From the "Fact is Stranger than Fiction" file comes the Kugelpanzer. The Germans actually built one of these, and the proof is that it currently resides in the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia. However, its history is somewhat murky - no one really knows who built it or even when it was built. Some say it was a pre-WW II design. Others say it was transferred to the Japanese and captured by the Soviets during WW II. Nobody even knows if it was a functioning machine. Where was the engine? And the Russians seem reluctant to let anyone have a peek inside the machine today.
The kit by Das Werks is injection molded in 1/35 scale. Not much to the kit, as no interior is provided. But two kits are in the box.
There are a bunch of wacky paint/decal options, but no one really knows exactly how it looked when it was "rolled" out. The Kubinka specimen is just painted an overall grey with some German crosses.
Assembly goes by very quickly.
I cut away a portion of the internal support structure to give one of the models a more open visor slot. The Notek light and mount on the lower front of the hull is spurrious. The mount has been removed (actually knocked off) from one of the models already.
Ivan and Natasha pose next to the Kugelpanzer to illustrate its relatively small size.
Currently I am busying myself filling in the annoying seam line running through the "treads".
I am planning on building one similar to the Kubinka specimen, the other will be something very different. Stay tuned.