Schnuck!

Abilio Piñeiro Grajera models Germany’s first Panzer.

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The Sturmpanzerwagen A7V was a tank introduced by Germany in 1918. Initial orders were for a hundred tanks but only twenty were delivered before the end of the War. The production of the tanks in Daimler plant was very problematic: the armour plates that came from Krupp were slightly curved, so they decided to cut them into five sections for the first five tanks produced, including ‘Schnuck’. The tanks were armed with a 57mm Maxim-Nordfelt QF gun. They first saw action on 21 March 1918. Each tank was named individually according to the commander’s wish. Meng Model’s kit represents one of the first vehicles built by the Daimler Factory with Krupp armour plates. ‘Schnuck’, chassis number 504, belonging to Abteilung 2 (Leutnant Müller) and was damaged by friendly fire in Fremicourt on 31 August 1918 and captured by the New Zealand Division three days later. The tank was scrapped except the gun, which is still on display at the Imperial War Museum.

Each tank was painted individually according to their commander’s wishes, applying large patches of red-brown, clay-yellow and green in either hard or soft edges separated by black lines. The camouflage was applied in the field with spray guns, brushes, mops and brooms, so the painting and camouflage patterns schemes used by the German Army were improvised and lacked any form of standardisation until July 1918.

1 The large slab-sided armour plates and complex, albeit largely hidden suspension, are evident in this shot of the assembled model.

2 Once the main structures were glued in place, I had to fill some gaps using acrylic grey putty. Due to the manual production process in the factory the plates were bolted together leaving some gaps, but I preferred to close them up.