AFV Modeller - Issue 17 - 3 - SdKfz 250 mit 5cm Pak

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By Rudi Meir

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fter buying the excellent

A

daytrip, so the idea for building the model

base to start working from. I lengthed the

Schutzenpanzer book from Ryton I

was shelved until I met Pekka Toivonen a

back of the lower hull 5 mm with

saw a vehicle in it that was

Finnish modeller at Euromilitaire.

plasticcard and reversed the angle of the

completly new to me, it was a 250 NEU

Earlier that year he had taken some

back plate from 15° inwards to 15°

with a 5 cm PAK mounted on top. It had an

pictures of the vehicle, I was ready to kiss

outwards, the bottom sides were filled in

instant appeal to me and has everything to

him but luckily he was more than happy

with 1 mm thick plastic card. Next step

build into a great looking model. I always

with a pint !

was fitting the upper hull, I cut off the

look for a challenge to start a model and

When the pictures arrived I was a little

entire hull only leaving the engine deck and

this one had it all, be it in the paintjob or in

disappointed as there were only three

replaced everything else with thin plastic

the building.

pictures from the interior but they were

sheet as the Dragon parts are too thick.

Having already build the 251/22 Pakwagen

excellent quality. The pictures show all the

The first problem I found was with the roof

using the CMD conversion I really wanted

gunmount detail I needed to build the

which seems not to be correct in the Ryton

to have a go at it’s smaller brother.

mount but for the rest the interior was

drawings, in the pictures of the real vehicle

The only trouble was that in the Ryton

completely empty, no floor no driver’s

you can see that the roof was cut out

book there were no pictures, just some

seat…nothing, only rubbish between the

round and not straight as in the book. This

drawings Using the drawings from the

suspension parts. There were still a lot of

was to allow the upper hull to be bolted

book it should be possible to build the

unanswered questions but I decided to

against the bulkheads which were welded

lengthed chassis but I had absolutely no

start building anyway and see how the

to the lower hull. The in-progress pictures

idea on how the gun was mounted to the

details would be worked out later.

will show what I mean. The next problem was the front floor, the

vehicle. After about six months of asking friends

Construction

front bulkhead and drivers position which

and surfing the net I found out there was

To build the vehicle I used the Dragon

were detailed with the excellent Aber set

only one surviving vehicle left in the

250/1 kit 6100 and the 5 cm PAK gun kit

(35073 ). Now problem number two came

Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade in former

6118. I started with reversing the angle of

up - there is no room for the fuel tank in

Yugoslavia. A bit too far away for a quick

the back armoured plate, this gave me the

the fighting compartment. This is normally 25

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fitted in the rear under the radio as it would

to stow the ammo? After checking my

not be possible to operate the gun this

reference the PAK 38 shells were almost

way.

the same size and diameter as those in

So again after numerous E-mails and

the stummel which has the 7.5 cm KWK 37

telephone calls the consensus was that the

gun. Again Aber came to the rescue, in the

fueltank could have been mounted

stummel set ( 35074 ) you get the choice

beneath the floor as is the case with the

of two ammo boxes I took the rectangular

sdkfz 10 Demag with the same chassis.

box and it fitted perfectly under the gun

This was good news to me, saved me the

mount so my guesswork paid off.

work of building another one. A new floor

There’s no other place in the back of the

was made from plastic sheet and covered

vehicle to stow the shells because of the

with Aber’s floor plate set 35A87.

gun’s recoil. An alternative could be to

With the floor in place the upper hull was

stow the loose shells in their canisters

temporarily taped to the lower hull with

under the gun, but in my opinion it would

Tamiya tape. I now started building the gun

not have been an easy task to get a shell

mount. As I had no measurements it took

out of it’s casing in such a cramped

a lot of test fitting before a satisfying result

vehicle. So an ammobox sounded more

was achieved. I had to build the basic

logical . I also scratchbuilt a rack on the

shape of the gun to determine its correct

right side that could hold six ready to use

height in relation to the top of the hull. As

rounds just as in the Stummel using the

you can see there are a lot of if’s and but’s

Aber part as a template. A foldable

but I think the overall appearance the

gunner’s seat was also made on the left

vehicle looks correct.

side from leftover brass parts with a seat made from Magic Sculp.

Last but not the least problem was where

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All the smaller bits and pieces were now

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added to the interior. The gun itself was the easiest part of the conversion, it was built as per instructions and detailed up with Aber set 35096. The hardest part here was the gunshield which was a bit fiddly to assemble but after some swearing and two pots of coffee they fitted together nicely. The undercarriage of the gun and the rest of the PE parts were fed to my hungry scrapbox.

After three weeks of frantic gluing and soldering the interior was now ready for painting, but more on that later. After the upper and lower halves were mated together with superglue the upper hull was detailed with all the little rivets I’d lost with sanding, also welding beads were made from stretched sprue. On front of the vehicle an armoured air intake cover was made, on the pictures of the real vehicle only a rectangular slit is seen but over this the cover was fitted.

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I found more reference on the vehicle in

Before I forget, I always mix in about 20%

the German model magazine Hobby Fan, I

clear into the paint to get an eggshell finish

believe the August 1985 issue, which

as I don’t like dead flat paintjobs.

clearly shows the cover. The 250 NEU was

Detail painting, washes, filters on the

prone to overheating, that’s why late in the

interior were all the same as the exterior.

war these covers were fitted. The vehicle

I’ve been wanting to do a hard edge camo

was now virtually finished. The last things

for some time now but never felt brave

to be added were the suspension and

enough, this had to be the one!

tracks. Because of the extra weight of the

A late war vehicle like this one is just crying

gun it sounded natural to me that the

out for a hard edge, but how?

vehicle would be as low to the ground as

A hard edge scheme needs careful

possible, which was a breeze thanks to

preparation - just taping off the vehicle is

Dragon’s engineering which supplies the

guaranteed fail as it never comes out the

suspension arms as separate parts.

way you want. So I took some photocopies

After painting the tracks were fitted, these

from the Ryton book, a box of crayons and

came from the excellent WW II

started colouring like a six year old until I

Productions range. These tracks are truly

had a camo scheme that I liked (in the

amazing, clean up and assembly took no

appropriate colours of course !).

more than two hours, you just click them

Now it was just a matter of duplicating it

together and they stay fully workable! The

onto the model, easier said than done.

outer sprockets are also included with

First the model was painted with a mix of

three separate hub covers which gives you

50% dark yellow and buff and was allowed

the choice between early and late

to dry for 24 hours. Then the model was

sprockets. It’s the first time I’ve used them

taped with Tamiya tape, panel by panel so

but it certainly won’t be the last.

they could easily be removed afterwards and the contours of the camo was then

And that’s it! Not that difficult to build but

drawn on with a pencil.

very hard to find the correct info. I could

After this was done the tape was removed

have gone a little bit further and added an

and cut with a new sharp blade on a

engine or opened up some side doors, but

cutting mat, then the parts that were to

I was already way over budget on this one.

stay yellow were taped off with the

Everything was now glued to Lego blocks

corresponding pieces of tape.

and cocktail sticks in preparation to the

The green camo XF 67 nato green was

next step.

now painted on, was again left to dry for a day and again taped off before the last

Painting

colour XF 68 nato brown was added.

Before painting started I cleaned off the

After three days I was anxcious to see the

model with some methanol to get rid of all

result, and everything looked fine after the

the dirt and grime that built up during

tape was removed. In some places the

construction, I just use a soft round brush

paint had built up against the tape but this

for this dipped in methanol. Works fine for

was easily removed with a short bristled

me.

brush. A little bit of careful scrubbing did

For airbrushing I always use Tamiya

the job.

acrylics I’m used to working with these

It was now time to do some serious

paints and feel very comfortable with

weathering, I started by giving the model a

them. I am experimenting with Vallejo

wash with raw umber oil paint mixed with

paints now and they look very promising

20% burnt sienna. The three camo colours

but are a bit hard to find here in Belgium.

were now drybrushed separately with

As said before the interior was painted

Humbroll colours that were a close match

first, I’m a fan of pre shading so it was

to the Tamiya paint namely matt 150

painted with semi gloss black X 18, a

green, matt 113 brown and matt 148

second coat with XF 60 dark yellow went

which is an off white colour. The first two

over this, with the black showing only at

colours were lightened a bit with some

the edges. A third coat XF 57 buff was

matt 81 yellow.

used to highlight the panels a bit .

After this had dried a day or two a few

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filters were applied with Humbrol matt 93

like tools and so on are now painted.

some extra detail added, like brakelines

and 94 to further lighten up the vehicle.

The last step was to add some of the

and some nuts and bolts just to make it

To let the detail stand out more I gave the

wonderful MIG pigments, great stuff! After

look more interesting.

vehicle a second pinwash, this time more

adding the gun and tracks the model was

controlled only around rivets, hinges and

now FINALLY finished!

All this was now pushed in the still soft groundwork and left to dry overnight. The

so on. The vehicle was now drybrushed a second

For displaying the model I opted for a

following day the vehicle was placed on

time with the same mixture as before but

small wooden base about 5 cm high. As

the groundwork until I had a satisfying

this time I added some white oil paint. This

the vehicle is not that big it needed a

position, I wanted to place the vehicle on

gives a more subtle effect, and I only did

somewhat higher base just to make it

an angle to give a better view inside the

the panel edge’s and small details like

stand out. I kept the base as small as

model. The space under the vehicle was

toolclamps, rivets and hinges. At this stage

possible to enhance the size of the vehicle,

filled up with bricks, these were then glued

I applied the decals, these all came from

also this way it got a more dramatic feel. I

to the base with white glue mixed with

Archer, since I had some nasty experience

used Porion for the groundwork in which I

water. To make the vignette complete two

with these drydecals peeling off after

pushed some homemade bricks, far better

Warrior figures ( WA 35253 ) were added

washing the vehicle, I now only apply them

than the commercially available stuff AND

these were used unaltered, I find them to

after most of the painting has been done.

a lot cheaper. Just mix up some plaster

fit perfect to the scene.

An alternative would be to seal them in

and pour it into a 2 mm high flat mould,

with a coat of matt varnish.

scrape off the excess when it starts to

And that’s it ! Another one for the

harden and let it dry further for 45 minutes

collection. After the initial problem as

I was now ready for the most time

and then scribed in the brickwork lines with

where to find info on the vehicle it was fun

consuming step - paintchipping. For this I

a nail or something similar (really high

all the way and a learning experience .

use a mixture of Humbrol matt 113 and flat

tech!). I also got some texture into the

Thanks to Pekka Toivonen for kickstarting

black. With a fine pointed brush they were

bricks with scraping and tapping a metal

me and Marijn van Gils for the tips and

all handpainted one by one, also scuff

brush over it. After the plaster had

support.

marks were painted on the green and

completely dried overnight, then just snap

brown camo so the basic yellow showed

off the bricks you need, easy.

trough at places. By adding more or less

A sort of crane was also made from

thinner to the paint you can change the

Evergreen plastic strip and parts from the

consistency of the paint giving more

ever handy scrapbox. This was done to get

translucent paintchips which is just the

some height into the vignette. I also had

effect that I was looking for. All small detail

built a Tamiya DKW 350 motorbike with

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