For those of you who are as keen on these obscure toys as I...
Today, Tobi's beautifully sculpted Austro-Hungarian Romfell armored car, a replica of Romfell No.1, will be going off to the caster. The Austro-Hungarians only completed two (or, depending upon sources, possibly three) of these beautiful vehicles between 1916 and 1918, but there were as many as thirty in various stages of completion when the war ended, most of them ordered toward the end of 1918 as Austro-Hungarian forces became more active on the Western Front. Tobi based his model on Romfell No.1. No.2 was apparently very slightly different (not really in any notable way), and nobody has any pictures of No.3 (if indeed it was completed). Like the Ehrhardt, these were all built by hand, which explains the reports of such variations.
This was a very interesting vehicle, which some have called the most modern armored car produced during the war. It seems to have had an excellent track record. It was also, incidentally, almost entirely a Hungarian project. The Austrian side of the government was in no way interested in funding the vehicle or producing it, so the Hungarians took it upon themselves to build the thing. The relatively small number built has to do with politics, conservatism in the War Department, and the inferior status of Hungarian officials in the AH government at the time, who could not apparently bring the leverage to bare to put more of these into service. (But we aren't bitter..
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The Romfell(s) saw a lot of service, along with the dozen or so other armored cars built by the Austro-Hungarians, and several dozen more captured Allied vehicles. They would also be excellent as interwar vehicles, in my opinion.
This is a 28mm scale (1/56 or thereabouts) vehicle. The caster hasn't decided yet to cast it in all resin or resin/metal. But the price, regardless, will be $30 US. Should consist of five parts: turret, machine gun, hull, and four wheels. No separate hatches, etc. with this one, so a fairly easy build. And a real beauty at that. Tobi's got the hull shape down perfectly.
Anyway, hope this intrigues some of you. When available, it will be on sale at blackarmyproductions.com
As a reminder, the Ehrhardt is also available (and a real beauty it is, too), while the Russian Filatov three wheeler, being sculpted by Mancha, will be available from us soon as well. (Mancha is finishing up the master now.) As always, new vehicle suggestions are always welcome.
-Doc
28 December 2018, 04:40:51 AM