Gulaschkanone

The German field kitchen or Feldküche was developed by Karl Rudolf Fissler in 1892. The Hf.11/Hf.13 Große Feldküche used in WWI was essentially the same field kitchen used later in WWII.

The Hf.11 and Hf.13 had different arrangements for the two compartments to the right of the cooking pot. It is also claimed that the limber (or Vorderwagen) was made of wood for the former, and steel for the later.

Riich 1/35 Hf.11

Verlinden 1/15 Hf.13

In 1/72 scale, the only field kitchens that I know of are made by Sgts' Mess. They have a Hf.13 with wooden wheels which they call a WWI Field Kitchen (GV1), and one with pneumatic tires which they call a WWII Field Kitchen (GV1A).

Both of course can be used as WWII kitchens, with the pneumatic tire version being truck-drawn, and the wooden wheel version being horse-drawn. Unfortunately however, no limber exists for the horse-drawn kitchen.

I bought one of the WWI Field Kitchens because the horse-drawn version seemed to be more commonly used even in WWII. The model is made of white metal with pretty high lead content. It consists of 8 parts for the kitchen, and three accessory items.

After cleaning up some flash and mold lines, I drilled a hole through the undercarriage for the axle (I replaced the one from the kit with a section of paperclip). I also drilled out some material from the top of the stovepipe.

I assembled the model in about 10 minutes, with a majority of the time spent adjusting the length of the support rod so that the kitchen would sit level. Unfortunately, the model is really back heavy and tips over at the drop of a pin. I'm not sure if shortening the support rod can make the kitchen tilt to the front and be more stable, so maybe the only solution is to base the model to ensure it stays upright.

The cooking pot of the Sgts' Mess model is not raised up as much as it should be, and the proportions of the containers to the right of the pot are a bit off, but otherwise the kit is quite decent. Before I paint the model, I'll form a rim around the join at the base of the stovepipe with Kneadatite, and add a rack that is supposed to be on the rear of the model.

Tamiya 1/35 Hf.13

Additional details about the Hf.13 can be found at the Landships site (although many of the pictures used in the article seem to actually be of the Hf.14 Kleine Feldküche).