Vicente Muñoz shares with us some images of his Sdkfz 7 towing an Sfh 18.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Hello Vicente,

I think this is one of the best builds I've seen so far. Outstanding in details. Like the bike and the rest of the stowage. Gun is excellent in weathering.
A real treat for my eyes in a modelers perspective world.

Great job Mister

Regards,

RJ

Very nice work ... congrats!

Rick

Half-Tracks and Howitzers -- gotta' love 'em! Two of my favorite WWII historical vehicles.

The windshield is spot-on and I love that you stowed the RH engine cover in the rear of the Half-Track! The bicycle is a nice touch as well. Nice work!

Curious: Which kits did you decide to use; was it Dragon's Sd.Kfz.7 and Trumpeter's Sfh 18?

--mike

Great built, love it!

Great looking models! I'm loath to criticize Vincente's work but there are three items he might consider changing with the howitzer. Note how close the barrel is to the ground? Very dangerous.

1) the howitzer slide would be locked in place (those clamps on the trailing legs lock onto the rear of the slide)
2) the barrel is "taken out of battery" and slides about 3 feet back (to shorten its length at the rear)
3) its gun sight would be put away.

Just some suggestion for artillery builders.

http://www.lonesentry.com/ordnance/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/howitzer.jpg

Vicente; outstanding! Your weathering is remarkable. I did not take ericadeane's 3 points as criticism, rather as a helpful eye towards detail concerning things most of us who are not artillerists would not have noticed.

OUTSTANDING !!!

Very nicely done!

Great job. I agree that the barrel sits too close to the ground to look naturally, but a small detail. Very nice weathering.

Just when I think I've been impressed on this site and can't be more WOWWED! Something like this comes along! Only one question-on the wheels for the gon, are they aire filled or solid rubber? I only ask because if they were solid, there would be "chunks" missing from the edges.

Still WAY BEYOND my abilities! AWESOME!!

They were solid. But certainly you're not saying every wheel started deteriorating as soon as it rolled out the factory doors, right? They could have bits worn off -- but certainly TONS of contemporary pics show the in very good condition.

What Roy said.

I have looked at more Sd.Kfz.7 prime mover photos than any other German vehicle, and the hard rubber tires on these field pieces held up well initially. There is a paucity of photos from the LW period, however, so we don't have a ton of evidence how the tires lasted over time or how often they needed to be replaced.

The only other suggestion I would add besides the angle of the barrel is that these guns had a canvas bag over the muzzle to prevent road dust from fouling the rifling. But that's a small quibble for an outstanding set-up.

Hi. Some discussions on the gun seems to be a worldwide issue. The link below shows a Dragon kit. The experts however discovered the same 3 points of mistakes made by the builder.

http://www.twenot-forums.nl/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=29414&sid=407cb6d0f1e559240f1fee11c7c56411

It's Dutch, but the pictures speak for themselves.

Cheers,

RJ

here's a photo of a museum piece http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:150mm_sFH18_howitzer_base_borden_1.jpg I wasn't saying that the tires should be completely disentegrated, I was just thinking that with the level of weathering/chipping on the paint of the gun, the tires should show a bit more wear. I was on M-1's US Army for 4 years, seen first hand what the wear on that rubber is like on several different types of vehicles

Excellent point! I concur

I think it's a judgement call.

First of all, the photo referenced is of a relic: we can't use surviving vehicles for this sort of discussion because we don't know what its restoration state is, how it is stored or when the last time those tires were replaced. We need to go by historical photos.

The gun in this model set might or might not be the same age as its prime mover, and the tires might've been replaced at some point. What we tend to forget about real war is the constant turnover of materiel as things wear out. Motor pools have to swap out parts, assemblies and even entire vehicles as conditions permit and the demands of battle require.

Personally, I tend to take a bite out of my tires/wheels because the fact that most fighting in WW2 was done off-road would mean a lot of stones, gravel and other debris would be impacting rubber tires or road wheels. On this SU-100 build, I notched most of the tires, but not all to reflect the fact that some wheels might have been repaired:



That having been said, I would not mark him down if I were judging this model in a competition, it's superb.