Austria’s all wheel drive Steyr 1500A was one of the many personnel/transport vehicles which was designed to meet Whermacht requirement for standard army 1,5 ton truck. Presented in 1941, the Steyr was used as troop transport in all the war theaters. A total of more than 20,000 were built, in a wide range of variants
Tamiya presents basic and command versions. The chassis of Steyr 1500A and it’s reinforced variant Steyr 2000A were also used for Fire trucks, Omnibus (Leadwarrior kit Lw35026), Ambulance (Leadwarrior kit Lw35025), universal “Funk-Koffer”, and different types of cargo carriers.
The initial variant of cargo truck on Steyr 1500A chassis had opened driver’s compartment combined with wooden trunk (Leadwarrior kit Lw35023).
Later Steyr 2000A cargo trucks with full-metal cabin and reinforced rear springs were introduced, utilising standard frame shassis (Leadwarrior kit Lw35027), or long frame shassis (Leadwarrior kit Lw35024). That later variant had standard wheels base, but additional frame section was added to support longer flatbed cargo platform.
In second half of WWII, due to superiority of Allies in the air, Germany faced an urgent need in Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft vehicles.
Beside many official developments, utilizing panzers and halftraks chassis (see Leadwarrior kits Lw35014, Lw35022), there was a wide range of troop improvisations made by infantry units using all sort of vehicles and guns.
This kit presents the conversion of Steyr 2000A long-frame cargo truck chassis to carry 2cm. Flak.38 AA Gun. The complete gun including the field carriage was mounted. This way the gun could be used in the static position, while the vehicle could be used for supply purposes.
(Later the official variant of this vehicle was introduced. It utilized the same Steyr 2000A chassis, but instead of 2cm. Flak.38 the 3cm. Flak.108/38 mounted on pedestal was used.)
Longframe Steyr 2000A chassis.
Note extended rear frame section and reinforced springs.
