Leichter Raupenschlepper Famo - German Improvised Tank

Back to the Balkans it seems.

The forces which carried out the occupation of Yugoslavia and that fought the multiple factions of Yugoslav partisans were themselves made up of multiple different groups. Some territories were held by the Croatian NDH; some were held by Italians; others were held by the Germans. Though some more motivated and well-equipped German forces did come in (primarily the SS sending units in to do… SS things), most were low-echelon Wehrmacht soldiers. These men were ill-equipped, especially in the way of armored vehicles; most of the tanks seen in the Balkans were either captured foreign tanks like Renault R35s or outdated types like Panzer Is and IIs. Some units didn’t get armor at all. These are the circumstances that birthed… this.

This ‘tank’ is very obscure. There is no documentation of it and only four pictures of it exist. There is no record of it being built, destroyed, or even of its dimensions. What is known is as follows; this is an improvised tank built on a FAMO Boxer agricultural/towing tractor. It was used (probably) in the Independent State of Croatia to fight partisan cells, and was operated by a Wehrmacht crew. It had a crew of two (driver and commander/gunner) and was armed with a 7.92 mm machine gun, likely an MG 34.

That’s… that’s all that there is. It must have survived for at least a while, as three photos depict it in a sunny, spring or summer-looking environment and one in the snow. The photo in the snow also depicts the vehicle having a few details seemingly absent in other photos, like what seems to be a small hatch on the rear of the turret - I have not included this hatch as the photo is unclear as to what it is and the other three photos do not have it.

To put it plainly, this file is not entirely accurate. I believe the geometry on the front of the rear superstructure is slightly wrong, and I could not find dimensions for any of this anywhere; I couldn’t even find dimensions for the tractor it was based on. I estimated dimensions based on the assumption that the weapon in the turret was an MG 34, using its barrel length to approximate the size of the hull, but for all I can tell it may not be an MG 34 at all, but instead an MG 15. Next to figures it looks roughly accurate, and given there are only four photos to base this file off of, that’s enough for the tabletop in my book. The engine deck and tracks do have all of their details.

Works in FDM, would work in resin too I presume. Print at 0.1mm layers. Enjoy your 7+ armor rating single MMG; good if you’re low on points, I guess? It's basically a Renault FT.