Sd. KFZ 251/1 Ausf B***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

As I mentioned in the intro to my Sd Kfz 222 build, back in the early 1970's I bought a couple of Fujimi 251 kits and here they are in Afrika Korps and late war colours together with what I think is the Fujimi ex Nitto Sd Kfz 250 released somewhat later.

 

A few years back I bought another 251 intending to finish it in grey, but only got as far as priming it and painting/joining the tracks.

The Germans probably built more different types of half track than anybody else using them as artillery tractors, recovery vehicles, mobile AA guns, personnel carriers etc. and it is the latter use I am interested in here. Back in around 1935 they decided that an armoured infantry carrier would be a good idea to support their planned armoured divisions and Hanomag were asked to design one based on the Sd Kfz 11 chassis with a body designed by Bussing-Nag. The result was initially called the Mittlere Gepanzerte Mannschaftskraftwagen though later this was changed to Mittlere Schutzenpanzerwagen Sd Kfz 251. It was eventually built in around 25 different variants depending on the purpose - personnel carrier, ambulance engineers vehicle etc, each type designated in the form Sd Kfz 251/1, Sd Kfz /10 etc, and with 4 different body variants ranging from the initial Ausfuhrung (Ausf) A to the late and simplified Ausf D which made up most of the production. As an infantry carrier the "medium" 251 could carry up to 12 men but a need was seen for a lighter version and the smaller "light" Sd Kfz 250 which was introduced in 1941 held 6 men. Although we tend to think of the Wehrmacht as being highly motorized that was far from the case and in fact most of the infantry had to walk or if they were lucky were carried in trucks - only 15250 Sd Kfz 251 and 4250 Sd Kfz 250 of all types were built by the end of the war and many did not carry infantry. Initially the 251 was issued to the "Panzer Grenadier" regiments so they could hopefully keep up with the tanks but in the battles both in France and later in Russia there were many instances of the tanks having to wait hours if not days for the bulk of the infantry and support to catch up thus rather spoiling the effect of the Blitzkreig tactics. This compares with about 15000 basic M3 carriers and another 38000 variants built if I am reading Wiki correctly, or 57000 Universal (Bren Gun) carriers of all types by 1945.

 

The Fujimi kit appears to have the bodywork of the Ausf B, production of which ended in 1940, and comes with the option of the normal 251/1 with 12 crew and 2 MG 34, later MG 42, and the 251/10 which was issued to platoon leaders and replaced the forward MG with a 37mm Pak 35/36 (L45) A/T gun and a reduced crew of 5. I suppose it was intended to provide a degree of support if they ran into anything heavy without their tanks close to hand.

 

Pete

Edited November 2, 2022 by PeterB

[Courageous]

You obviously like 251s, why build only a /1...just asking.

 

Stuart

[Robert Stuart]

Looks nice Pete, potentially as quick as the armoured cars?

[PeterB]

4 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

Looks nice Pete, potentially as quick as the armoured cars?

Hi Robert.

 

Probably better cross country in soft going but not on roads and firm flat surfaces. My "Encyclopaedia of German Tanks of WWII" says the 222 had a top speed of 90kph, the 232 6 Rad 70kph, the 232 8 Rad and the 234 both 80kph, but the 251 could only manage 53kph - I am guessing all refer to max road speed.

 

Pete

[Robert Stuart]

LoL, I meant your build, but thanks for the data.

[PeterB]

2 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

LoL, I meant your build, but thanks for the data.

Quite a few more parts so I expect it will take a bit longer than the 222. The 232 8 Rad will be the slowest of all 5 I suspect, assuming I build it - Roden kits can be a bit fiddly.

 

Pete

Edited November 3, 2022 by PeterB

[PeterB]

I have made a start by painting the interior in Colourcoats Panzer Grey, the seat cushions in red/brown, the steering wheel and gear lever in black and so on. I then glued the interior bits in place.

After taking the above pic I realised that the seats were too far forward and moved them - the instructions are a bit vague on placement. Once they were dry I added the upper hull, dashboard and rear doors. Fit was quite good though getting the dash in place was a ruddy fiddle as it has to be sandwiched between the upper and lower hulls at just the right angle.

I will leave that to dry overnight before starting on the running gear which is a little complicated. As with the 222 I may end up waiting for the decs to bleach, but the build may be fairly quick if I can get the wheels to actually stay on!

 

Pete

[PeterB]

22 hours ago, Courageous said:

You obviously like 251s, why build only a /1...just asking.

 

Stuart

I think having 3 is enough as I am hoping to build 3 Ju 88 in the forthcoming GB.

 

Pete

[TimJ]

Off to a good start. 

[PeterB]

I have glued on the side panels for the running gear together with the front axle.

I have also glued on the engine access doors and the vision ports. I overdid the filing down of the doors so a little filler will be needed.

The Ausf B was externally very similar to the original Ausf A version. The main differences were that the A had 3 vision ports on each side - the front one as above, one in the middle and one at the rear. Also the radio aerial was moved from the front right mudguard to the upper side of the hull and the front MG 34 had a shield on the B. The Ausf C had more obvious changes - a simplified nose plate, armoured box covers over the engine intakes at the side where the locating notch is  (I have not yet fitted the small ones used on the B), and the side mounted row of stowage boxes were different. The Ausf D was considerably modified/simplified to ease construction, becoming rather less pleasing to my eye.

 

Next up the mudguards and various bits and odds and ends then I can add some more paint before moving on to the wheels.

 

Pete

Edited November 4, 2022 by PeterB

[PeterB]

Mudguards, stowage boxes and engine side plates on, and reprimed.

Once that is dry I will paint the hull in Panzer Grey ready to put the wheels on.  Going a bit faster than I expected but then it is only a small kit! Nowhere near as much work as my old Tamiya 1/35 one.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

The 251 had a set of 28 close packed interleaved road wheels, here the first 2 layers are in place.

and now they are all on including the front drive sprockets - there was no "idler" as such.

 I have also mounted the front steering wheels complete with "rubber" tyres. I will leave it all to dry overnight then fit the tracks.

 

Several German tanks such as the Panther and Tiger had similar interleaved wheel systems and whilst they seem to have worked well normally I gather that they caused some problems in Russia. Frozen mud and ice sometimes became compacted in the spaces between the wheels, particularly overnight and had to be removed before the vehicles could move apparently.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Tracks went on OK though they could do with drooping a bit more on the top run. I have put on the headlamps,  "Notek" night driving light, front bumper, rear number plates, a stowage box, the towing hook and the angled plates over the bit where the mudguard drops down. All the basic bits are now on and so I will finish off the Panzer Grey paintwork before starting detailing.

As I mentioned earlier  the 251 was based on the chassis of the Sd Kfz 11 halftrack and in the picture I have put it next to the Matchbox kit of one as a medium artillery tractor for towing a 75mm anti tank gun. It could carry 2 crew in front and 6 behind, with a storage section in between - without that it could probably carry 12 men like the 251, but the slightly longer and higher armoured body of the 251 clearly offers much better protection from bullets and shell splinters.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

In between building kits I have been doing a bit of reading and was amused to find our hobby turning up in Agatha Christie's "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side", a Miss Marple story. One of the characters is complaining about her husband buying a Stratocruiser kit allegedly for a nephew and then building it himself, and then later he asks her to move something from the table so he can spread the parts out and she says "to get any attention around here you have to be a Super Jet or a Turbo Prop". It was written in the early 1960's so I guess it may not have been a plastic kit though there was a rather basic 1.144 plastic one about at the time!

 

Pete

Edited November 5, 2022 by PeterB

[Ned]

17 hours ago, PeterB said:

In between building kits I have been doing a bit of reading and was amused to find our hobby turning up in Agatha Christie's "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side", a Miss Marple story. One of the characters is complaining about her husband buying a Stratocruiser kit allegedly for a nephew and then building it himself, and then later he asks her to move something from the table so he can spread the parts out and she says "to get any attention around here you have to be a Super Jet or a Turbo Prop". It was written in the early 1960's so I guess it may not have been a plastic kit though there was a rather basic 1.144 plastic one about at the time!

 

Pete

Our hobby doesn't get that much coverage at all in books/film/television. There was a Porridge episode that had Godber making a Flying Fortress (I think) that ended up getting sat on, but I can't think of any others. Not exciting enough for Eastenders or Emmerdale I suppose. Little do they know!

[Bertie McBoatface]

I recall a Morecambe and Wise sketch in which Eric was 'painting' an Airfix 1/24 Spitfire in their living room while Ernie rabbitted on about the latest play what he had wrote. 

[PeterB]

Finished and varnished.

Bit out of focus but I will get some shots for the gallery as and when the sun decides to come out. One problem with these Fujimi kits is the rather "2D" moulded on tools - I have a set of tools somewhere and would have used them but I can't find them at them moment.

 

Pete