Sdkfz 222 references sought

Fairly certain, though not 100%, that the Sdkfz 222 was withdrawn from service before the Normandy invasions in favor of other recon vehicles such as the 234, Luchs, Aufklarungspanzers, etc. If any were still in service at that time, they would've been Dunkelgelb with Olive-grun and Rot-braun camo schemes, not Panzer Gray. Panzer Gray was discontinued in Feb. 1943 as a factory applied paint scheme. Internal colors, except for the turret which would be same as the base color, were painted Elfenbein (an off-white/ivory color).

One of the best sources for details on the 222 is Chris (toadman) Hughes site, www.toadmanstankpictures.com . He's produced a full interactive walk-around CD on just the 222 and has plenty of detail shots interior and exterior if you like.

As wbill76 has stated, the Sdkfz 222's duties were superseded by the more capable 8-wheeled 234 series by this time frame. The 222 ended production in mid 1943 and was generally removed from front-line service. Some did soldier on in various units until the end to the war, but I'm not finding any in Normandy at the moment. Here is a color plate of a typical late-war scheme, a 222 from Kampfgruppe Christen, 4th Pz Dv., in the Balkans;

Note the lack of any markings.

Thanks, gents!  I started by opsting here and then whipped out my Google-Fu.  (and my ebay-fu, where I located a copy of Chris's CD!)  So far, I've found a couple of things - 2nd SS 'Das Reich' lists 222's and 223's in its normandy TO&E, according to http://www.dasreich.ca/normandy_oob.html  Also unearthed a similar question on http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=70426 posting a photo and referencing Steel Master Magazine no12 - the b&w pic is highly similar to the one you kindly posted here.  This leaves me comfortable enough with the idea of a camo'd-up 222 to procede.

This brings me to my next hurdle - the crew and the interior.  Thanks to pics of AM sets, I have a good idea of the interior layout now.  The diorama layout I have in mind has the 222 commander talking to an infantry NCO on the ground (NCO from Dragon's Waffen SS (Normandy 1944) who is gesturing off to one side.  This means the vehicle's top hatch is open, allowing some glimpse of the interior, mainly right around the turret.  Well, that would be enough to notice the distinct *lack* of a loader/radio-operator!  Ack!  Are there any kits with crewmen who would properly fit the 222's turret, standing or seated?

Well, I'm glad you are more resourceful than I am Outland. Somehow I knew the minute I posted that I couldn't find any 222s in Normandy, someone would find some! Then again, I didn't do a very thorough search... It's sort of like asking about Panzer II use in the late war. Sure they were obsolete, but who knew there were 386 of them still on the books as of Oct. 1944? (Panzer Truppen, Vol II).

As for your crewman, that's going to be fun getting him in there no matter what. I don't know of a purpose-built crew figure that would fit. Looks like some major surgery is going to be involved in order to get someone to fit. Good luck and post some pics when you're done!

Kykeon wrote:

Well, I'm glad you are more resourceful than I am Outland. Somehow I knew the minute I posted that I couldn't find any 222s in Normandy, someone would find some! Then again, I didn't do a very thorough search

Ah, to be fair, I did spend the majority of the day digging through the 'net, looking at pics and OOBs and anything Google *claimed* had to do with Sdkfz 222's!  I might  even have a solution for the crew problem.  ICM has a set of German Tank Crewmen labelled (1941-1942) that appear to be wearing uniforms similar to those in the Normandy picture.  They are both standing, which gives me some "wiggle room" for fitting them into the turret.  Here's one on ebay now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ICM-1-35-3-German-Tank-Crew-1941-1942_W0QQitemZ160147769597QQihZ006QQcategoryZ16511QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Would be something to work with, anyway...