COBI Sd.Kfz. 7 Half-Track Set 2275

COBI's Sd.Kfz. 7 Half-Track is a 1:35 model built from 439 blocks, 19.5 cm long, with moving parts and durable prints. Two figures are included — a Luftwaffe soldier and a Wehrmacht infantryman — with brick containers, weapons and headgear.

Why half a track

A half-track looks like a compromise nobody would choose, and it was a deliberate answer to a real problem.

A fully tracked vehicle has excellent grip and steers by braking one track against the other — which wears the drivetrain, needs a trained driver and makes the vehicle tiring over long distances. A wheeled lorry steers naturally and is easy to drive, and it sinks in mud.

The half-track puts tracks at the back for traction and steered wheels at the front, so anyone who can drive a lorry can drive it. On the Sd.Kfz. 7 the front wheels do most of the steering, with a small amount of track braking blended in at larger angles.

Germany built more of these than anyone, and the reason is the same as everywhere else in its army: it did not have enough fully tracked vehicles, and this was what could be produced in quantity.

What it towed

The Sd.Kfz. 7 was the standard tractor for the 8.8 cm Flak and the 15 cm heavy howitzer, and it carried the gun crew of eleven or twelve men in the same vehicle. Just over 12,000 were built between 1934 and 1945, and the chassis also carried armoured command versions, observation posts and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.

In the COBI range

Sets 3140 and 3141 are the 8.8 cm Flak 18 this vehicle towed, and 3143 the Sd.Kfz. 8 with a Flak 36 limbered up. Set 2281 is the much larger Sd.Kfz. 9 FAMO.

Specifications

Pieces: 439 · Figures: 2 with accessories · Scale: 1:35
Model dimensions: 19.5 × 8 cm (7.7 × 3.1 in)