The 250 series halftracks are supposed to have a transmission between the drivers and R/O seats, and the commander's seat should straddle it. Instead, in the 250/1 and 250/8, where the transmission would be visible, Dragon has omitted this piece with the commander's seat elevated on a skinny pole. Now, Dragon had made provision for this part by making a locating hole in part C-16 (part of the firewall) and included two gearshift levers, C-23, and C-28, which they labeled as 'not used' on the instructions. Mysteriously, Dragon included the missing transmission parts as an addendum with it's own tiny instruction sheet in the 250/9 kit, where it wasn't visible at all, and the two 'not used' levers fit nicely into respective locating holes. Unfortunately, the transmission in the 251 series halftracks is completely diffent in size and shape, and cannot be substituted. I contacted Dragon USA as to the possibility of purchasing the transmission sprue (about 4 parts) to complete my other 250 series vehicles, but they refused on the grounds that since this part was never originally included in these other kits they were under no obligation to supply it separately. Having said all this, firstly; is there an aftermarket company that produces this piece?, (I have not seen any); and secondly; would there be a market for a resin aftermarket piece if one was available? I was considering making a few castings for myself, but if enough others were interested as well I would consider a production.

Before you give up on Dragon, did you try just asking if they would supply the sprue from the 250/9? Mentioning the other kits just muddies the water, and may be why they came back with that response as a sort of automatic defence. If instead you just ring up and say you want to part with cash for the requisite sprue you might get a different answer.

Of course, if they still won't play you can always cast your own as you say! (Academy's Sherman-based gearbox adorns many of my own scratchbuilt interiors for similar reasons! They were willing to sell the sprues, but at a price that made home-grown resin casting look attractive...)

Good luck!

Tom

This is exactly what I did - offer to buy the neccessary sprue, but I was also too truthful in saying that I wanted them for the other kits. The answer was 'NO' on both counts.

For future reference, try lying. Just sound sincere when you do.

I'll phone back next week and hope I speak to someone different.

This is funny. I would agree though. I had an airplane by Dragon. I used regular glue on the canopy and fogged it up. When I tried to clean it, I crazed the surface.

I called Dragon and spoke with a nice man. He did play 20 questions and asked specifics about my problem. He was very very curious. All in all, he did send a replacement, though it was weird doing credit card verbally. No problems otherwise. Fast shippment.