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Building the Sd.Kfz. 234/2 Puma

Building the Puma

The instructions break down the building process into 25 steps, following a fairly standard sequence, starting with the suspension, and via the interior, exterior and turret finally reaches the last step, the wheels. The instructions are in typical Dragon style. Some of the drawings require almost a technical degree to decipher, and calling the extra sprue containing the turret parts ‘C’ had me puzzled for a second, as there is already a sprue ‘C’ in the kit, and you can find yourself searching for a piece on the wrong sprue. I’ll take you through the building process following the instructions, and comment along the way where necessary.

the suspension

The suspension is a complicated affair, and needs care and attention to get right. Getting all eight wheels lined up correctly is aided greatly by the small tabs on the axle ends, which can be removed if you want to pose the wheels turned. This will greatly enhance the presentation of the finished model, but be warned, it will also involve major work on the steering rods and actuators. But more about those in step 8.
I always cut all the pieces required for a (sub) assembly of the sprue, and lay them out on my work surface in the correct lay-out. This helps me to visualize how the parts should fit together, as well as avoiding the potential error of putting ‘handed’ parts on the wrong side of the model. As you can see in the photo, the suspension consists of 6 parts for each wheel, and the instruction is fairly vague about where the various parts fit together.

The sequence photo’s show how I started by gluing part B4 a B3 to the hull, and dry-mounting part D19/D18 (take care to mount the right one, as the steering attachment has to be on the correct side, and the right way up!) If you will mount the wheels straight, you can just glue this in place, but if you are planning on displaying the wheels ‘turned’, you will have to remove the small pins from the end of the axles. All the parts can be dry-mounted to make sure that everything fits correctly, and then it’s just a case of running some liquid glue into the various joins. The comedy instructions do not help here, but part B15 is not difficult to attach, although three hands would be helpful. The trick is to position part D13 first, and than to straddle part B15 over this, and than to push the locater pins of B15 home into the hull.

In step 8 the suspension gets attached to the bottom hull and the steering components are added. Again this is not as difficult as the instructions make it look. For starters it would have helped if the drawings would have been turned upside down (I suggest you do this yourself instead.) as it is far easier to attach the various pieces with the hull upside down. The actuators (parts D15, D23 and D24) are all keyed, so positioning them correctly should not be a problem, but make sure you have the right one on the right side. The tracking rods (parts D5) need to pass through the hole in the bottom part of the hull, see the photos.
Attaching part G to Part G is the first fit issue. Either of these parts was not quite straight, as when I dry-fitted the parts there was a gap on either end, resulting in a see-saw effect. Although not what you would expect, his is easily corrected by gluing first one end, letting the glue dry thoroughly, and then gluing the other side, applying pressure to eliminate the gap until the glue is dry.