COBI Panzerhaubitze Hummel (Sd.Kfz.165) Set 2663

COBI's Panzerhaubitze Hummel is a 1:28 model built from 1,118 blocks, 25 cm long, with working tracks, opening hatches and rear doors, an elevating 15 cm howitzer that lifts out of the vehicle to reveal a brick-built Maybach HL120 TRM engine, and a detailed interior. Two figures are included — a commander with binoculars and a Luger, and a loader in white trousers holding a shell — plus a printed nameplate.

A chassis built from two different tanks

The Hummel does not sit on a Panzer III or a Panzer IV. It sits on a Geschützwagen III/IV, a hull designed from scratch in 1942 that takes the drive train and steering of the Panzer III and the suspension and running gear of the Panzer IV.

The reason was industrial rather than tactical. Germany needed self-propelled artillery urgently but could not afford to take capacity away from tank production, and both the III and the IV were already being built in quantity by different firms. A hybrid used parts that were coming off existing lines without displacing a single tank.

The open-topped superstructure and the doors at the back exist because a 15 cm shell weighs around 43 kilograms and has to be passed in by hand. 713 Hummels were built, along with 157 turretless ammunition carriers on the same chassis — because a gun that fires 43 kg shells runs out of them quickly.

In the COBI range

Set 2598 is the Wespe, the lighter self-propelled howitzer that served in the same artillery battalions — typically two batteries of Wespe to one of Hummel.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,118 · Figures: 2 · Scale: 1:28 · Age: 10+ · Removable gun and engine
Model dimensions: 25 × 11 × 10 cm (9.8 × 4.3 × 3.9 in)