Sd.Kfz.251/6 Ausf.C Command Vehicle

Let me start off by saying this is a kit that I have built as a command vehicle. But if you don’t want a command vehicle, the Sd.Kfz.251 series comes in many flavors. You can have a troop carrier, a flame thrower version, anti-aircraft versions, different versions mounting heavy guns, versions towing big guns, short versions, a truck bed version, a pioneer version, and probably many other versions that are currently in the works by different manufacturers. This was an important vehicle for Germany in WWII because it could do so many things. If you like to do WWII dioramas, I would recommend having a few of these in your stash. I needed a command communications vehicle for a diorama of the Battle of the Bulge. So, I found this and had a great time building and painting it up. I also pillaged and modified some figures to put in the back to give it a little life. This kit has 21 sprues of the usual gray styrene, One Chassis, 1 Photo-Etch sprue, 2 Metal parts, and figures with weapons. The quality of the molding is very good. There was no flash or warpage. Ejector pin mars were hidden, so they don’t need any clean-up. There were the ever-present mold lines, but they were easy to remove. Construction begins with the chassis. There were no surprises here. All the parts went right where they were supposed to and the fit was perfect. The suspension wheels and road wheels were next. The road wheels, drive sprocket, and final drive were not designed to spin. This should not pose any problems since most people who build this kit don’t plan to roll it around on the floor. The driver's area comes next. It is buried down where it really can't be seen to well, but the details are very nice. The rest of the build is the upper hull, tracks, and radios. The back doors do open so the interior details do show a little better. And the interior details are really nice. The tracks need some extra caution because they are small and overlap one another. If you use to much glue, you will end up gluing the tracks together into one non-articulating piece. The separate track pieces need to articulate with one another so the track will have a realistic weighted look to them. So be careful using the glue. There are quite a few track pieces to glue together. I counted 56 on each side. On to the painting. I picked a scheme that would be appropriate for late 1944. A lot of the armor used by the Germans was new manufacture during the Battle of the Bulge. So, there would not be too much damage and the paint job would be relatively fresh. I painted in a three-color scheme and used decals from the spares box to make it look like one I found in a Battle of the Bulge reference. Now that I look at it, I need to add a little weathering and a good coat of mud. Overall, this was a fun and easy build. It was exactly what I needed for my diorama. This is a great kit and it really has no serious faults. The whole line of these vehicles as released by Dragon, and other manufacturers, should fill any modelers needs for a German Half-track. Younger modelers might need supervision when it comes to gluing the tracks together, but I think just about anyone with a few models under their belt would really enjoy this kit. And yes, I would highly recommend this kit as well as any of the other Dragon versions of the Sd.Kfz.251s.