Armourfast 1:72 Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Part 3

Soccer sucks...so here's part two of my small review of the Armourfast(HÄT) kit of the Sd.Kfz. 251. It is available via online shops and/or in your local model shop. I paid 13,5 Euros (postage included) what is a fair price.

The upper hull,from left to right:

Armourfast - ESCI/Italeri - Revell

It seems that the Armourfast hull is not as wide as the other manufacturer's hulls. After I measured the 3 hulls I can say that this is true. The Armourfast part is 30mm, the ESCI/Italeri part is 31,5mm and the Revell part is 31,3mm.
The wiki article about the 251 says that it is 2,1meters wide, divided with 72 give 29,17mm what means that the Armourfat kit is the most accurate kit or at least the width of it's hull.

I built some storage boxes from plastic card.

The Armourfast 251 with the rocket launcher
of the Revell Sd.Kfz. 251/1 kit.

It's a great kit, and with some time and little work it will look great. I'm looking forward to the future, Italeri will release a fastbuild version of the Sd.Kfz. 251 this year, that's why I will wait until I can make a direct comparison of both.

There are some parts that I changed or will change, the passenger storage boxes (see picture), a Notek light, a new trailer coupling and some minor things. Maybe I will drill out the holes of the roadwheels as I did on my StuG42 kits.
And then I will make my first experiences with airbrushing, I got the simple beginner pistol from Revell, it can be seen on the second picture. But before I do I have to finish some projects.

Armourfast 1:72 Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Part 4

Here are some detailed pictures of the Hanomag Sd.Kfz 251/1 made Armourfast(HÄT). This kit was announced some years ago, I remember that there was almost every second week a post in the HÄT forum which asked for the release date of this kit.

Let's take a look at this kit:

Front look at the sprue.

All parts are casted well without any mould lines or sinkholes except for the passenger seats. But why they didn't use the tan color of their other kits.

Back of the sprue.
I think it is the C version of this vehicle.

Some close look at the details: the rivetted hull, the front wheels
the machine guns (without handles, strange) and the tracks

The construction manual at the back of the box.
Note that some parts are not mentioned.

A first look at the kit shows that it is simple but has a lot of hidden potential. With some simple modifications this could be a fine wargaming model.

Airfix/Matchbox 1:76 German Pak 40

Pictures of the Pak 40 antitank guns made by Airfix and Matchbox. The gun on the left side is made by Airfix, it came with the Opel Blitz. The gun on the right side is made by Matchbox and came with the Sd.Kfz. 11.

I used the same colors as on the vehicles on below. No more text today because...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjhlhwW9d4A

Matchbox 1:76 Panzer III L

Decal Storage

This is a good idea for decal storage and originally I wanted to write about this in the next days, but the guys at Modellversium were faster.
Check out their small article about storing decals in albums for stamps.

Matchbox 1:76 Sd.Kfz 11

The Matchbox Sd.Kfz. 11 kit was build out of the box, no great changes were made to it, the only thing I added was a windschield. One of the tracks broke and I had to use cyanacrylat glue to fix attach it. This had some negative effects to the paint of the wheels.

I painted it in the same style that I used on the Opel Blitz. It was first painted with Revell Aquacolor Africabrown (#36117), then it got a mild wash with Citadel Badab Black, after that it was heavily drybrushed with Revell Aquacolor Beige (#36314). The tracks were painted with Revell Aquacolor rust and the cover was painted with Revell Aquacolor Beige (#36314) then i drybrushed it white.

Airfix 1:76 Opel Blitz with Nitto 1:76 Flak 38

The Airfix/Heller kit of the Opel Blitz in 1:76 supplied with the 2cm Flak 38 made by Nitto/Fujimi based on a simple diorama base which is made of an old cdrom, PVA glue and birdsand.

Some little changes were made to the Truck, I had to replace the frontlights because the old were used somewhere else. In addition I changed the loading area.
It was first painted with Revell Aquacolor Afrikabraun (#36117), then it got a mild wash with Citadel Badab Black, after that it was heavily drybrushed with Revell Aquacolor Beige (#36314).

The Flak 38 was built out the box, the only parts that I did not use were the supports for the shield, I could not figure out where to use them because I had no real construction plan for it. It was painted with some selfmixed grey, after that I drybrushed it with Revell Aquacolor Afrikabraun (#36117) and Revell Aquacolor Beige (#36314).