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Schatton Models in Germany specializes in brass and aluminum turning, drilling, milling and tooling parts as well as epoxy resin complete kits. ALL KITS BELOW ARE 1/87 HO SCALE.

Schatton Models, from Germany, is the premier manufacturer of specialized replacement brass and aluminum parts.  When you want your model kit to look its best, replace the original plastic or resin components with new parts from Schatton Models.  Schatton Models produces brass and aluminum turning, drilling, milling and tooling parts to upgrade your original plastic or resin model parts for a more authentic and detailed look.  Schatton Models also makes complete epoxy resin kits of the highest quality available in HO scale.

Aluminum model parts can be glued to styrene models using epoxy glue.  A five minute epoxy can be mixed up on a bit of aluminum foil and applied with a toothpick.  Including mixing time that gives the model builder about two minutes to work with getting the model part into place and hold the pieces together until they are solid.

Brass models parts work just like aluminum model parts.  Epoxy is a great method for gluing them to plastic model kits.  Here is another tip, use a drop of regular model glue on the plastic model, and then put a small drop of cyanoacrylate glue on the metal piece.  Then join them together.  The regular model glue will chemically melt the plastic, and the cyanoacrylate glue will fix itself to the metal part.  It’s an advanced technique, but it can minimize the amount of excess glue you sometimes get with epoxy.

Resin can be intimidating, but it is really easy to work with.  The same tools used for building plastic model kits can be used for resin kits.  Some resin parts may have a resin tab on them as a result of the casting process. This tab can usually be removed using a razor saw.  The key here is to avoid sawing into the model part, which means there will still be some of the tab on the model.

Once the majority of the model tab has been cut off, use a coarse sandpaper to sand down the resin tab.  As the tab gets sanded down more and more, it is time to switch to finer grain sandpaper.  Keep sanding until the tab is gone and the part is smooth.  Sanding sticks can be a useful alternative to plain sandpaper.

Anyone can slap together a common plastic model kit.  A Master Modeler, however, knows that the typical barrel on a plastic model is often a solid casting.  The end of the barrel really needs to be bored out, but that can be difficult, and may result in an off-center hole, or a very fragile model.  The solution to this problem is a replacement barrel by Schatton Models.  A finely crafted turned brass or aluminum barrel will have the precise opening to make the gun barrel look exactly correct.  Many Schatton Model barrels have the proper muzzle break or flash hider installed as well, for extra detail.

Have you ever looked closely at the barrel of your typical HO scale cannon, howitzer, or tank?  Is it round?  Is it really?  Often as part of the molding process plastic model kits will make gun barrels, which should have a perfectly circular cross section, that are cast with a flattened, almost oval shaped barrel cross section.  Once you see it, it is difficult not to notice just how bad some of them can be, but wait, there is more to the problem.  Many plastic gun barrels, even some of those that are round, often have a huge pair of flash lines that run the length of the barrel.  Far from what a Master Modeler wants for his completed work.

But what can you do about it?  How can you fix these problems?  You can try to file, or scrape away the flash or mold line along the barrel.  That might work, but often you end up with flat spots along the barrel edge.  Even if it works, that still leaves the solid barrel problem. 

Some people try to fake it by painting a black circle on the end of the barrel, and that might look okay, from a distance, in the right light.  But on close inspection, it’s going to be clear what was done about the solid barrel problem.

Some model builders will try to drill out the barrel.  This is often a noble effort, but the time and work involved usually leads only to frustration and irritation.  If the hole is just the slightest bit off-center it will look terrible and there is no way to fix that issue.  If the hole is centered, it’s nearly impossible to drill a hole large enough to be the proper scale and still have a barrel side wall that is not so fragile that any handling risks barrel side collapse.

The only real solution to these problems of barrel mold lines and solid barrels is a Schatton Models replacement aluminum or brass barrel.  Schatton Models makes a variety of replacement barrels for HO scale military models.  One of the replacement barrels Schatton makes is the 88mm 36L56 for Tiger I.  It is a brass barrel and it has a wonderful muzzle brake.  It looks great on a Herpa, or Roco Tiger I.

The Panzer IV was the most common German tank of World War Two.  The Germans made almost 9,000 of them before and during the war.  The Panzer IV was exported to Spain, Hungary, and even Turkey.  Therefore having a variety of conversion kits allows the Master Modeler the opportunity to have an interesting selection of different Panzer IV models.

The Allied bomber offensive of daylight bombing by the United States Army Air Forces and the British Bomber Command by night caused great disruption in German industry.  As a result, the Germans developed a wide, even, bewildering array of anti-aircraft artillery.  One of the concepts was putting light to medium anti-aircraft guns onto tank chassis for mobility.  The ultimate version of that was mounted on the Panzer IV, and it was called the “Ball Lighting” or “Kubelblitz.”

The Schatton Models Conversion kit for Flakpanzer IV "Kubelblitz" with 30mm gun contains parts made out of resin, brass, and aluminum.  Why so many parts, and why those materials?  Brass barrels are very strong, rigid, and maintain excellent detail.  The aluminum parts are very light weight and are easy to work with.  Resin is strong, and is excellent for casting fine details.  Schatton Models use all three of these materials to make the “Kubelblitz” anti-aircraft gun conversion the finest “Kubelblitz” model in HO scale.

The “Kubelblitz” was designed as a twin 30mm cannon arrangement, mounted in a fully enclosed turret.  Five prototype vehicles were completed and dispatched into the field.  At least two of them saw combat.  One of them fought against the Americans and the second “Kubelblitz” fought against the Russians in Berlin.

75mm L48 brass barrel for Panzer IV is one of the most useful Panzer IV replacement barrels made by Schatton Models.  The 75/L48 tank barrel was very common on the Panzer IV in the late production Model G tanks and in all the Model H and Model J tanks.  Thousands of these guns were used on Panzer IV during World War Two.  Using the Schatton Models replacement barrel really dresses up the Roco Panzer IV tank model.  SDV also makes Panzer IV models that would benefit from the Schatton Models replacement barrels.

Another conversion kit in the Schatton stable is the Flakpanzer Coelian anti-aircraft gun.  It was a prototype for a new turret that would fit on a Panther tank.  The conversion kit consists of a resin turret and two brass 37mm barrels.

The Trident, or Heiser Models, or even one of the old Boley Panther tank hulls can carry this model into miniature combat.  The resin turret and brass barrels are easy to assemble.

In real life, the German Army had requested companies to submit bids for anti-aircraft guns that were mobile enough to keep up with the panzers.  The Coelian was all ready for prototype testing when the Allies landed at Normandy on June 6, 1941.  As a result the High Command instead insisted on more tank production and anti-aircraft guns were given a lower priority.  The factory made a wooden mock up version of the turret and mounted it on one Panther D chassis.  No further work of any consequence was performed on the project before the end of the war.  Still, rumors have persisted that at least one operational vehicle was completed, but that’s unlikely.

For decades, Roco Minitanks has made a World War Two Sturmgeschutz III model.  It comes in an early war short barrel 75mm gun version and a 75mm mid-war long barrel version.  There is a third version of this assault gun and this is the 105mm with the Saukopfblende.  The 105mm was designed to provide direct fire support for the infantry, but Roco does not make this version.  What to do?

Schatton Models makes an excellent 105mm with Saukopfblende for the Sturmgeschutz III in resin and brass.  The resin is used to make the mantlet for the gun.  The barrel and muzzle brake is made of brass.  These two parts replace the single barrel on the Roco Sturmgeschutz III model.  This is a quick and easy conversion and gives you a new vehicle for your collection.

The German anti-aircraft effort was multifaceted.  Not only mobile tank mounted turrets were in the mix, but also a small anti-aircraft mount that could be in a fixed location, mounted on vehicles.  20mm MG 151/20 pedestal mounted triplet was such a weapon.  The 151/20 was a 20mm caliber aircraft weapon that was used on Luftwaffe aircraft beginning in 1940.  Strangely, they were also shipped by Italian submarine to the Japanese were 800 of them were installed in Japanese fighter aircraft. 

This aircraft gun was accurate, reliable, and with a 20mm explosive cartridge was a perfect candidate for an anti-aircraft weapon.  Since aircraft production had not been able to keep up with demand, surplus guns were available.  They were mounted in triple mounts that were lightweight and used few materials.

The Schatton Models kit is made of a resin body and brass barrels.  The finished model can be placed on the tabletop, mounted on halftracks, the SdKfz 251 was a favorite, and even put on armored cars.  It’s light weight and low recoil that made it an excellent gun for aircraft use also gave it versatility on the ground.

Don’t get the idea that Schatton Models only makes World War Two German products.  They also make other model parts.  One of those is the radiator grill for the US Army 2 ½ ton truck.  The radiator grill is made of photo tech brass and looks really great.  This part really shows the value of a photo etched part.  You really can’t get the detail in plastic that photo etching gives this radiator grill.

As the main cargo and personnel truck of the US Army, over half a million of these trucks were made, starting in 1939.  These trucks served all over the world.  They were in combat in the in Alaska, in Tunisia, on Guadalcanal, and all over Europe.  These trucks were used in every climate and in all kinds of terrain and gave great service.

The 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun was unique in World War Two.  It was manufactured by the Swedish company of Bofors prior to the war.  They not only exported a large number of them but they also licensed production of these guns to many other nations.  Then as the war progressed, with Germany capturing other nations, they also captured other nations Bofors guns. 

Poland, for example, used the Bofors guns and the Germans liked them well enough to put them into German service.  Not unexpectedly, Germanys Eastern Front ally, the Hungarian Army also used Bofors guns.  Strangely, even the Japanese military used a large number of Bofors guns.

The US Army had a 37mm anti-aircraft gun that they developed pre-war.  Not satisfied with their own gun, they got a few Bofors guns from the United Kingdom.  The Americans tested the Bofors and found it to be a better gun in nearly all respects.  The US contacted the Swedish and obtained a license to manufacture the Bofors.  The Swedish blueprints were in metric and it took some time for the Americans to convert the documents into Imperial measurements.  Once the blueprints were done, they anticipated production could begin right away on this proven design.

After making a few guns, the factories realized that many of the parts did not fit well.  The first thing they did was check the sizes with the blueprints.  The blueprints were correct.  The problem is the original design was so sloppy the parts were intended to be filed, trimmed, and modified so that each gun was almost hand built, and few parts were interchangeable.  After a significant amount of work the Americans modified the Bofors guns so that they not only could interchange the parts, but they cut the amount of material and the time and cost of production.  Eventually over 80,000 Bofors were manufactured all over the world.

Bofors guns were used by over 50 different nations, Communist, Democratic, and Fascists all agreed on the Bofors gun.  The guns were used on land, on the sea, and even in the air.  Although a pre-World War Two design, it has continued in service to this day, in fact, the US military is refurbishing them and using them in AC-130 gunships.

While Schatton Models are known primarily for their conversion kits and extra detail models they also make a few complete models.  The complete kits are usually resin, and sometimes with brass detail parts.

The German Panzer I ausf C or VK601 tank was first ordered in 1940.  The Germans intended it to be used to accompany parachute and glider troops.  The Germans upgrade the armor compared with the original Panzer I.  The armaments manufacturer Krauss-Maffei built 40 of these little, fast tanks between July to December of 1942.  The tank had interleaved road wheels and torsion bar suspension. The tank has a 20mm gun.

The Schatton Models version of this vehicle has fewer than a dozen parts and is not hard to put together.  Many of them were used in Normandy after the invasion.  Strangely, they seem to have been painted in only Panzer Gray, unusual for a late war tank in France.

Schatton Models for the Master Modeler who wants more detail, more accuracy, and better results!