Construction Review

1/76 scale resin kit from AIR Czech company, Czech Republic

By Stephen Brezinski, Portland, Maine USA

Introduction & Vehicle History

         When I first examined this vehicle my first impression is that it reminded me of a turtle.  Apparently I am not alone as the vehicle’s nickname was the “Turtle” (Zelva in Czech).  According to my limited resources, the Skoda Company of Czechoslovakia produced twelve in 1924-1925 and three were sold to the Vienna, Austria Police Department.  These are reported to have served in the defense of Vienna in 1945 though I am unaware as to what color they were and what markings the Austrian cars sported at that time.

         The PA-II, also officially referred to as the OA vz.23, appears very revolutionary in its design for the time.  While most armored car manufacturers were producing flat or simple curved, slab sided armored cars such as the German SdKfz 222, and Soviet Ba-10, Skoda produced this compound curved armored car.  The turtle reminds me of the streamline 1930’s Skoda autos and the 1950’s Chevy’s and Ford autos.  The aerodynamic shape looks like it would shed bullets well as well as air.  A price to pay appears to be armor thickness of only 3-mm to 5-mm, enough to curb long range gun fire but will not stop an armor-piercing rifle caliber bullet at normal ranges.  As a police vehicle I take that this was sufficient though?  With four-wheel drive it had some off road capability.  See http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/ website for more vehicle history and period photos.  I am not aware of any surviving vehicles.

                  An odd feature is the armored car’s driver’s station.  You will note that there are no large view ports in the front.  The driver sat on the right side and saw out of the small flaps on each corner, the flaps under each of the four Maxim machine guns.  This strikes me as very poor visibility forward.  I believe the vehicle only has one engine, but there are engine louvers on each end making it difficult to tell front from back (perhaps done on purpose to confuse assailants?).  I read that the car had a crew of five though is seems a bit too tight a fit for five men and I suspect that it was more likely three.

Instructions

The instructions, below, are clear and any one with a bit of experience and dry fitting should be able to figure out the assembly. Dry fit twice and glue once.  Painting instructions and examples are in black and white and in Czech but are not hard to decipher.

The Kit & Assembly

1)   The model is packed in a sturdy box and two plastic bags. It is comprised of 32 cream-colored, crisp well-molded resin parts.  Rivet detail and recessed panel lines are fine and in scale.  The resin surface is very smooth and bubble-free. See the in-box review at http://smallscaleafv.web3.cz/ANG/index1.html for more information.

2)    Among the parts are four water-cooled maxim machine guns that assemble into the hull in a ball & socket method so they can be posed in different directions.  The most difficult part in assembly is removing the pour plug off the four headlights so they fit snuggly to the fenders with as little filler as possible.  The aft and bow hood (bonnet) parts may need a bit of sanding and trimming to fit well.

3)    The four tire’s treads are done well.  Drill out the holes in the two bottom parts for the four copper axles so the fit is proper (see part 1 of the instruction sheet).  The copper axles may need shortening so test fit before gluing.  

4)    In order to get the four machine guns to recess properly into the sockets, the base (ball) of the guns had to be sanded down.  I glued my guns with water-soluble white glue so they could be moved later if needed, and if accidentally struck they could pull out rather than breaking off.

5)    The engine exhaust pipe exiting the side was replicated with a hollow copper tube.

Painting & Markings

The Czechoslovakian colors were a complex blotch pattern of soft edge Ochre, Olive Green, Black and Brown.  The pattern looks complex to paint but is very attractive when done well.  The model does not come with the traditional water slide decals but does have black & white photocopied license plates and little Czech flag to color in (see scan of painting & markings instructions below).  As these armored cars also served in the 1945 defense of Vienna Austria, perhaps panzer gray with German markings are possible?

Conclusions

         Overall this is a very nice model of a very interesting but little known vehicle.  I suppose if it were a German subject we’d have had it modeled earlier?  Definitely recommended.

         My great thanks to Sandman & Overlord for this kit and their support of my addiction to this hobby.  Thanks to my friend Adam Wilder for guidance with painting the complicated camouflage and weathering.

References

Information was pretty sparse for this vehicle, but I can refer you to TANKS website for good photos and short historical perspective: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/