DML Sdkfz 251/22 Ausf D COMPLETE! 10-14-12

Nice knitting....with this model its not a sweater its just a scarf

Rounds Complete!!

Man i am still impressed with the camo Bill . Those tracks look cool . Looking forward to inspecting them in my kit . Marcs idea looks like it would make the process easier .

Wow that looks so awesome already I can't wait to see what you do with the weathering.

Thanks tread! The kit tracks are highly detailed in their own right and workable so no need to add to the expense of the kit with replacements. Pretty durable too, DML did a good job with the design on these.

Mike

yes it was my turn at the needles this week...fortunately they are a perfect thing to do while watching football games...or in my case, listening to the game on internet radio, to help break up the tedium a bit. Not quite as bad as panzer tracks since it's only an HT!

Carl

Marc's an evil genius when it comes to working with tiny stuff...remember his PB panzers? And of course there's his ongoing insanity of the naked HT he's working on...

Blitzwing

thanks for the comments, weathering stage is always a fun one with these multi-color schemes, glad to have you along!

Hi, Bill I was trying to get a reply in at the weekend but there was site maintenance, I've enjoyed catching up on the build and was surprised at how much you had progressed, looking great as always.

Terry.

wbill76

Marc's an evil genius when it comes to working with tiny stuff...remember his PB panzers? And of course there's his ongoing insanity of the naked HT he's working on...

 

Me? Evil?

 

 

 

Insane? Most indubitably.

 

 

Thanks Terry, I've been trying to keep this one moving at a steady pace as much as possible, glad you were able to stop by!

Marc

, the grab handles clinched it...definitely insane!

REALLY liking that camo work Bill i have the new Tamiya's Elefant with the Zim decal set. i'd love to put that camo on it but i'm sure it didn't get put on Elefants in Italy.       OR DID IT??

 

Clay

Thanks Clay! Elefants fought all the way up until the end (one was even used in Berlin) so you've got a lot of leeway...the crews started applying this type of scheme in the field and vehicles also received a similar pattern at the factories so I'd say you could go for a late war Elefant in a similar pattern and be just fine.

Most if not all Elefant patterns in Italy that I've seen, have been yellow and green. Same with Panthers.

hey thanks Bill for the info i think that camo is so cool

Clay

Although I'm not a BIG fan of this variant you are doing a very nice job representing it...

Thanks MR! Marc will be relieved to know you're not going to steal away his bride!

wbill76: Hey Bill!  I've been real busy at work, thankfully, and haven't spent much time seeing what's on everyone's workbench.  I wanted to chime in so I could follow/enjoy your work.  Love the subject!  I hope to go back and read the whole thread but I do have a quick question:  What is the base color you're using on the interior?  Is the exterior color the same?

SMJmodeler

wbill76: Hey Bill!  I've been real busy at work, thankfully, and haven't spent much time seeing what's on everyone's workbench.  I wanted to chime in so I could follow/enjoy your work.  Love the subject!  I hope to go back and read the whole thread but I do have a quick question:  What is the base color you're using on the interior?  Is the exterior color the same?

Thanks SMJ, glad you could stop by! The base color on the interior is the same color (for the dunkelgelb) that I used on the exterior...just treated/weathered differently. HTH!

just looking in Bill .

Clay

Continuing on from last week's efforts, I finished up with the tracks. First order of business involved test-fits with the sprockets to see how many links were needed to account for the different suspension lengths on either side. Turned out that I needed 54 links for the left (shorter) side and 56 links for the right (longer) side. Because of the scale effect of the link parts' design and the lack of a movable idler to tension things, this means that the longer side is a little looser than the right but both sag acceptably so no cause for concern.

A quick trip to the spray booth and the tracks received a base coat of MM enamel Burnt Umber. I used strips of masking tape to hold the runs while painting to make life a little easier and ensure paint got into the visible nooks and crannies. Once that had dried, I dry-brushed some MM enamel Steel to create a metallic look followed by a wash of MM enamel Raw Umber to tie things together and tone down the Steel a bit. Final piece of work was to hand-paint the rubber cap blocks individually using MM enamel Gunmetal.

That brought me to the "hurry-up-and-wait" stage of applying the decals. I airbrushed a coat of Future to seal the base coat in preparation for the weathering stages to come and let it air dry for about an hour. Markings for the 251/22s were fairly limited based on available reference photos so I added some crosses to the hull sides and rear and also added the Wehrmacht license plate to the hull nose that seemed to be a common feature. Using the photo from Panzer Tracts 15-3 for the vehicle that I've been replicating in terms of interior details, I used the "number jungle" decal sheet that DML provides to create the plate number WH-1810156 out of individual number decals. Examination of reference photos show that the rear plates weren't a common sight so I left those off on the rear mud flaps. 

2nd coat of Future was applied to seal in the decals and it will now sit and cure thoroughly before the weathering process begins next weekend.

It always looks good when the baby gets shoes. Looking good

Rounds Complete!!

looking great Bill..... in real life there would be same number of tracks ,right ?   other wise it would always be trying to turn in one particular direction... next up... weathering !

tread

looking good can't wait to see her after weathering. Always liked half-tracks the Germans put everything on them. you could probably find a endless supply of variations that they came up with

Now your rolling along

You got me thinking after learning that these were workable tracks, wonder why the other tracks (magic tracks) were not made workable and these were?  I really like magic tracks but figure if they too were workable more people would go for the kits (not that they have a problem with that)

Looking great!

Bill them tracks look great .but ....they arent the kit supplied tracks are they ? You probably mentioned the answer already didnt you .............

Mike

thanks as always!

Tread

the actual vehicle had different track lengths per side...because the suspensions were different on either side (offset) in terms of the torsion bars. If you look closely you'll see that the distance between the sprockets and the first road wheel is different and that's why more links are needed. DML actually did a good job with the design of this family of vehicles in capturing that aspect.

Rambo

thanks for commenting and stopping by as well!

Rob

the reason that the 251 tracks are designed to be workable is down to the way they were actually designed on the real vehicle...they had the cap block trapping the links so DML really had no other option if they were going to design them as indy links. The reason you don't see workable tracks on the Magic tracks is down to the fact that DML would have to include separate track pin parts (2 per side) and that's another 400 or so parts depending on the type of vehicle you're talking about...and that equates into a lot of styrene! Some other manufacturers like Trumpeter have started including workable tracks in the kits so you never know...it could become the 'norm' for the future!

Carl

these are indeed the kit-supplied tracks. Thanks as well!

Sorry I haven't been around of late but I do check on you folks now and then.

The little wagon is looking nice my friend and by the way how's schooling these days?

Tony lee

Well hello there Tony! Nice to see you pop in! School's going well, just finished up the Stats class (a real bear!) and started in on Ops Management this past Thursday. Counting it, there's only 4 more classes left and should be done at the end of March. Getting closer!

The fun thing about the weathering process is that it can totally transform the look of the previous paint work depending on how you go about it and what end result you want to achieve. I've been using reference photos of a surrender depot vehicle in Bohemia in 1945 and decided that a dusty appearance works best for my Pakwagen...so the following steps are designed to achieve that end.

First up I laid down an overall wash of MM enamel Raw Umber. The initial effect of course is that it darkens the finish but the real reason is to provide a foundation for the additional steps as the Raw Umber will get blended in with other colors and not left on its own.

Once that had dried, the next step was the application of dot filters using MM enamel Flat White, MM enamel Raw Sienna, and dots of the MM enamel 50/50 dunkelgelb/light gray mix I used to airbrush earlier on. The dots were applied in small sections at a time to avoid having the dots harden and begin to dry. Using a square-tip blending brush lightly dampened with clean thinner, the dots are worked in together along with the Raw Umber wash coat from earlier to create a filtered and streaking effect.

While the Pakwagen doesn't have a lot of raised detail or panel lines, there's enough there to justify using a pin wash to pull it out and deepen the finish. I used a thinned mix of MM enamel Burnt Umber and a pointed 10/0 brush to apply to the different areas and then came back with some clean thinner to remove any blooming and correct where needed. I also installed the Pak 40 permanently in place now that all the major manhandling is done.

Next up will be working on the pigment weathering for the lower hull, suspension, and tracks.

Excellent work friend!.  The camo looks very good!.

Regards!
Rodolfo

Have always really liked your wash / dot process and this one is right up there too, Very Nice   Not sure if it's the angles on the vehicle but that wash / filter really made this one come to life !

When you add your dots, are they straight from the bottle or are they thinned at all before application?

One reason I ask, you say you also use the pre-mixed dunkelgelb and I am guessing that this is thinned for your airbrush or do you mix up a new small amount for the dot filtering?

Looking great, Bill....

I have a question about your dot filter technique, as well. When you have a flat surface, which way do you brush???

Thanks Rodolfo!

Rob

thanks for the comments as well! I add the dots straight from the bottle. When I mix up the DY mix, I create a large batch that I store in standard paint jars and then use on multiple builds. Since it's a "stock" color I use frequently it's just easier to do that way. I thin in the airbrush mix cup as needed instead of spraying from the bottle.

Winetanker

The simple answer is "whatever direction you want to streak in". I usually think about how rain/dirt would "flow" off the vehicle and then streak in that direction but keep it consistent for the surface so I don't have streaking happening in different directions. HTH!