Bronco Models 1/35 Kfz.13 Adler Armored Car Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Kfz.13 light armoured car was one of the first armoured vehicles to be built in Germany after WWI. In 1932 the Adler Werk produced their "Standard 6" car chassis with an armoured body designed and built by Deutsche Edelstahl AG in Hanover. The armour was 8mm, enough to protect the crew from most small arms fire and shell splinters.

Armament was provided by a light machine gun such as the MG-13 or MG-34. The Adler had a top speed of 80 km/h and a range of 300km, crew was normally a driver and gunner. The Adlers were extensively used in Nazi propaganda movies of the 1930s and a few saw action in Poland and France. Production ended in 1934 and by 1939 they had largely been replaced by the Sd.Kfz.221/222 series.

Information & research by Phil Greenwood - from the instruction booklet.

Bronco Models has released the first of several versions of the Kfz.13 Adler armored car. To my knowledge, this is the first kit of this subject in styrene and they did a nice job of this too.

The kit is molded in tan styrene and presented on four parts trees, plus one fret of photo-etched parts. As was the full-scale subject, this kit is a simple build yet has some nice stuff inside.

You can see the standard car chassis that starts off this kit with a beefed up leaf spring suspension to support the heavier car body. At the same time you can see that the designers had kept out as much weight as possible in their design to allow the vehicle to operate normally with its automotive power train and brakes.

While there is no option to open the hood nor an engine underneath the hood, the original auto radiator is provided which sits behind an add-on shuttered armor shield to protect the radiator from damage/leakage in combat.

The vehicle is open-topped with the sides high enough to shield the driver from all sides and provide the gunner with a 360 degree field of fire. As such, the kit does have a detailed interior crew compartment which includes the driver's station with all of the requisite levers, dash board, and steering wheel.

The gunner has a pedestal-mounted gun with a crew seat to provide balance against the gun and shield. You have your choice of guns to arm your Adler.

If you're not satisfied looking down into the crew compartment, Bronco also provides the crew doors as separately molded parts so you can pose this vehicle with the doors open.

This kit provides three vehicle options including one camouflaged example from an unknown training unit from 1937.

Bronco Models continues to turn out some impressive models and this one is no exception. This model will definitely stand out on your shelf as it is a unique design considering it being one of the first armored cars produced by the Nazi war machine.

This kit is highly recommended!

My sincere thanks to Stevens International for this review sample!