Zvezda 1:100 Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausf. B

A closer look at the 1:100 German Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausführung B game expansion produced by the Russian modelmaker Zvezda for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame range. This is one of the most iconic ww2 vehicles (beside the Tiger, the Sherman and the T-34), also well known under the name "Hanomag". Zvezda offers with the 251 Stuka Zu Fuss another version of this vehicle.

Let us take a look at the modelkit included in this expansion:

The kit comes in one grey sprue of plastic. Here and there are some ejectormarks which may be needed to remove. I did not find any real sinkholes, some spots are minimal sunken in, and the amount of mouldlines is minimal. Some tools are moulded onto the hull, the MG34 lacks of greater detail compared to MG34s from other 15mm kits.

As usual for most Zvezda 1:100 kits, the roadwheels are ok, but the tracks have low detail on the outside and no details on the inner side of them. A quick comparison with the PSC Sd.Kfz. 251 shows that the tracks of both kits have the same standard.

There are neither crewmembers nor a decalsheet included.

I am no expert, but according to the wikipedia article, this thing should not have side vision slits for the crew compartment. By the way, the boxart does not show them, but in best Zvezda tradition they recycled their boxart of the 1:35 modelkit of the Hanomag for this expansion. You can see this on many "Art Of Tactic" boxes.

Todays closer look at a kit contains some closeups:

Some deatailed views on the sprue show more, in the upper left corner you see the damaged hood of this kit, but it may be that this fault came only on my kit. Also you can see the less detailed machinegun on the left.

Due to the wellmade building instruction on the back of the box, the construction of this modelkit went pretty fast and uncomplicated, as with all (most?) other 1:100 Zvezda tanks kits, you will not need glue to build this kit, but it is more stable if you use modellers cement on the parts.

The picture below shows my w.i.p. 251/1 halftrack with some leftover parts from the Plastic Soldier Company Sd.Kfz. 250 (coming soon) before it was converted to a SD.Kfz. 251/10 (I also had the choice to build a 251/9 with some leftover BFM Puma bits):

Everything worked as supposed and with a first layer of paint, I think it was Revell Aquacolor Africabrown, at the moment the model is in this state:

(in you background you can see some (also w.i.p.) technicals made from 3Dprinted SUVs and leftover bits)

To be honest, I do not have any use for this (or do I?), but now, after it was on my table, I would say that even when this is a ok kit (if you ignore the absence of crewminis and decals), you should go for an alternative. The grade of detail is not too bad, but there are some inconsenties about the version.

Compared to the cost of below 4 Euros for it, for app. 5 Euros you could get the Plastic Soldier Company 251/c or 251/D (picture) where some crew figures and a big load of stowage are included. 

Battlefront miniatures also offers a Hanomag, which I know only from pictures, while there are no crew figures included, you could not only build the 251/1 version from that kit, also you could build the 251/9 and 251/10.

If you have leftover bits to build other Hanomag versions, I recommend this kit for cheap conversions, but if you need 251/1 then you should get the PSC 251/1 for the simple reason that it contains crewfigures and parts to customize its look.

This Thursday we are going to take a look at an Allied or Soviet "Art Of Tactic" expansion at the usual time, more about the current scheduling can be found in the lastest blog update post. And this Friday I am going to do another closer look at a German"Art Of Tactic" expansion, and this will get written that day.