251 Halftracks GB 1 October '08 - 8 June '09

I'm checking in fellas!  Been away for another long while due to work responsibilities, which means of course I had very little bench time!  Still I managed to complete a build for another GB so now I can focus on the next 2 GBs ending soon!  In my last post a few weeks ago I mentioned that I was waiting for the Blast Models Uhu Upgrade to arrive, and indeed it did late last month.  So lets take a look at it:

Hmmm....I was expecting a bigger box.

Well, at least the parts are nicely bagged!

OK, I see now why the small box!  Even with the bagged add-ons bits there's not much resin, but I'm sure it will make a difference when complete!  Is that a whole radio set included?  NIIIIIICE!!

Wow!  The resin 8Kw generator is REALLY sweeeeeet!!

Now that I have some time, I'll get this one going again, but I have to give priority to the Tamiya JS-2 that I'm building for Scott's RSotR GB as it ends in 3 weeks! 

Boyd, your AFV problems don't bode well for me!  I'll be doing a LOT of dry fitting on my Uhu!!

lewbud wrote:

Aaron, It's looking good.  Just one problem while the dirt may be accurate, it's the wrong scale.

Oh man! Buddy!  and after all that effort I put into grinding down the dried Camel poo! That stuff gets all over the place think I still got some in between my teeth!

Aaron,

It's looking good.  Just one problem while the dirt may be accurate, it's the wrong scale.

 I'm still hanging around fellows and am awe struck by the great work!  PanzerGuy that has to be some gunshield! Bet your the only one who ever got one together! It looks sweet!

 Lots of good stuff happening!

 I have been taking a lot of my bench time working on this Killer Fonderie Minatures kit of the 1/48 PV-1 Ventura. Has to be in the running for the most unbuildable kit of all times!  A real time and patience killer! 

 The 251/10 is a most welcome distraction some days. Finished up the vehicle except for a headset and rag hanging from the bent headlight.  Still looks a bit to clean so I will have to dirty dust it up a wee bit more.

The base is fun!  I don't know if I mentioned it but I have collected some dirt from some of my Army travels and used some for this base from a trading post in Egypt called El Alamein. 

Say what you will about my work but I can guarantee accurate dirt!

Ref pic.

The news paper and personal items are all scans of actual items that were taken from German POW's during the battle. Even the Newspaper has the correct date and stories if you had better eyes. LOL! Or a better photographer!

Adding stuff you can't see in the picture is the fun part!  I decided to show a meal in progress along with lots of stowage and personal items for the lived in look! The Utensils , opener and cans of CA (potted meat and Sausages) Are actual rations and have the ink stamps on the cans, Very tiny but I like how the bread turned out. Anyone ever paint model bread?

Probably a good day or two set aside to finish the figures and paint them along with adding some more rocks and vegitation to the scene and I can call her done.  Custom making figures in these poses from aluminite is tough!

You all see anything to add just holler as I hold your opinions in the highest regard!  Getting a complex about my gunshield! 47 parts? Jeeze Panzer Guy!  Wow!

I've been absent for awhile but am now back. I haven't touched a model since the 48 hour GB but am itching to get going again.

Mine is also going to be Panzer Gray. I've missed a few pages but it looks like someone else is having issues with their AFV kit. I am also having problems. Unfortunatley I am not a very good modeler and am kind of stuck with what to do. I don't want to build a model that looks like crap but at the same time would like to finish by the due date and not work on it 24/7. Pictures from a distance ... lol.

Josh

pordoi wrote:

Boyd, Espins:  your builds are coming along nicely but sorry to hear about all the little glitches with the AFV Club kits.  How about some recent update photos you guys.

Pordoi

Thanks for the encouragement.  Fortunately, most of the glitches are just that, nothing too major to fix, so long as you are aware of it.

I'll be spending some time at the bench tonight and tomorrow - hope to have some pics up tomorrow.

Dupes: check your pm's!  I'm northbound!!

JMart - very sorry to hear that. 

Everyone else - anyone who's already done willing to bang out a /9? Tamiya or Dragon both make fine kits...it would give you something to do!

Going to throw a post in the armor forum to see if we can pick up any new members to cover that /9, as well as the /23 that met an unfortunate end recently. 

Wow, I leave for a couple of weeks to focus on the 1000 road wheel GB and you guys start posting progress photos and completed builds.

Boyd, Espins:  your builds are coming along nicely but sorry to hear about all the little glitches with the AFV Club kits.  How about some recent update photos you guys.

Panzerguy:  impressive detail on your /22.  Like the rear hatch springs.  49 parts for the gun shield?!!   You da Man!!!

Panzer88:  nice work with the generator and IR gear.  Agree that the new antenna is a great improvement.

 Don

dupes - PM inbound.... the /9 is now available...  :(

Panzerguy- your 251/22 is going to be sweet with all that pe. You have a lot more patience than me, 49 parts just on the gun shield, that's nuts. My head is spinning just thinking about it,you are the man..

Thanks guys for taking the time to look and offer some suggestions, I think that I might take your advice and add some license plate numbers and possibly some other markings.

Nice! Someone's gotta represent the old-school panzer gray.

SAR - I know that you and Assurgeant were both going to be doing /7's - did you guys settle on which version each of you were doing so as not to double up?

panzerguy wrote:

Finished the gun shield last night early this morning. This thing was a kit in itself! There is a total of forty-nine parts for this thing and some of it was the smallest pe I've ever had to deal with.

49 parts??!!  Jeepers!  That is... well, it's... I mean... wow, crazy...

panzerguy wrote:

Ran into the same problem with the DML track links trying to get them off the sprues. I ended up snipping them off with most of the sprue still attached and then cutting it off with an x-acto. Had to wrap some duct tape on my thumb to keep from slicing it to ribbons.

Yup, I tried that too (cutting off the whole stub with the sprue cutters) but they still snapped.  That is what led me to my current x-acto fixation.  That idea about the duct tape on the thumb is definately worth a try - I'm donating too much blood to this project.

Looking good, fellas!

Sorry to hear about your storage box woes Boyd. Steve - that gun is pretty impressive.

Got rolling on my /2 over the weekend. Am looking into cool paint schemes, but since it appears that no one else is going with a simple panzer gray I may have to head that route.

     Finished the gun shield last night early this morning. This thing was a kit in itself! There is a total of forty-nine parts for this thing and some of it was the smallest pe I've ever had to deal with.

  Tomorrow I hope to get base coat on the interior and hopefully the gun also.

 Boyd bummer on those tool boxes hope your able to get them straightened out.

  Ran into the same problem with the DML track links trying to get them off the sprues. I ended up snipping them off with most of the sprue still attached and then cutting it off with an x-acto. Had to wrap some duct tape on my thumb to keep from slicing it to ribbons.  

Bish wrote:

Thanks again bbrowniii all these pointers will help alot. These AFV kits, the Ausf C's anyway, sound a bit of a pain in the backside.

Bish

You could definately argue that they have some warts, but I'll also say that couple of my recent problems have been self-induced.  It is my own fault that the tool boxes are giving my a hard time - I should have test fit first, and I didn't.  It was one of those nights that I didn't have a ton of time, but wanted to feel like I had accomplished something so I figured I'd just throw those on before I went to bed...

I am not sure how clear my explanations were the other night, so here are a couple of pics to illustrate what I was talking about - most specifically about the tracks:

First, my trouble cutting the links:

You can see the top link in the middle has broken when I tried to cut it off with my sprue cutters.  I ended up cutting them off with an x-acto, but leaving a good little tab of the sprue on there to be cleaned after cutting.

Second, the way the instructions have you construct the tracks and the jug I made to construct them my 'alternate' way:

The jig is pretty darn crude, but it got the job done!

Finally, my tool box troubles:

Here you can see how the fender is curved upward at the rear, and the un-natural sit of the boxes.

In this second shot you see what happens if I begin to take that bend out - the boxes pull away from the hull, leaving an... inconvenient gap.

Alrighty, I am going to spend an hour or so down at the bench before I hit the sack.  Maybe I'll figure out what to do with those damn fenders...

   David, that's one fine piece of work. Saw the pics over in armor also. Nice job on the generator and the cammo.

   Man I've got to step it up on my /22 every time I get setteled in at the bench a new emergency pops up. Today I had to rescue my son and his girlfriend when his truck broke down. But tonight when everyones asleep I'm pulling an all nighter.

Keep those 251's coming guys, they're all looking great. Well I know that I posted some finished pics already, but I just wasn't happy with the grossly out of scale antennae. So after a few experiments I finally have success. I think that this looks a lot better.

bbrowniii wrote:

Hey Dupes: I thought of you today when a pack of about 20 - 25 cyclists cruised by me in a pretty sweeeeeeeeeeeeet paceline.  They were truckin' right along... Roads clear up there yet?

I don't know if I would call them "clear", exactly, but I've been out on my bike.

Did a pretty speedy roll yesterday (well, speedy for pre-season riding, anyway).

Hey Fellas

Got a couple more suggestions for all you AFV 251 builders, as a result of my ongoing build of the /4.  I know I said I'd have pics up today - but I didn't take any yet and I am too tired to do it now... sorry

OK, two little nuggets for y'all:

First, the tracks:

If you have a set of the AFV indy links (they came with my kit, but I also see them sold as aftermarkets for most of their other 251s), they would have you construct them by first attaching the rubber block, then snapping the link into place on the adjoining track-link.  The locating pins that enable the tracks to articulate are supposed to spread open enough to pop over the next track, then pop into the slots they lock in.  Well, if you wanna follow the instructions, go ahead, but I busted my first six links trying to do it that way.  I found the 'neck' of the link, where the two arms (with the locating pins) join the 'body' of the link is too weak to expand that much.  Instead, I ended up building a simple little jig: I took two paint stirrer that I had from Home Depot.  I seperated them by breaking a Starbucks coffee stirrer in half and glueing one piece at either end (the coffee stirrer was glued 'on its side' so the gap between the two paint stirrers is pretty narrow.  That gave me a gap to put the drive teeth for the links into so I could lay them flat, with the slots for the locating pins pointed up - it was then easy to slide the pins into the slots on the adjoining track and then attack the rubber block.

One other note on the indy-links - I found that their attachment points between the body of the link and the sprue is pretty narrow - it was almost impossible to get the tips of my sprue cutters in there.  When I did, the pressure of cutting them often resulted in them bending and snapping (scratch another 4 links - dammit!! ).  I ended up just using my x-acto knife and kind of hacked them off the sprue, leaving a pretty big attachment point plug to clean up - it was a little more labor intensive, but at least I didn't break any more links.

The links themselves are OK.  No matter how you do it, there will be a good bit of clean up around the attachment points, plus a sinkhole on either side of each link, next to the sprocket tooth.

Second, the fenders:

Step 15 of the instructions has you attach the three tool/storage boxes on each fender before you attach the fender to the vehicle.  I got it in my head to do that, then figured I could do a base coat on the underside of the fender with it off the vehicle to make it easier to get at all the nooks and crannies.  Well, that turned out to be a dumb idea.  It is impractical to paint it off the vehicle, because I suspect attaching it to the hull will wreck whatever painting I might have done.  Allow me to explain:

After I attached the three boxes, I noticed just how much my fenders are bent.  I was not too worried, figuring the mounting tabs would help with alignment.  No such luck.  What I have found is that my attachment tabs either don't quite line up with the slot they are supposed to fit into, or if the do line up, they are not really long enough to make significant contact.  Additionally, if I mount the fenders as the locating tabs would have me, they will remain bent, which means the three boxes overlap one another at their tops.  In addition, if I mount with the tabs, the fender sits at an inaccurate angle, so the boxes don't contact the hull at the top.

The moral of this story is to give some serious consideration to how you want to attach the boxes and the fenders.  I am not convinced I would have done it differently, but I certainly should have been a little more careful with my dry fitting (once again, there it is!) before I glued those boxes on.  The problem is that, at least on the C hull, I don't think there is clearance to get the boxes onto the fenders after the fenders are attached to the hull.  The fix to this is pretty straight forward, but it'll be time consuming - I'm going to have to glue the fenders on about 1 - 1.5 cm at a time, trying to ensure proper alignment and holding everthing in place until all the glue dries.

As always, I hope this helps...

Hey Dupes: I thought of you today when a pack of about 20 - 25 cyclists cruised by me in a pretty sweeeeeeeeeeeeet paceline.  They were truckin' right along...

Roads clear up there yet?

dupes wrote:

Steve - what sort of references do you have about these vehicles, or the brigade in general?

   Dupes from what I've read six /21 and four /22 were in route to them as of Dec30

 Unfortunately I can't find any pics of the actual vehicles. I've only found written accounts so far of their part in the bulge.I've seen a few pics of the Brgd's stug's and Mk IV's.     

  The brigade was a part of the Grossdeutschland Pnz Grndr Div. And along with the Fuhrer Grenadier Brigade, which was also part of GD, were sent west to participate in the Ardennes offensive.                     

   Two of the American units that they went up against were the 101^st outside Bastogne and later at Tillet the 761 ‘Black Panthers' tank battalion.

   The refs I used were Panzer Grenadier Div. Grossdeutschland by Horst Sheibert, Axis History Fact Book and Wikipedia.  

panzerguy wrote:

I'm building it as one of the four that were with the Fuhrer Begleit Brigade at the end of the Battle of the Bulge near the town of Tillet.

Steve - what sort of references do you have about these vehicles, or the brigade in general? 

   Boyd oh yeah absolutely no pressure at all

   Dupes thanks man. There is no way to solder them I had to use CA glue.