SdKfz 9 (18t) Famo (GE600)

SdKfz 9 (18t) Famo (GE600) Recovery Vehicle This monster halftrack was the largest of the German Army’s prime movers and was originally developed as a heavy recovery tractor. With it’s 250hp V12 Maybach motor it could tow 18ton’s of disabled tank and three linked together could even tow a Tiger IE uphill. Some 2500 of these huge vehicles were built between 1939 and 1944 and were used as the basis of several variants as well.

These included an artillery towing vehicle for the 21cm howitzer and 24cm K3 gun, with either a 6 ton or 10 ton crane as a heavy engineer repair vehicle, an engineer support vehicle with 15 troops and a trailer for carrying bridging equipment and in 1940, a version with an armoured cab and 8.8cm FLAK 18 cannon mounted on the deck for heavy antitank and anti air support was produced in small numbers.

Most of the Sdkfz 9’s were built in Germany by FAMO and Borvac but some were even produced in France by Deitrich - Lorraine while under German occupation. The German Panzerwaffe was renowned for it’s efficient battlefield AFV recovery and the versatile and powerful "FAMO" was one of the reasons behind this, especially in the first few years of war before tanks were converted into battlefield recovery vehicles. They say a change is as good as a holiday so I was more than happy to swap the sculpting tools for a knife, glue and paintbrush to assemble and paint this beast!

I cleaned all the resin pieces in soapy water and trimmed the metal parts to remove any flashlines. Then a quick check to make sure everything fitted together properly (a good time to make any little adjustments that might be needed) prior to applying glue.     I glued the track units, wheels and windscreen in place but left the two tilts’ (canvas covers) off at this stage and then stuck the parts to short pieces of Dowel (round) wood as a handgrip for painting, I use blue tack for this but white glue or something similar would work just as well.

Priming... use what ever you want!! But I use heavily thinned Humbrol matt black which I find works well as a base for the Vallejo Acrylic paint I prefer to use and, also stands up to quite a bit of handling as well. A grey FAMO seemed to be the best choice of colour as the Germans would not paint basically second line equipment in the newer Dunkelgelb (yellow) until they had the time so it would still look equally at home amongst Yellow Tanks or Panzer Grey Tanks. For the vehicle I used Panzer Grey (FWP303) was the base for the vehicle and then I drybrushed a 25/75 of Worn Canvas (FWP306)/Panzer Grey (FWP303) over this. The tilts were done in Comrade Khaki (FWP326) with highlights of Military Khaki (FWP327) over the edges.

Then I painted the tracks themselves with a base of Oxide Red (FWP382) with heavy drybrushing of Dark Gunmetal (FWP480). A bit of a departure from my normal technique was to add a wash over the tracks and wheels of light brown followed by some light drybrushing of the same colour on the lower half of the FAMO to represent the dirt and dust that accumulates on such a busy vehicle, no car washes out in the Russian Steppes or North African Deserts!

Then after adding number plates, black dots on white plates only, and white "Width Marks" on the edges of the bumpers I black lined around most of the detail with Black (FWP300) mixed with water 50/50 and a drop of Vallejo Acrylic Retarder to help it along. All this was given a coat of Humbrol Matte Coat as protection from handling.

Next I painted the driver figure and, because it just looked so sparse, I also added some seated figures from the German early war seated figure pack to populate the seats as well.    I’ve left the Tilts separate at this stage because I can’t decide whether to glue on or leave off and fill the back with clunge! You choose! - Evan Allen