Category Archives: Wartburg

News from the Continent – Herpa to April 2021

By Hans-Georg Schmitt

Herpa mainly make models in plastic in Europe, though some models are made in China. Unless otherwise stated the models shown have been made in Europe. The models shown in the article are moulded in plastic to 1:87 scale. This article looks at a few of the releases advertised in their newsletters between the end of 2020 and April 2021.


420860 Mercedes-Benz G-model – Cabriolet – sand beige

A very accurate and detailed body moulding with a number of separate components for lights, grille etc.


122108 Scania CS 20 HD articulated curtain sided truck “Coles & Sons”

Authentically shaped and detailed with livery reproduced in detail. Coles and Sons are a freight forwarder from Banbury in the UK. This is packed in a presentation box.



095822 Wartburg 353 Tourist (estate) 1966 “Deutsche Post/Studio Technik Fernsehen”

Dark blue moulded body with roof printed in white. Bumpers and radiator grille are ‘chrome plated’ and lights are separately inserted items.


095846 Volkswagen Crafter bus with low roof – red

Separately inserted lights, nice steel effect wheels as well as a neatly printed VW logo o the grille all go to make this a detailed model.


312738 Scania CS 20 HD articulated refrigerated box truck “Harrisons”

Authentically shaped and with lots of excellent details. This truck is in the livery of the freight forwarders Harrisons, from Preston in the UK. Chrome plated wheel rims capture a feature of the lovingly finished original truck.


420433 Citroen GS saloon – blue

The first of a series of four Herpa oldtimer models planned. This has been made in China like the Herpa Magic series of old timers was many years ago. The body is moulded in blue, and a number of components are separately inserted like the bumpers, door mirror, lights etc.



313100 MAN TGX GX 6×4 articulated tractor unit with loading crane – white

Impressively detailed loading crane makes this a really impressive model which captures the MAN cab and grille very well and has plenty of separately moulded parts fitted.


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.

Autocult Release 9 2020

By Maz Woolley

Autocult’s release 9 for 2020 has arrived a little later than planned. It is also a smaller release than collectors might expect. Perhaps Chinese production facilities are still struggling to get back to full scale production in these unsettled times.

Still, as ever, Autocult has come up with three interesting models for collectors in this release. As usual these models are resin moulded, built, and detailed in China for Germany. The most mainstream model is the Simca Aronde Plein Ciel in their ‘past brands’ theme. An intriguing East meets West Wartburg-Mercedes 170V in the ‘engineers/small series’ theme. And the Lysell Rally from the ‘prototype’ theme.

#02024 Simca Aronde Plein Ciel (France, 1957)

The Aronde launched in 1951 was the first Simca product which was not derived from its Ford France heritage and by 1955 the car was already in its second series and selling well. Seeking a more glamorous image for the brand Simca launched two special models late in 1956, the Océane’and Plein Ciel. These were based on the same body with the first being a convertible, and the second a removeable hardtop. The styling is very like a ‘mini me’ of the original Ford Thunderbird and it is very similar to similarly inspired the Auto Union 1000SP.

A contemporary Norev plastic model of this car was made to 1:43 and modern part work diecasts made by PCT Industries for Altaya and others are available on the secondary market. ESDO and HECO made resin models/kits of this car some time ago which are also seen secondhand from time to time.

The later part of the 1950s was a time when European manufacturers were taking basic family cars and creating exclusive versions with attractive bodies. In France Renault dressed up the Dauphine to create the Caravelle which was available open, and as a hard top. Whilst in Germany the Volkswagen Beetle was being ‘dressed up’ as the VW Karmann-Ghia.

Simca did not have the factory capacity to build these cars themselves so assembly was farmed out to Facel, famous for the luxury Facel Vega. This hand made construction meant that these special Simcas came at a high price and consequently only around six thousand were sold. Production started in 1957 and ended in 1962.

#05033 Wartburg-Mercedes 170 V (German Democratic Republic, 1956)

Here Autocult uncover an interesting insight into post-war East Germany, and one that I struggle to find much information about. Perhaps a reader knows more and can send us some further details. After the Second World War German car plants, which had been geared up to produce military vehicles and other war materiel, often suffered badly from war damage and poor maintenance and took a considerable amount of effort to get back into production. In the Russian dominated eastern sector of Germany there were many plants but few company headquarters. In almost all cases East German plants re-started in the post-war years producing vehicles that had been made in these factories pre-war. Under pressure from West German companies they had to change the name plate as the designs and brands were all held by West German companies. Examples of this are the EMW based upon pre-war BMW designs and Wartburgs which grew out of DKW designs.

I was not aware, until Autocult made me so, that a copy of the Mercedes-Benz 170V was made in the early post war period in the eastern sector. I guess that is not unexpected as this was one of the staff cars heavily used by the German Army during the Second World War. I guess that production had been dispersed around Germany to avoid plants being destroyed by allied bombing. Perhaps such a production facility located in the eastern sector was used to go on producing 170V copies as long as the spares and other components could be found to build them.

With the formation of the communist German Democratic Republic (DDR) car production became governed by five year plans and the rationalisation of car production meant that many of the pre-war vehicles were dropped in the mid-1950s onwards in favour of the DKW based Wartburg and Trabant. With cars difficult to buy, and with limited choice, the early post war EMWs and Mercedes-Benz 170V copies remained popular, indeed they gained a prestige value as they were different to the standard state offerings.

A small privately run family workshop in Görlitz recognised the continued popularity of the Mercedes-Benz name and its four stroke engine. But the post-war produced 170V cars were basic and wearing out so they decided to take a Wartburg 311 and refashion the front to incorporate a modified 170V radiator shell and they replaced the two stroke Wartburg engine with a reconditioned 170V four cylinder four stroke engine. In fact the performance of the older 170V engine was scarcely better than the new two stroke Wartburg unit but it was less ‘frantic’.

Such conversions were made until the end of the 1950s when presumably the supply of old 170V vehicles ran out. How many were produced is not known but sources consulted by Autocult suggest between twenty and thirty-six.

#06040 Lysell Rally (Norway, 1951)

Moving to Norway in 1949 Ralph Lysell, who was was born in Stockholm but became Americanised, brought his designs for various cars with him. After the Second World War vehicle imports to Norway were strictly controlled and he offered to set up a state-owned production facility.

His plans for a sports car, a truck, and a taxi found interested investors in the early 1950s. Armed with finance he set out to create the sports car first, perhaps a strange decision in a post war world crying out for utility vehicles. The sports car was called Rally which was a contraction of his name RALph LYcell. The prototype was developed in the ‘Norwegian Aircraft Industries Ltd’ factory.

The vehicle used many aluminium parts as these were available from the aircraft industry and the metal could be worked more easily than steel. Four or five prototypes were created and fitted with US Ford engines, though production cars were intended to have either German or American engines. In 1951 he was interviewed by the Norwegian press and he claimed he already had fifteen orders for the sports car and that his next project was to be a special Taxi which he hoped to bring to the market in 1952. Sadly this was all a dream and no Lysell vehicles ever entered production.

#99120 Autocult Yearbook and Special Model

This annual book will provide detailed histories of all the vehicles made by Autocult in 2020. It will be available on its own or with a special model which will be revealed later this year.


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.

News from the Continent June 2019 – Herpa

Hans-Georg Schmitt

Text and photographs copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated.

Here is a look at a selection of models produced by Herpa in Q1 and Q2 of 2019. All are moulded in plastic in Europe for Germany at a scale of 1:87.


094351 Volkswagen Touareg SUV “German Red Cross Grevenbroich”

A German Red Cross Emergency doctor´s staff car.


Photograph of the original vehicle. Copyright holder unknown but acknowledged..
110976 Scania CR 20 HD artic. Tractor “Forwarder Maik Terpe”

A very detailed miniature produced in a limited edition. This reproduces the costly airbrushed painting of the original in fine detail.


024150-004 Wartburg 353 Tourist (estate) 1956 – light blue

Here Herpa reproduce the first version of the 353 which had a radiator grille made from anodised aluminium.


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.

News from the Continent February 2019 – Herpa

By Hans-Georg Schmitt

Text and photographs copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated.

Here are a selection of models released in the last two months of 2018 and some from early 2019. These models are to 1:87 scale made in Europe for Germany.


309141 (309158/309165) IVECO Stralis Highway XP articulated tractor unit

The brand-new Stralis is now introduced into the Herpa range to complement the launch of the latest version of the truck. It has been moulded in white, blue or red.


094085 Audi Q7 “Audi Mobile Tradition”

The department Audi Mobile Tradition responsible for the Audi Museum runs two of the latest Audi Q7 SUV’s to transport classic vehicles pulling a closed trailer. These are often see moving cars from the Audi museum to events. Here the model is finished in the company livery.


094016 Wartburg 353 Tourist 1985 “NVA”

The National People´s Army of the former German Democratic Republic used this type of vehicle as a command vehicle. The model is authentically equipped with two different coloured beacon lights and a loudspeaker.


309509 MAN TGX XLX articulate fuel tanker “ESSO”

Herpa once again releases a fuel tanker as a limited edition. Esso, formerly known by its slogan “Put the tiger in your tank!” is the fuel provider who forms the basis for this model of the MAN TGX with a tanker trailer liveried in the current company livery.


How truck design has changed over the last 65 years!

At the beginning of the 1950s Henschel, based in Kassel, launched their ‘big’ articulated tractor HS 190 S with bi-motors. Wiking released the then huge articulated tanker with and Ellinghaus trailer in 1953 and kept it in their catalogue until 1958.

The rounded design changed into a squared one early in the 1960s, developed by the famous noted Louis L. Lepoix.

Today cabs are more rounded again, shaped using tests in a wind tunnel. The Esso Livery has changed too with the livery in red and white on white rather than on solid red.


309189 (309196) Mercedes-Benz Actros Bigspace 2018

This tractor unit to pull articulated trailers has been released in white and red.


309202 (309219) Mercedes-Benz Actros Gigaspace 2018

The tractor unit has been released in white and black to pull articulated trailers.


309226 (309233) Mercedes-Benz Actros Streamspace 2.5 2018

This tractor unit has been released in white and yellow.


309677 IFA G5 dump truck “VEB coal merchant”

Handpicked “people´s own” companies could get the IFA G5 in a civil version. Here Herpa releases a delivery truck of the VEB coal merchandising firm. In the DDR most of the coal available was brown coal (Lignite) which burned with a distinctive odour which was cast over the whole DDR.

The latest IFA G5 compared to an earlier release of the model which though plainer in finish has the ram to raise the tipper modelled.


309745 (309752) Scania CG 17 6×6 articulated Tractor

The new tractor unit has been released in white and red.

Unimaginative Design or diktat of the wind tunnel ?

Placing the model trucks side by side, there is a strong and rather boring resemblance. In particular the cab units all look very similar with only the grilles showing any real difference.

The wind tunnel may be responsible for the body shape, but why do the design of the lower areas below the windscreen looks so similar? That is an unanswered question.


700689 Mercedes-Benz C-Class T-model (estate) “Bundeswehr”

For all older German men, who have served their army time in the German Bundeswehr, the latest Bundeswehr staff cars are looking strange. The familiar matt green “NATO olive” colour which used to be used on all vehicles is gone in many cases. Today most vehicles used day to day are leased and are ordered in normal body colours, so that resale value at the end of the lease is improved.


News from the Continent September 2018 – Herpa

By Hans-Georg Schmitt

All text by, and copyright of the Author. Photographs supplied by the Manufacturer or taken by the Author and copyright applies..

Here is a selection of the releases during July and August from Herpa.

420280 Mercedes-Benz G-model – polar white
420623 Mercedes-Benz G-model – obsidian black metallic

In February 2018 Mercedes-Benz presented their new G class model. With a long wheelbase and interesting details like a chromed wheel cover at the rear as well as embossed radiator bars, Herpa have made a miniature in 1:87 scale.

 


093781 Wartburg 353 Tourist 1966 “Mitropa”

Established in 1916, Mitropa´s role was to supply travellers in trains, at train stations, and motorway services. After the Second World war it became the catering division for Deutche Reichsbahn the national railway of East Germany. Herpa has created the Wartburg estate car as a service vehicle. The model is ideally suited for model railways.


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page,  or email us at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.