ICM 1/35th Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausf A Completed page 2

I am really liking this 251 kit, its going together nicely. Quite a bit of filling but thats for the locations points for parts that will be repleaced by AM. I have also fitted the resin seat mounts from the MR Models set.

And finished puting together the front wheel suspension.

And all the inside parts for the upper hull fitted. One minus is that there are no clear parts for the vision ports, just solid plastic. The Eduard PE set replaces these and i'll just have to add some clear styrene.

And everything else added to the lower hull.

And some of the items to be fited after painting. This includes holders for 10 spare MG barrels. Thats seems a bit excessive but i'll fit them anyway.

Then time for some paint. After some Pz Grey, i did a very light dry brush and a couple of coats of Alclad Aqua gloss.

Next up will be some very light weathering, a wash and some streaks. 251 production only begain in June 39 so this vehicle would be 3 months old at most, so nothing to extreme. Also got plenty of smaller items to finish off.

And i have made a start on the figures, 10 in all. A mix of Dragon, Tamiya, Tristar and Miniart.

More soon.

Hello!

Those eastern manufacturers are sometimes surprisingly good, and not very expensive, so it's really worth a try.

Many years ago I've had the feeling that the Ausf. C and Ausf. D are so well known, but how did the A and B look like? That's why I grabbed and built the first kit of the A that I have seen on the shelf and it was the First to Fight 1:72 Ausf. A. I find it very interesting how the Germans gave up everything not absolutely necesssary and made the Hanomag mass-buildable. The evolution from Ausf. A to Ausf. D is really something to see.

Your build, is as always looking very good - good luck with it and have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks Pawel. And your right, theres been some really nice stuff coming out of Eastern Europe the past few years.

I do think some of this kit is guess work. I certainly can't find any decent pics of the inside of an Ausf A/B, even Pz Tracts does not have anything. Best we have is a couple of pics through the rear door of operational vehicles. But ICM have certainly done better than Zvezda as far as the seats and stowage goes.

I got one a few months ago.  I plan on doing it OTB.

I'm sure you will like it. Its a nice kit even without the extras. I am not a big fan of the rubber tracks and tires, so i deffinetly had to change those.

And i am having to make a couple of changes to do a vehicle used in Poland as the kit doesn't allow for that.

Thanks GreySnake. This is the first of their kits i have built. But i do have their Panther OP tank and i can deffinetly see a big differance. I just saw your comments on your latest addition, thos one is deffinetly not rough around the edges.

Got the rest of the interior fitted. Before i added the top i did some dry fitting and realised that the items on the left hand shelf were stoping the upper hull from fitting properly, so the shelf was removed.

Even with that removed the fit was still a bit tricky. I stared at the front and worked back keeping the top half in place. Its not very obvious, but the upper hull does slightly overhang the lower huill along the sides as it should. The left hand shelf was fitted as soon as the top was on.

The rear door fit is not brilliant. The hinges feel a bit flimsy. The doors don't pivot on them as on the real thing, a feature which is on the Dragon and AFV Ausf C kits. Also, when closed, the doors are skewed, they would need to be glued in place. Fortunatly, i am having them open on this. Come to think of it, all my previous 251's have either one or both doors open.

And finally the suspension. The axel arms have very small location parts and the fit is rather loose. You would ahve to be careful that the arms are all level if you are sitting it on a shelf. Fortunatly i can adjust the base i am doing if needed.

Thats all for now.

 Wow thats some nice detail. I would like to get one of the AFV Club 251 kits some day.

Thanks Joe, i can deffinetly recommend the AFV kits.

Awesome build as usual Bish!  Not only the 251, but 10 figures!!  Wow!  I can't wait to see the progress pics of it all.  

Cheers Bobby, got the paint on this morning so hoping to do the decals tonight. got the day off work and spending it at the bench working on the figures.

That's awesome. Plus the man I was hoping to get some info from. I'm looking for a good sd.Kfz 251 kit. I bought a AFV and it wasn't what I expected. I think it was a bad kit.  Nothing fit right pieces was bent and warp. I've got a site that I order kits from but if ya can head me in another direction or anyone for that matter please let me know. I'm no where in your level but I'm a fast learner. Tks for the info and you've got a great looking kit

Thanks Srpu;n.

In my opion, AFV Club are the best 251 kits. But like the Dragon kits there are a lot of parts. I am not sure how much experiance you have with armour kits, but the Tamiya ones while they don't have the same level of detail do build up very nicely. As far as supplies goes thats a bit tricky as i am in the UK. But i have ordered from Sprue Brotehrs in the past and can recomend them.

I think you are a candidate for 251 251s - collection build winner!

keavdog

I think you are a candidate for 251 251s - collection build winner!

 

I'll take that

I've built a tamiya before actually two. I mostly build armor and of course the miniatures. I'm almost positive that I just got a bad kit. I'm planning on getting another and tks for the info. That's an awesome kit you've got going on. 

Cheers.

If you want a tamiya 251, avoid the old Ausf C kit, the one they label as a hanomag. They have 3 Ausf D kits which are very nice. I have built the /9 and have the other 2 in the stash. You can't go wrong with those.

I think like any company AFV club has its bad kits. The only ones i have built of there are the 251's and the only one of there kits i have that isn't a 251 is the Scimitar. Someone is building one over on Britmodeller and it seems to be a world away from the 251.

Can't believe its been 2 weeks, but now seeing this coming together. Final parts were added and the inside masked ready for painting.

Next came the paint, decals and a very light dry brush. The kit supplies markings for vehicles in France, Greece and Russia, but i wanted to do one in the Polish campaign. Photo's are few and far between, so i made an assumption. I used the markings for a 1st Pz Div vehicle in France 1940 and simply switched the national markings for the French campign with decals from my /6 for the Polish campaign crosses.

And then a pin wash which gives a nice start for the dusty look i want.

Just got to get the tools wheels, tracks and other bits added and then the final dusting. Next pics should be the final ones.

That's gorgeous, Bish! 

I find it strange that there are so few options for the Polish invasion. I thought that would be widely covered.

Thanks Mike. I know what you mean, but there are more out there than you might think, we just don't see them very often.

I know there are some, but I didn't realize I've probably already seen most of them. It's not something I've paid any attention to before lol.

M. Brindos

I know there are some, but I didn't realize I've probably already seen most of them. It's not something I've paid any attention to before lol.

 

Me neither really. But i have been looking at more early war subjects. I think as with most German armour models, most of mine are mid to late war. This is my first one thats pre 1942.

I think the only one I've ever built in my entire life was the old Italeri 1/35 Panzer I. I still have the figure lol.

I remember that kit. Now i have the Dragon kit, going to have to get to that one soon.

That would be cool. Ah, memories.

So, a question of curiosity, but the near black of the paint scheme? It's amazingly well done, but I thought the early schemes were Panzer grey.

What is it I don't know about this?

This is Panzer Grey, this is Xtracolour's version. I often lighten it a bit, but given that i want to portray a vehicle thats only a couple of months old, i wanted to keep it fresh.

Thank you. I thought it was about time i got one in my collection.