39M Csaba Hungarian Armoured Car Miniman Factory 1/35 MMF35006

Product features:
-photo etched fenders

History:
Hungarian expatriate Nicholas Straussler designed several armoured cars for Britain while living there between the two world wars. Straussler came to an agreement with the Weiss Manfred factory of Csepel, Budapest to produce vehicles from his designs for use in his home country - the most prominent was the Csaba (named after the son of Attila the Hun) which was designed based on his experience of the Alvis AC2 armoured car.

After successful trials in 1939, the Hungarian Army placed an order for 61, and a further order for an additional 40 vehicles was placed in 1940. Of these, twenty were used as actual fighting vehicles, with the remainder serving as armoured command cars and reconnaissance vehicles.

The Csaba had a 20mm cannon and an 8mm machine gun fixed on a centrally mounted turret, with 9mm armoured plating. The vehicle was also equipped with a detachable 8mm light machine gun fired through the rear hatch in the anti-aircraft role. The crew could dismount and carry this MG when conducting reconnaissance on foot. It also had two driving positions - one at the front as normal, and an additional one at the rear.

The 40M Csaba was a command version armed only with the turret mounted 8mm machine gun. This vehicle was fitted with a second R-4T radio which had a large lattice radio mast.