Thanks Guys
I got some more work done this weekend and was going to call this one done

However I think I need to weather the tracks, wheels and undercarriage a bit more
Other wise comments and suggestions are always appreciated

Very nice vehicle, Sal, it looks great! Super paint job!

Thanks Clayton, I mud-ed it up a bit more and Im ready to call this one finished

This was a fun kit to build

Looks great- that must have been the Original Monster Truck!

Looking great Tim.

Sal Nice job. Thanks for joining in. Hope you had fun

Hi Guys, I'm calling this one finished. Tamiya 1/35 M-21. I learned a great deal, tried some new techniques and materials with mixed results but that's how you progress.

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Nicely done Ken. Great to see someone taking the plunge and trying new things. This looks great as it is. Cheers.

Look good Ken, Thanks for sharing!

That came out very nice. Great looking half-track.

Managed to get a little bit done after a couple of weeks away from the bench.

Finally I've made a start. My computer went belly up at the beginning of Feb and has been with my dad until now being fixed. Lets just say he didn't attach a lot urgency to fixing it. I'd held off starting the Sdkfz 251/9 until last weekend so I've only had a few days of building. Here's where I'm at now...



After I'd made a start I was a bit curious as to why there were two radios to be fitted that were the same, one for the co-driver and one in the crew compartment so I did a bit of digging on the internet. It turns out that DML were completely wrong. There was no seat fitted for the co-driver/radio op on the 251/9! I had to cut out the seat mount which left a big hole but fortunately I had a spare floor. I cut a square out of that so I had the same pimpled floor and filled the hole in the gearbox with Humbrol filler from the underside, smoothed it flat and sanded it. Voila! No signs of a seat. You probably won't see it once the main gun is in but I didn't want to risk it.





I bought a box of 251 spares off ebay a couple of years ago to go with my own DML spares from the 3 in 1 251's and other 251's so I had 3 extra brass shells (for some reason there's only 3 in the kit) so instead of using the plastic ones I was able to put a full ammo rack of brass shells. I just need to paint the fuses now.



I need to weather the panels before I glue them on, just for ease really but I need to wire the radio up (not shown here) so that's better done while they're off. If anyone knows of a decent picture of the wiring going to and from the radio I'd be very grateful if they could share it as I want to have the power cable going to the radio also going to the antenna.

The most hated part is out of the way ie painting the road wheels and adding the individual tracks and rubber track pads. I love 251's just hate doing the wheels and tracks lol.





So that's where I'm up to now. Hopefully over the next few days I'll get the hull together then I can build the main gun. Some nice builds coming through on here. Three months without a computer gives me a lot of catching up to do.

Nice repair job, Karl, and good info to know!

Coming along nicely Chris

You too Karl

In regards Fu. Spr. F radio wiring:
Aerial top right (there should be a small junction box between it and the aerial itself)
Power socket lower left
Microphone top left and
Loudspeaker under that.
The panel under that is for the Headphones

Power socket comes from the transformer

http://www.pietvanhees.nl/251/drawing/radio-7.jpg

http://i432.photobucket.com/albums/qq49/Lolo_des_champs/FicheFusprechfretaille.jpg

This might give you the idea (this is from a Marder though)
http://www.rjproducts.com/Catalogs/K59_Production/pic/K59_Production_K59005A2.jpg

Base color laid on. Needs some dark OD filters to tone down the way too green.

Hi Chris coming along nicely. Those tracks look so much better than the Tamiya kit.

Thanks.

You have plenty of time to ungreen it,

Give it to my wife for a few weeks and like every plant she ever owned, it will brown up...

I had to back out of my very first campaign guys. With some sickly parents and a house to run I simply have not time at the moment. Things seemed so hopeful at the beginning. I'll be watching at least. Carry on.

Ken-Came out nicely for a vintage kit. Stowage also looks good. Always good to try new stuff. Keeps things interesting, no?

Sorry to hear that, Bob. I hope everything works out okay and you can get back to some relaxing time.

X2, Bob, look us up when you can!

Peter, thanks for the info. That will make things a lot easier. I'd worked out a couple of them but can now add the rest of the wiring with confidence. I managed to knock the headphones out anyway lol. Done a bit more work on it, not a great deal as I've been feeling crap. I've done my chronic pancreatitis the wrong way round and after 4 years have now grown some gallstones which make me feel really s****y so haven't done much over the last few days. I've picked up some resin ammo boxes to add to the shells already inside and just need to put a bit more kit in before I stick the top on. Once that's done then it's plain sailing having built a few of these now.









I've not gone mad on the weathering inside as I'm finishing it as a 12th SS Hitlerjugend one so it will only have had a month or so in the field considering most of their kit was as issued when they received it being a new division. I've not long finished reading "Steel Inferno" by Michael Reynolds which is about 1SS Panzer Korps in Normandy so the bulk of the books about 12th SS. If you get opportunity to read it do so. Changed my whole outlook on the Normandy campaign. Brilliant book. This is hopefully going in the big Normandy dio I have planned. I'm still stockpiling built vehicles and figures for it before I start on the base