M42 wire guided rocket (86mm)

Preview by Tony 'Panzer 46' Ivey - panzer1946(at)msn.com
Edited by Rob Haelterman

Material: Resin

Quality: Casting is fair with minimal flash on parts (which is easily cleaned up).

Parts: 6 (missile tube, missile, base plate, support, control arm, leaf sight)

Instructions: Simple profile drawing

Packaging: Zip-Lock bags

Additional: a never-before made kit.
This was a late war Kriegsmarine barrage weapon, the 8.6cm RAG (Raketen Abschussgerät) M42/43 began to enter service in mid 1944 on patrol craft in high risk areas such as the Norway/Skagerrak area. Nine types of ammunition were planned but only 4 types were made - 2x wire cable and 2x HE warheads in 400 and 800 versions which probably has something to do with the range of 400 or 800 meters. The wire cable warhead exploded and threw up a cloud of wire fragments into the path of attacking planes. It was designed to fire from a single launcher or in batteries, and was trialled on a U-Boot and could be used against surface targets. It appears to have definitely entered service. The design of this single launch type with the pedestal type mount would seem to make it easy to have it mounted on pretty much anything (truck, halftrack, building roof tops, ships...). (Much of this data is from Tony MacKinder).

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Article shared with www.ww2militaryminiatures.com with permission of the author and owner.

Article Last Updated: 21 September 2009