by Mark Sleppy

By the winter of 2042, the Battle of Volgograd had become a major turning point the Euro-Asian war. This battle included the Asian siege of the southern Russian city of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), the battle inside the city, and the European counter-offensive which eventually trapped and destroyed the Asian 6th Army, including the 4th Tank Army, around the city.

It was in this battle that the German mecha crews of the newly fielded Panzerjägermecha (walking tank hunters) endeared themselves to the Russian population by staying in the battle, heroically fighting street to street against the much heavier, though slower and less maneuverable, Asian main battle tanks. They eventually ran the enemy to ground as the Asian offensive faltered.

This model is a kit bash of a Panzerjägermecha, an 8 meter, 40 ton tank-hunter mech having a crew of two, commander/pilot and gunner. This mech has armament consisting of a 200 mm recoilless gauss cannon as its main weapon, four 30 mm recoilless rotary cannon as secondary systems mounted on independently movable mounts (arms), shoulder mounted anti-air and chin mounted anti-ground weapon systems. It is powered by a 30 GW shielded fusion reactor housed in the torso, providing for a top sustainable ground speed of 100 kph and a vertical ground clearance of 4.8 meters.

Model Kits Used

• The 1/35 scale kit of the Leopard 2 A6 German Main Battle Tank by Revell GmbH & Co. KG.
• The 1/100 scale kit of the Serpent Custom Mecha from Gundam Endless Waltz by Bandai Co., Ltd.
• The 1/72 scale kit of the Leopard 1 A4 German Main Battle Tank by Italeri S.p.A.
• The 1/72 scale kit of the RAH-66 Comanche Scout / Attack Helicopter by Italeri S.p.A.
• The 1/144 scale kit of Mobilebucue from Gundam Seed by Bandai Co., Ltd.
• The 1/72 scale kit of the Daimler MKII Armored Car by Hasegawa Seisakusho Co., Ltd.

Construction Details

From the 1/35 Leopard 2 kit:

• The turret (upper body) was created by slanting the aft upper half of the turret up and adding the tank hull side armor and the back plate to fill in the resulting gaps. Sheet styrene, Comanche kit parts and Milliputt were added to complete the sides.
• Tank road wheels were used to form the shoulder pivot pads.
• The top sensor dome was built from sheet styrene and Milliputt - modeling putty.

From the Serpent kit:

• The legs (converted from human walking to bird walking), hips and hip joints, with hip armor moved to be the forward ankle armor.
• The 200 mm main cannon came from the barrel of this kit's bazooka weapon replaced the 105 mm gun that came with the tank kit.
• The 30 mm rotary cannons were mounted on arms constructed from the butt of this kit's bazooka weapon, Mobilebucue kit leg parts and Milliput.

From the other kits:

• The torso and waist were constructed from the 1/72 Leopard 1 kit turret and upper hull flipped upside down with the front armor coming from the parts of the Serpent model kit and Milliputt.
• The anti-air and anti-ground guns came from the Armored Car and Comanche kits respectively.

Image: Left side view

Image: Right side

Image: Rear view

Image: Top

Image: Right/front

Image: Big!