Karl Flavell takes a look at the Dragon Models Sdkfz 250/4 AusfA leichter Truppenluftschutzpanzerwagen mit zwilling MG34 in 1/35th scale and shares his thoughts on it.

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Thanks!

another great review thank you

Another variant kit that I must resist...

The AMPS review of the kit suggests that it was a prototype that only underwent troop trials in 1942, which is where the 'in the field' photos come from; the review has one such image from the Bundesarchiv. Even if it went into production, it must have been discontinued quickly enough, with low enough production numbers, not to have acquired enough of a photographic record for it to compete with the library of 250/4 Beobachtungswagen pictures.

Sean, that was my thinking. I just thought it was odd that Dragon said it was field tested and yet give a painting option for 1944. Now to my thinking, if it was field tested in 1942 and found to be not much use, they'd have pulled them out of the field and either in battalion workshops or after being returned to Germany, stripped out the AA pedestal and used it as a straightforward Sdkfz 250 to do whatever with. The likelihood of any vehicle surviving two years on the Eastern Front, as we all know is quite unlikely, so the 1944 paint job seems quite fanciful. It would probably look nice in a 3 colour cam but it's authenticity? Hmmm... Especially when it says "unidentified unit". I suppose in theory they might have sent a couple to France which were quite safe until 1944 but it seems very unlikely with a new combat vehicle. It's a shame there's not more photos available because as you say 250/4 brings up the artillery liaison 4 on net searches. I wonder how many of these were actually built and sent to Russia. Something we'll probably never know.