The Rheinbote (Rhine Messenger) was a short range surface to surface missile developed to replace or supplement the Wehrmacht's large bore artillery, work took place from 1941 to 1943 under Oberstleutnant Alfred Troller. Made of steel the rocket had four stage each reducing in diameter with the final stage carrying the 40kg warhead of which only 20kg was explosive. Not much bang for your buck and this was what led to the eventual cancellation of orders. Around 300 had been initially ordered with around 220 produced before the end of the war. The rockets were tested by Versuchskommando Troller which was then redesignated Artillerie Abteilung 709. Records show this Abteilung already existed so the suffix Raketen may have been used? The missile was originally meant to be fired from modified Flak 88 gun mounts but to improve manouverability a modified Meilerwagen, which were used to transport V2 rockets, was used. On 24 December 1944 it fired 24 rockets at Antwerp from Nunspeet, most of them missing their target due to various reasons. In total the Abteilung fired more than 200 rockets by the end of the war.
The Special Armour kit was announced by Hannants on their Future Releases page over two years ago, which was when I put it on Back Order. The kit was finally (re?)released this year and mine arrived. It consists of 5 sprues of tan coloured plastic and an instruction booklet giving a short history and colour call outs. After spraying with primers I started building this whilst enjoying the sun in the garden,

Another different one Chris.

Having previously built the Meilerwagen I knew the pitfalls of the basis for this kit, small parts that had even smaller attachment points, so a lot of superglue was used. After getting the basic chassis together it was time to move on to the modified parts. The instructions aren't overly clear as to what goes where so it was dry fitting over and over again. The missile was painted RLM 75 Grauviolett with the fins fitted into the small slots provided but there is no image showing the pitch which led to problems later as I hadn't got them wide enough to clear the air tanks at the rear of the trailer. This meant placing the missile slighthly further forward on the launch ramp. All the travel clamps were superglued into place onto the missile first before attaching to the frame as the missile sat nose up and had to be 'bent' down slightly. The carpet monster tried to eat two fins during this process but failed both times thankfully. A strap has to be made for the rear of the missile and luckily dimensions for this are given. Mine came from steel painted Tamiya tape. There are attachment points for the rear blastplate shown in the instructions but they're not on the moulding so parts were found in the spares box. Once attached all that was left to fit was a handle at the side and the outriggers. These had to cut down if the trailer was to be shown in the travel mode. Overall painting was Xtracrylic Dunklegelb with the launch frame being first painted in a deep red then Vallejo Red. A dark wash was then applied before Vallejo Tan was lightly sprayed over the trailer followed by a thin coat of Smoke applied to the rear. Due to the number of small parts I wouldn't recommend this kit to a beginner. Now I need to source a Sd.Kfz8 9ton halftrack to tow it. Has anyone got one going spare?

Sounds like another labour of love Chris.  Looks good.

Looks the part.

Looking great - will it shoot down one of Neils spitfires at a club meeting       

Nice work Chris.
It battled you all the way by sounds of it, but the end result is really impressive.
Well done.
Kevin

Thanks everyone. Not sure if it could hit one of Neil's Spitfires intentionally, but you never know. My Rheintochter or Feuerlilie definitely would.