Sd.Kfz.251/7

Dave Flitton
Watching!!!!

Steven Van Dyck
Welcome, Dave. I'll kick off when my Patton-tank is finished. It will begin traditionally with a lot of tracklink-drilling.

Dave Flitton
Ah, yes, the killer of enthusiasm for any armored project,

Holger Kranich
"Killer of enthusiasm" you´re so right Dave! 😄 lol

Steven Van Dyck
I just contributed by adding the Tank Power volume about this vehicle to the site. I suppose some of you also got it, it's a very useful source with e.g. colour photos of the Saumur example.

Steven Van Dyck
So, that's that. 120 links drilled and pins cut to length.

Steven Van Dyck
Now the bogies are fixed. I scratched some armour plating and altered the underscale front axle suspension elements.

Steven Van Dyck
A problem under the instrument panel is fixed with a scratch tube. The changes about the front axle necessitate a compensatory lowering of the nose. This has been measured by simulating the track setup with some pieces of tracklink and a few roadwheels. Now the half-track should remain level. The Friulmodel sprockets have some nice in-depth improvements on the Dragon ones, but they lack the "Vorwerk" cast lettering that Dragon includes on each wheel.

Steven Van Dyck
The equipment containers inside the hull are scratched with aluminum. The kit is subjected to a careful comparison with Panzer Tracts plans, because of the missing overhang.

Steven Van Dyck
The lack of hull overhang will be corrected bij enlarging all the central parts with 3 mm.

Steven Van Dyck
Now I made a jig to increase the upper hull width with a few millimeter and not tilt the sides while fixing them to the new engine hood.

Steven Van Dyck
The jig has worked and the hull has now the correct offset on the sides.

Steven Van Dyck
Today an insight in the Royal Model upgrade set. The Funksprechgerät and the exhaust prove very useful and the toolboxes really stand out on the dull grey.

Steven Van Dyck
The replacement doors would have been almost a third too small for this Dragon kit. I made some new doors. The Dragon PE is strangely almost exclusively devoted to the underside of the fenders.

Steven Van Dyck
The engine cover had to be remade and some resin pieces take their positions.

Steven Van Dyck
Once the back doors were finished, the interior was painted with dark red primer.

Steven Van Dyck
The pioneer tools from AFV are gathered form the sprues. The bonus figure appears to be some kind of gluable vinyl. It's rather impossible to sand.

Dave Flitton
I thought the internal color of the driver's cab was some kind of Ivory white (like the interior of early Panzers) and the crew area the same color as the exterior. Leaving things in red primer is a late war thing, of which the 251C is not.

Steven Van Dyck
It won't be left in the bare primer. Using the hairspray technique the red color will only be allowed to show where the topcoat got chipped away.

Steven Van Dyck
The tracklink components are glued together. Lots of wheels and guns have to be filed.

Steven Van Dyck
The first painting step is taken. It's all painted in Mr. Hobby Off-White and shadowed. The base paint for the figure is Feldgrau.

Steven Van Dyck
The second step was spraying the hind part German Grey.

Steven Van Dyck
Then some scrubbing with a wet brush and you get chipping, though it's not very predictable. The driver is now glinting like a frog, tomorrow I'll spray everything matte.

Steven Van Dyck
Some pioneer tools are primed yellow today. I bought the Dragon Kursk pioneers as a crew for this vehicle.