Pantserwagen DAF M39

Pantserwagen DAF M39

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Dutch society had previously built, since the beginning of the ‘30s, prototypes of AFV’s. In 1938 the Dutch Royal Army asked for a new vehicule. A prototype was released followed with an order for 12 vehicles.

The M39 was a modern AFV. The turret was equipped with the Swedish 37mm Bofors from Landsverk. Three machineguns MG-08 (coax, front and rear hull). The 37mm was at this time an excellent gun that was able to inflict damages to all the enemy tanks. A contrario the MG-08 was heavy and not evident to use aboard…

Pantserwagen DAF M39
Pantserwagen DAF M39Protection was not the best ever: with 10mm only, the hull could only stop light fire…

The M39 has a good speed (75 km/h) and can maneuver on all types of terrains, with an excellent suspension.

When the Germans invaded The Netherlands, there wasn’t any unit operational. There were only three DAF to fight against German army. After the capitulation, the DAFs were used by the Wermacht during the Campaign of France and later in Russia as antiguerilla AFV’s. Attrition finally conducted to the loss of all the DAFs.

After the war i twas envisaged to restart the production to reequip the Dutch Army with 200 reconnaissance vehicles ; it seems that Belgium had some interrest for that vehicle too. But due to the cost of the project, and the low-cost of the British light tanks in surplus, the reconnaissance rule was given to light tanks.

The kit from Retrotracks

There is 35 parts (two are little parts to be used as spare parts only). The kit is finely molded in resin; the parts are well conceived and assembly will be easy. The doors can be placed in open position. The wheels are well detailed. The decals permits to build one Dutch or two German vehicles. German decals are really good, but Dutch ones will advantageously be replaced by other of better quality; or hand-painted with caches.

Conclusion: a kit of an exceptional quality. It’s nice to see the release of such vehicles that are less known but so nice and so interesting. If you have few or no experience with resin kit, this one is the opportunity to try a build because there will be no difficulty at all.

Warmly recommended to AFV builders!!!

Daniel Clamot

Sample kit is provided by Retrotracks

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