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Krankenpanzerwagen with Medical Personnel (35114) Sd.Kfz.251/8 Ausf.A 1:35 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd The Hanomag Sd.Kfz.251 was the mainstay of the German armoured Personnel Carrier fleet, but was flexible enough to also take up many other tasks within the Nazi War Machine, from Anti-Aircraft duties to Howitzer carriage and back again to armoured reconnaissance, which led to a lot of variants. With two steering wheels at the front, the rear was carried on tracks, giving it good clearance and rough ground capabilities that a truck simply could not manage once the going got tough. It was armoured sufficiently to deflect non-armour piercing rounds from small arms fire, but with an open top it was susceptible to both grenades and aerial bombardment, where the armour would concentrate the blast and reduce the interior and its occupants to a tangled mess. The Ausf.A was used at the beginning of WWII alongside the Ausf.B, and was generally fitted with an MG.34 on the front cab wall, operated from inside. The armoured ambulance variant was of course unarmed to avoid braking convention, and in place of the military equipment normally found in the load area, it had two litters for casualties, and was crewed by medical staff. There were more than 20 official variants and more unofficial field modifications, but despite their seemingly ubiquitous nature in German service, not many were preserved after the war, and they are highly sought after now, with many examples being based upon post-war builds from Czech factories that have been made to look as convincing as possible by their restorers. While the purist may notice the differences in films, they're still a huge improvement on repainted American half-tracks from an authenticity point of view. The Kit This is a reboxing with extra parts of the 2018 tooling, and extends the range to a less combative aspect of the vehicle’s operational duties, and includes a set of medical personnel figures to round out the package. The kit arrives in a medium sized box, with a captive flap on the lower tray, and inside are nine sprues of grey styrene, a clear sprue, and two sprues of flexible black parts. A small decal sheet is found slipped inside the glossy colour printed instruction booklet for the half-track, with the figure instruction sheet also present between its pages, completing the package. This is a full interior kit, and has the engine, crew compartment and a substantial number of internal parts, including personal weapons, stowage and two beds mounted on one side, with a stretcher folded against one wall to bring new patients to and from the vehicle, so the build should result in a highly detailed model. The tracks included are of the flexible variety, and should be glued with super-glue (CA). Construction begins with the underfloor pan, which has two cross-members fore and aft, adding the sides of the tray, which is then added to the interior floor, and has stowage bins added to the sponsons over the tracks. The angular hull sides are held in the correct angle by butting up against the sides of the bins, and the rear bulkhead with door cut-out completes alignment. The engine compartment is fabricated from various panels including an armoured sump-guard, and work commences on the engine and compartment fittings. Suspension, steering gear and the block are assembled and fitted in turn, with colour call-outs to help you get the painting right, and a twin-fan radiator at the very front. The firewall is fitted out with the driver's controls with decal applied, then is inserted into a ledge within the hull, after which some engine ancillaries fit to the other side of the bulkhead. The driver's seat, bench seats and a range of tools, an MP40 and spare ammunition are installed with the upper hull plates off, while a narrow former marks the difference between the cab and crew compartment, which will be hidden under the upper hull part when it is installed. The bench seating in the rear compartment is assembled and fitted in place on the left side, adding a four-part ribbed drum at the front between the crew seats, and a single bench seat at the rear, all supported by simple legs with diagonal braces. On the right side, a litter is built from two rails with cross-members and the bed surface, inserting it in four recesses in the floor along with a blanket strapped to the walls, and a co-driver’s seat. The folded away right seats are fastened to the wall, leaving the rear seat open for the use of medical crew or passengers, adding a headrest on supports and several brackets around the edge of the lower walls. The same headrest is also applied to the left jump seat, and a handrail is fixed to the crew divide, drilling holes to accept the pegs long the flat top of the part, preferably before installation. Oddly, the model is then flipped on its back to add a steering linkage and actuator before attention turns to the upper hull. Several vision hatches and their multi-part hinge mechanism are supplied as separate parts, as are the engine compartment hatches, plus some small flush-fitting forward stowage bins. A bullet-splash strip is applied to the roof above the crew eats, but the gun mount and stowage racks are removed, as is the gun mount at the rear of the vehicle, presumably to discourage the crews from the temptation of fitting defensive armament that could result in attacks by a confused enemy. Two thin strips are applied to the lip of the upper hull, fitting a stowage box under the dash on the co-driver’s side, attaching the rack for the upper bed across the opening, and mounting a folded stretcher on the underside of the left lip, a single part that has some impressive moulding to give the impression of multiple parts, some made from fabric. The second bed is made in the same manner as the first, and is mounted as the upper and lower hull halves are joined, trapping the two hinge frames between its halves. The angled doors are then fitted to those hinges, allowing them to operate if you have been careful with the glue, affixing a fire extinguisher to the right door near the centreline. It's unusual to get this far into an AFV model without building up the wheels and/or tracks, but it's at this stage that it's done here. A V-shaped anti-roll bar is fitted to the front axle and the rear hull, fixing swing-arms and stub axles slot into holes in the sides of the chassis, with the interleaved wheels slid onto the axles both in pairs and singly, with the drive sprocket at the front. The two steering wheels are made up from two-part hubs, and have rubberised tyres fitted to them before slotting them onto the front axles, and with the three layers of road wheels installed, the tracks can be wound round the lengths, and glued with a suitable glue, probably super-glue, or CA as modellers tend to call it. The build is finished off by addition of pioneer tools, fire extinguisher, number plate, rear towing hook, spare fuel cans in two-part racks, one per door, crew step at the rear, four hoops to accommodate a tilt in foul weather, rear view mirrors, and headlamps with clear lenses on the front fenders. The Figures This figure set consists of three sprues in grey styrene, one containing the figures, and two their accessories and a collection of weapons, which would typically be only have been carried by their patients. There are four figures on the sprues, one of them the patient that is lying prone on the ground, while the other three medics crouch over the casualty, busily tending to their needs. One chap is holding a drip bottle as high as he can in an attempt accelerate its progress, while the gentleman in the forage cap seems to be offering comfort or holding a bandage in place on the casualty’s leg, while the final medic has the patient’s ankle raised while the bandage is applied or adjusted. The parts for each figure are found in separate areas of the sprue for ease of identification, and parts breakdown is sensibly placed along clothing seams or natural breaks to minimise clean-up of the figures once they are built up. Because of their forward-leaning crouching poses, some of the boots, hands and forearms are separate from their limbs, and you will need a little wire to replicate the feeder tube from the drip bottle. The sculpting is typically excellent, as we’ve come to expect from ICM’s artists and tool-makers, with natural poses, drape of clothing and textures appropriate to the parts of the model. The accessories include the standard kit that all German troops would start out with, such as canteen, cylindrical gas mask container, stahlhelms, mess kit, bayonet in a scabbard, and an entrenching tool. Equipment such as binoculars, rifles, MG34 with bipod, MP40 and various ammo and map pouches are also provided in case you wish to add them to your scene. There is also a set of webbing laid out flat on the ground on the main figure sprue, as if it has been removed before treatment began. The instruction sheet has a sprue diagram on one side above a colour chart that has colour swatches and ICM colour codes, with an incitement to check out their colour set #3022, which contains many of the colours you’ll need. On the opposite side are drawings of the figures, which have colour codes called out in letter codes in red boxes, and the individual parts in black along with the letter of their sprue. You’ll need to apply a little common sense to the location of some parts where the join isn’t visible, but it’s nothing that a few moments of contemplation and test-fitting won’t resolve. Markings In keeping with German armour it's either Panzer Grey or Dunkelgelb (dark yellow) for the half-track, the later camouflaged with green mottle as the war progressed, any camouflage benefits cancelled out by the large red and white crosses painted on each side, front and bonnet of the vehicle. From the box you can build one of the following: Sd.Kfz. 251/8 Ausf.A livery Variant for North Africa, 1941-42 Sd.Kfz. 251/8 Ausf.A livery Variant for Eastern Front, 1941-42 Decals are printed on a bright blue paper, have good register, colour density and sharpness, with decals for the driver's binnacle included on the sheet. Conclusion A welcome re-release of a Wehrmacht staple with a more peaceful task in mind, with a set of figures that flesh out the package (excuse the pun), and is well detailed enough to be built out of the box for diorama purposes. Very highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

So this is my Tamiya halftrack diorama. It depicts a german infantry unit taking a bit of a break during the battle in France. You can find the buildlog here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235132104-tamiya-hanomag-in-france-without-the-krupp/ It was a joy to build this model. In typical tamiya style all the parts went together really nice. The model lacks a bit of detail and i think i will build a second halftrack in the future using a kit with a bit more detail. I used figures from Alpine and Miniart. There is a difference in molding ( details are a bit crude on the miniart figures ) and also in size. The Alpine figures are much more refined and a joy to paint. The miniart figures are ok but need much more work to make them look half decent. The diorama base is a complete scratchbuild using styrofoam and various AK diorama products. My first attempt to make water flowing down looks a bit rough..... Overall i'm happy with the look of the whole scene. I kept the weathering light, a bit of dust and some streaking but nothing over the top. Thank you all for stopping by and taking the time to look at the photo's. All comments and or tips to improve are welcome. Still struggeling a bit with the photo settings. There is something to learn too. On to the next build. Something german named 'Moritz'

This will be my first build for the GB, but I think I need to go find something quirky to scratchbuild to accompany it….

While the rigging on my Cutty Sark continues to test my patience my thoughts turned to a more simple build. The has lurked in my stash for some time Not only is it a kit I built as a kid but also in the original packaging, but before anyone says I should have sold it and purchased the current classic offering take a look at the contents. there are a number pieces missing - mainly the chassis, despite that I considered the first stage would be a quick build so literally a few minutes later it looks like a nought track. So off the the spares box now to see if I can find a suitable donor chassis. If anyone collects the header instructions for Airfix kits and wants this sheet please PM me and I will drop it into the post for you. header taken

Hi, Normally I am an aircraft modeller, but this halftrack is something I built while "the paint was drying" on my recent Sabre. It is completely built straight out of the box, apart from the decals, which were aftermarket and were even thicker than the Tamiya decals. In the end for the front engine cover I used a mask and airbrushed the ring and star on. Thanks for watching. That's all....... Rgds

I finished a Tamiya 1/35 halftrack recently. Please tell me where to improve it.

White Motor Company M16A1 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage – Standard M3 Personnel Carrier converted to Multiple Gun Motor Carriage by removing rear seats and installing a Maxson M45 Quad 50 Cal Machine turret. These vehicles are easily identified by the lack of the folding armoured hull panels found on purpose-built M16s Pics thanks to Alan.

White Motor Company M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage. M3 based Multiple Gun Motor Carriage equipped with the Maxson M45 Quadmount (specifically the M45D) with four M2HB 0.5" machine guns. Pics thanks to Alan.

Sd.Kfz. 250 Sonderkraftfahrzeug 250 German Halftrack pics thanks to Dave.

Sd.Kfz. 9 - Sonderkraftfahrzeug 9 - German Halftrack "Famo", pics thanks to Dave.

Sd.Kfz. 8 - Sonderkraftfahrzeug 8 - German Halftrack, pics thanks to Dave.

ok - this will be my WIP for the 1/35 Italeria DEMAG D7 (Sd.K7Z 10/5) mounting a 50mm pak 38. Kit + eduard PE + Resin wheels (first time) looks nice in the box.... will be done a unknown German unit, Russia 1944 in Schwarzgrau/Dunkelb scheme..... photos to follow

In 1944, 3 British Commando's decided that they had had enough of bimbling round Europe on foot. Luckily they came across an M16 with the keys left in & engine running. Being Churchill's best they did what they did best & liberated the vehicle. On finding a garage they qued the music & modified the van, adding roof bars, PSP planking & a spot light. The large white stars didn't fit in with their low key approach so some black paint was applied. This is my first Amour build (mostly build aircraft). I really enjoyed it. Spray painted Humbrol 30 from a rattle can, It was weathered using Flory light dust wash,& AK pigments. The aerial is made from a paint brush & the PSP is the foil from my old razor. Please leave comments & anything I can improve on, as I have the Tamiya 1/35 M16 Halftrack to build. Thanks for looking