i need to get serious about learning my airbrushing so i decided to pull out the tamiya 1/35 ketternkraftrad for practice. unfortunately everything is in japanese which won’t affect the build but i have a question on the colors. i presume normal colors (panzer grey, dark yellow and/or camo '43 onward) except for the seats. would they be a canvasy faded brownish tan? (how’s that for a description?)
is the “top” for the trailer canvas or metal?
http://www.primeportal.net/trucks/jan_peters/kettenkrad/
This is Munster’s in typical 3-tone camo. The trailer cover is canvas, same color as the canvas in the photo. Since production began in 1941, they could be found in Panzer Grey too.
I just started the same kit for a dio. There were two set of instructions(English and Japanese). If you can locate the english instructions it gives you some help on the painting of the detail parts. Weathering and so forth will affect those that they are suggesting.
Here’s a hot looking kettenrad:
Hi waynec…I recently completed this kit myself. My research found that these lil’ fella’s ended up being used pretty much everywhere and therefore, you’re pretty safe with almost any scheme.
Although originally developed to be dropped with paratroopers to tow their unique compact artillary pieces, it proved to be so versatile that it was eventually adopted into all areas of the German army and was even brought in by the Luftwaffe for use as aircraft tractors.
I did mine in the standard Dk. Yellow, Brown and Green…but seriously considered the solid Dk. Green that was shown on the box art of my kit. I’ve seen panzer grey as Kykeon suggested too.
My research showed the drivers seat to be black vinyl/leather (as shown in the pic above) but the rear bench seat was rarely shown in photos I could find. The Ketten I reproduced appeared to have it’s rear seat covered in a dark yellow vinyl/leather (it was slightly shiny) to match it’s camo. The top on the trailer (which was designated as a Sonderanhanger 1) was depicted with a soft skin in my kit, complete with simulated wrinkled fabric, so I depicted mine as faded canvas in the dark yellow shade, once again to replicate the unit I had the best pictures of. One of the below sites however appears to show a black cover that may or may not be rigid…the shine shown at the corners lends itself to being rigid…?
Some sites I checked out were:
http://www.kettenkrad.com/index.html and
http://www.kettenkrad.de/index_e.htm
The second site being considerably more informative, including info such as production numbers, etc…
Be careful with your research. Ketten’s were produced after the war up into the 50’s as farm tractors and utility vehicles (the forerunners of the atv). Though there were a few changes, like seat covers and some add ons, there are alot of them in museums as extant but are really post war back dates. Not 100% accurate but close. (Kind of like G13’s being passed off as Hetzers)