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What tank is this??


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The caption for the image says "Field Maneuvers - W. German Army (Bundeswehr) with Machine gun „MG 1“ and Armored Reconnaissance car „SPz kurz Hotchkiss“, W. Germany, 1960."

Google image searching SPz Kurtz Hotchkiss seems to verify that's what it is.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oddball_E8,

Here's the wee beastie in what I believe to be mortar carrier configuration.

This is the coeval US equivalent, the M114. I was within feet of one recently, and it's tiny. That was our purpose built scout vehicle then. A bit more stealthy than the huge roaring snorting monster called the M3 CFV!

The one I saw did not have the 20mmm fitted, as shown in another blast from the past--ROCO Mini-Tanks! We used to have quite a few for sand table gaming, and a guy I knew had hundreds of pieces and used them straight up or converted them for a huge Kursk battle in his sprawling, no grass, backyard.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SH2iJHS2LjA/TRfCBAALWhI/AAAAAAAAHNM/hKdnc_yAqIk/s1600/roco%2Bminitanks002.jpg

Here's a great hi-res color still of your version. The complete list of Bundeswehr versions appears below that pic. Normally, your critter is designated designated Schützenpanzer Kurz, with the SPz1 being what appears to be secondary nomenclature.

http://www.jedsite.info/fulltrack-hotel/hotel/hotchkiss-tt_series/hotchkisstt-series.html

Regards,

John Kettler

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ah yes, I remember ROCO, ROSKOPF, and Airfix from the 70's.

I remember Dad had all his ROCO Minitanks in the original boxes ( orange boxes that held like 10-20 pieces ).

He wasn't to happy, when oneday coming home from work, and found Hull & Turret Pieces scattered on the floor. He then looked at me, and said, "What Have You Done Child" ( altho, I think there was an adjective in that remark ). Luckily, Dad was able to put most of the vehicles back together again. My punishment, altho years later, was to learn the 3-book 'Tractics' Rules & Charts.

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  • 3 weeks later...

JoMC67,

Roskopf had some good stuff, but it was undersized, which made it look odd. but if you wanted certain AFVs, you either had to buy ROSKOPF or scratchbuild. Speaking of scratchbuilding, brother George pretty much scratchbuilt a Bison/Grille like the one in CMFI and painted like that, too. Airfix was the wrong scale and had a very limited range of models.

I've played both TSR's Fast Rules and Tractics, which I liked a lot but required a lot of chart flipping. Great was my unhappiness in which a first time outing with a wargame virgin--straight up, even numbers fight between his IS-2s and my King Kigers--resulted in the immolation of my entire force and no losses to him. Gah! You could do lots of things in Tractics you simply can't do in CMx2, and I miss that. I do NOT miss the large amount of time involved in determining LOS, measuring range, crunching numbers and whatnot. Except for the actual die rolls and terminal effects, I'm QUITE happy to let CM do all that work.

Returning to ROCO MiniTanks, we used to fight tank battles in our upstairs bedroom. We had Britains BAT guns, which normally used a spring to fire a small zinc projectile. Okay, but far from thrilling. Pop Rivets produced a nice metal rod as waste which fit perfectly down the barrel, and rubber bands running from the gunshield to the cocking lever cum trigger produced something pretty spectacular in terms of velocity and terminal effects. That rod hit a Panzer IV/H so hard it popped the upper hull loose from the upper hull. Nor was this a fluke. That no one lost an eye is likely a combination of good luck, a shag carpet from which very little bounced and a small amount to care on our part. Boy, were those battles fun!

Regards,

John Kettler

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