewed by Zack Sex

FirstLook   

The Maultier, or “Mule”, series of vehicles consisted of a range of trucks, including the Opel Blitz, Ford, Alfa Romeo and Mercedes-Benz, fitted with a tracked rear section. This was a direct result of experience gained on what passed for roads on the Eastern Front during the Rasputitsa, or mud season.

During the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht pressed thousands of trucks into service, many of them captured from other nations at the start of World War Two. While these vehicles performed well enough in Europe, they simply could not cope with the mud and snow of the Eastern Front.

It is interesting to note how the Waffen-SS and a special committee led by Dr Hähnlein essentially arrived at the same solution for adapting standard German trucks into cheap and effective half-tracks for operations in the East. Waffen-SS technicians combined some Ford trucks with captured Bren gun carrier chassis, while Dr Hähnlein’s committee produced a very similar chassis, but utilised Panzer I tracks instead of the original British Bren gun carrier units.

The Maultiers proved extremely popular, useful and reliable on the Eastern Front. More than 20,000 Maultiers were manufactured between 1942 and 1944, with around 13,000 produced in 1943 and a further 7,000 in 1944.

Maultier in 1:35 scale

For many years, modellers had only the fairly basic Italeri model to work with. That was until Dragon Models released a series of variants.

As Dragon is now under new ownership, it remains to be seen whether the Dragon Maultiers will be reissued.

MiniArt Maultier

Happily, MiniArt has stepped into the breach with this early-production Opel Maultier. This is a highly detailed kit, as one would expect from MiniArt, but it is not overly difficult to assemble. Care needs to be taken around the cab construction, particularly with the cab fit and positioning of the fuel tank.

The tracked chassis went together with ease, and I must admit I was thinking about Bren gun carriers while assembling the early road wheels. The rear flatbed is completely straightforward, and the kit builds up nicely into a fine rendition of the real thing.

As usual with MiniArt kits, you get a number of camouflage and marking options. These are expertly rendered by Ukrainian artist Volodymyr Booth, whose plan, elevation and end views of each option are a wonderful assistance to the modeller.

Maultier Markings

I chose to model a vehicle from the 4th Panzer Division, with unit markings from 1945. My reasoning was that an early-model Maultier that had survived that long could legitimately be heavily weathered and worn in terms of its paintwork.

I’m very much looking forward to building more Maultier variants from MiniArt, as this series will undoubtedly prove popular with WWII modellers.

Highly Recommended

Zack Sex

Purchased by the reviewer