Gleisketten-LKWs "Maultier" (Sd.Kfz.3) Nuts & Bolts Volume 28
Joachim Baschin
Published by Nuts & Bolts Books
Neumünster, Germany
160 pages A4, glue-bound soft cover
Review by Terry Ashley
This volume from Nuts & Bolts covers the "Maultier" series of German trucks developed to combat the conditions in Russia, they were basically standard 3ton and 4.5ton cargo trucks fitted with rear tracked suspension in typical half-track configuration. After testing various designs, four went into series production as the Opel 2ton, Ford 2ton, KHD (Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz) 2ton and Mercedes 4.5ton Maulier trucks.
The book is in the usual Nuts & Bolts soft cover A4 format with 160 pages that include both English and German text and includes many B&W wartime photos and colour walk around shots of preserved museum vehicles as well as numerous 1:35 plans and colour profile drawings of four Mauliter types featured in the book.
The first 27 pages are mostly text with a few photos and cover the development history and technical description along with production data including charts showing the production numbers and organizational charts of the different types. There is also a short comparison of the Opel and SS tracked suspension with the SS type selected for the series production Maultiers plus a basic summary of the available model kits and the Bibliography.
The next 67 pages include many wartime B&W photos (mostly two or three per page) with the captions in English and German covering the three 2-ton types from Opel, Ford and KHD with the photos giving a good overall coverage of the types. Most cover the standard cargo trucks but other include shots of Ambulance, workshop box rear bodies and others showing the Opel fitted with rear mounted crane plus a few shots of the Ford mounting a 2cm FlaK 38 in the standard cargo tray. The larger Mercedes also has many standard cargo shots as well as those showing the 3.7cm FlaK 36 mounted on the rear tray, there are also several workshop manual illustrations intermixed with the wartime photos showing details such as the engines, suspensions and chassis details of the various vehicles.
This section gives a very good overview of the trucks with shots with and without the rear canvas cover as well as showing various camouflage schemes as well as the uniforms of the crews, there is also two rare shots of a Ford fitted with the later Einheitsfuhrerhaus wood cab with all the other trucks shows having the standard metal cabs.
Following this are 24 pages with 1:35 plans by John L. Rue of the four truck types featured in the book. These include left side plans of the Opel Maultier fiitted with the early style suspensions and later standard SS suspension, four view plans of the standard cargo Maultier and additional side plans of the crane version and with the large box rear body plus and over head plan of the chassis and suspension with the body removed for some useful dimensions.
The Ford Mauliter has five view plans of the standard cargo Maultier, and overhead and side plan of the 2cm FlaK 38 truck, additional three view plans of the late production cargo Maultier and a side plan with the Einheitsfuhrerhaus wood cab.
The KHD Maultier has five view plans of the standard cargo Maultier and a side plan of the 3.7cm FlaK 36 truck as well as the overhead plan of the chassis and suspension with the body removed.
Lastly are five view plans of the standard cargo Mercedes Maultier along with a side plan with the Einheitsfuhrerhaus wood cab and prototype truck as well as overhead and left plans of the 3.7cm FlaK 36 equipped Maultier.
The next 8 pages have colour profiles of the various vehicles to provide some interesting colour schemes for models, these are a mixture of the standard cargo types plus the Flak vehicles as well as some fitted with cranes and rear box bodies for a good cross section of schemes.
Following this are 25 pages with restored museum examples of the Opel and Ford Maultiers that show some good close-up shots of the exteriors of the cab and engine compartment as well as the cargo tray. Other show the engines, suspensions, chassis and track details and the cab interiors for good details for those building any of the models available.
The final 6 pages have models built by Tony Greenland, there are four models featured being a Ford Ambulance, an Opel with 2cm FlaK 38, a KHD cargo Maultier and lastly the Zvezda Mercedes 4.5 ton Maultier cargo truck. These are mostly conversions (some resin and kit parts) with many scratchbuilt parts and are based on the Italeri Maultier, ICM Ford truck and DML Opel Blitz truck as the current crop of Maultiers from DML and ICM were not available for the book.
The images show the models under construction with caption descriptions as well as shots of the completed models that will provide some useful inspiration for Maultier builders.
The book has a good mix of technical and development info as well as wartime photos, museum walk-around photos and extensive 1:35 plan coverage and is just the reference for those building any of the available Maultier kits.
Highly recommended
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