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DML Sd.Kfz.251/16 Flammpanzerwagen

PAINTING AND FINISHING THE 251

I had already finished painting and weathering the inside of the vehicle earlier in the build since access would be difficult when complete. This was painted and weathered in basically the same way as the outside of the vehicle, the only difference being the rifles in the rack and various other small items being painted separately.

I began by base coating the entire model in Tamiya XF-69 Nato black. The tracks were left off the vehicle for separate painting. Next I used Tamiya XF-59 desert yellow and misted this all over but laying the colour down more solidly in the centre of all the panels, and then again misting the vehicle all over from an increased distance to reduce the preshading effect.

Next was an all over coat of Tamiya X-22 gloss clear in preparation for the decals, which I applied next. Although produced by Cartograf, I found these decals to be too thick and very difficult to settle down. I had to use repeated applications of Micro Sol, and even then I wasn’t entirely happy with the end results. After allowing the decals to dry and using a damp cotton bud to remove any excess adhesive, I began to spot wash all the rivets and hinges etc on the hull with a strong solution of burnt umber oil paint in white spirit. As I proceeded I used a clean cotton bud dipped in white spirit to clean off excess wash.

After allowing the wash to dry fro a couple of hours I added some raw burnt umber around some of the rivets and used a clean brush to drag this downwards in a straight line to give the appearance of rust streaks. I brush painted the tool handles with Vallejo medium fleshtone, and when this was dry I rubbed some burnt umber oil along the length of the tool handles. The pickaxe head, sledgehammer etc, I touched up with Nato black. I then applied an all over misting of Hannants Xtracrylix flat varnish, which is water soluble, and gives a truly flat finish.

The tracks, as mentioned earlier, were painted and weathered separately. These were given a coat of Nato black and then Using an old brush I scrubbed some Mig pigments P029 brick dust into both sides along the entire length of both tracks. I brushed the excess off and then used Mig pigments P024 light rust and applied a very light dusting of this mainly in the centre of the links, again, brushing the excess off when finished. I then used a soft graphite pencil along the edges and where wear of the metal might occur. The final touch was to use a damp cotton bud to clean the faces of the track pads. These were then carefully fitted and cemented to the vehicle using superglue.

Well, there you have it, another 251 variant from Dragon, and in my opinion, one of the best yet. Each release of another new variant seems to offer improvements in the basic vehicle, and it really does appear that Dragon is taking note of what the people who build the model ask for. I would thoroughly recommend this model to anybody.