Stripped Sd.Kfz. 7
Transmission as Dragon would have you fit it in the chassis.
Transmission as it should actually fit, inserted from underneath rather than above.
Front suspension built, rear suspension still loose in order to work out how to best compress it to replicate the sit of the real vehicle.
The floor provided in the kit is that of the Sd.Kfz. 7/1 or /2 anti-aircraft vehicle, not of the artillery tractor.
Supports taken back off, transverse ribs cut away and hinges filed off to make it closer to correct for this version.
Two suspension arms removed from mounting brackets, other yet to be done.
All arms cut free and brackets glued to chassis, with some plastic card to make up for lost material.
Mounting brackets sliced off chassis again and glued to subframe instead, to ensure they line up correctly (which they didn’t on the first try).
Attempt number 3: they’re on the correct arms of the subframe now 🙂
Chassis with front wheels and roadwheels on, with a piece of hardboard to make up the thickness of the tracks.
Chassis with suspension arms, axles and some other details added (top view).
Chassis with suspension arms, axles and some other details added (underside view).
Left mudguard over the track replaced by a scratchbuilt brass piece.
Cab with replacement rear, seat plate and sides, as the side walls in the kit were the wrong type and the seat cushions had been nicked from the real vehicle. Also, the mudguard has been bent with fingers and pliers to replicate damage.
Taken the whole seating area off because it turned out to be based almost entirely on wrong assumptions 🙁
Basic panels for the seating area, attempt No. 2. The side panels were salvaged from the previous, but with new, square reinforcements added from three lengths of strip.
Cab’s basic structure complete and temporarily fitted to the chassis.
Load bed with replacement supports from plastic strip assembled into U-channel shape, and additional details on the inside of the side panels from plastic strip and punched bolt heads.
Ledge added below spark plug recesses from plastic strip, and holes for spark plugs drilled, plus carburettor mounting fitted.
Right side of the engine, with a piece of sheet metal above the intake removed, because the spark plugs were under there and would most likely have been pilfered from the engine very rapidly.
Much of the valve gear built into the top of the engine. Main thing left to add are the rocker arms.
Underside of load bed detailed, with replacement spare wheel carrier (Dragon’s is far too big) and small fuel tank for under the dashboard.
Battery box inside the cab.
Basic shape of the dashboard added, with holes where dials are missing and the fuel tank’s filler tube still needs to be added.
Replacement mudguard primed with Mr. Surfacer applied with a brush,
Rocker arms partly added, from triangles cut from plastic strip and discs punched from plastic card. It still needs strip added over the top of each, once the glue is good and dry.
Radiator added inside the fan shroud from a piece of plastic card covered in fine, metal mesh.
Rocker arms now complete, by glueing a piece of bent plastic strip over each, and bolt heads added to the things holding the shafts in place.
Cab with supports for driver’s seats added.
Dashboard now (almost) finished — it needs a few small things still.
Added engine bay details: base for air cleaners, guard plate over steering gear with shelf for blowtorches, and relocated horn (which is actually an M113 part).
The side panels of the load bed, with replacement hinges because Dragon’s are far too big, and rivets added that Dragon also missed.
Load bed mostly finished, other than a few details.
Underside of the load bed.
How the side panel is secured against breaking off: 0.5 mm steel florist’s wire in holes drilled through the frame and the bits of plastic strip.
More details added to the load bed.
And additional detail that Dragon “forgot” on the cab, as well as some of the kit’s etched parts and stuff.
More detail added to the engine. Not there yet, though …
More details added to the engine as well as the grille.
Drive wheels with antislip etched parts added (and primed grey), and inner roadwheels fitted with scratchbuilt hubs because the outer wheels had been stolen from the real vehicle.
Finished model, minus the parts that will be added after painting. The main subassemblies are still loose for ease of airbrushing.
Finished model, minus the parts that will be added after painting. The main subassemblies are still loose for ease of airbrushing.
Finished model, minus the parts that will be added after painting. The main subassemblies are still loose for ease of airbrushing.
All the main parts painted with Mr. Hobby H403 Dark Yellow plus a little Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan thrown in, the tracks with a semi-random mixture of Tamiya XF-52 Dark Earth and XF-1 Flat Black, and the engine with that same mix darkened (a lot) with XF-69 NATO Black.
Camouflage applied, using the engine cover parts as masks. The patterns are based on the few available pictures of this vehicle.
Camouflage on the left side, which is almost entirely speculative due to a lack of photos. The paints used are Vallejo 71.043 US Olive Drab and 71.041 RAL8017 Rotbraun, but note that this bottle of OD was far greener than the American colour should be.
And random sand-coloured clouds sprayed in the large areas that will remain dark yellow, to break up the monotony.
Dark wash from Mig applied over all the vehicle, but thinned about 1:1 with water because it was far too steong otherwise.
The wash serves both to shade the model and to create some dirt and wear effects.
After the wash, the dark yellow parts were drybrushed with the same Mr. Hobby dark yellow used as the base coat, and then with a lighter yellowish sand colour to highlight detail.
Weathering intended to make it look like rain left streaks on the vehicle, made with downward strokes with an almost dry brush.
Decals applied. The real vehicle appears to have had plate number WH-999731.
Some engine details painted and then overall washes applied to shade and dirty the engine.
Exhaust pipe fitted to the chassis. Don’t follow Dragon’s method, but glue the muffler halved together outside the vehicle, then cut off the front pipe so you can install the muffler and pipe separately after painting.
Front end with headlamp glass added, plus engine and exhaust manifold temporarily in place. The engine has been drybrushed with dark to medium grey to create highlights.
Engine compartment finished, except for some minor painting to tie things together better.
Painted tracks, though they need to be lightened a bit as they seem too dark compared to pictures of the real vehicle.
Tracks drybrushed to lighten them a bit, and then installed.
Finished model with junk in the back and a figure for scale.
Comments
29 10 January 2022, 15:13
Jakko Yeah, I didn't see it either last time I was there … and I had been meaning to bring my Agfa Box to take some detail snaps of it!
16 January 2022, 18:13
Jakko And better than the "3 steps forward, 2 steps back" someone referred to this model on another forum 🙂
26 January 2022, 21:10
Jakko Great! 🙂
This build is (another) derelict vehicle as it stood after the war, and if you look closely at this photo of it: [img1] (click the green field with a "1" below), you can see that the valve cover on the engine is missing, so I find myself having to build what's underneath that …
27 January 2022, 18:12
OlivierI am always hesitant as to the colour an engine should be painted. I like the path you chose.
18 February 2022, 15:46
Jakko I don't know the colour it should have, really. All I know is that photos of the real vehicle show a dark engine block, and I've seen photos in books of dark grey engines in restored Sd.Kfz.7s — but also one painted dark yellow, in a vehicle whose restoration accuracy is not that great anyway, I think, so I decided to go with a generic dark grey.
18 February 2022, 18:23
Album info
A model of an Sd.Kfz. 7 stripped of useful parts, as it stood in Markt square in the town of Middelburg, Netherlands, after the war.
