Build Feature article by Bill Plunk (wbill76) of Cyber-Hobby''s Sd.Kfz.251/23 Ausf D Reconnaissance Vehicle Half-Track kit #6293 as a "Paper Panzer" Half-track.



Paper Panzer Half-Track

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Looking very purposefully, this combo. And a beautiful build. Although I personally would've added a 3-tone scheme.

One question, is it doable to use a regular 251/D and use parts from another vehicle to donate the Schwebe-laffette?

Or are there too many other areas that need modifying?

But it is looking very very nice, even with the single color scheme it still looks interesting.

Well done!

Herbert,

Thanks for your comments, always appreciated. I was tempted to do a 3-tone...even thought about a factory hard-edged scheme...but ended up with the straight Dunkelgelb scheme after looking at similar prototypes for the Aufklarungspanzer, Gepard, etc. where they show the prototype vehicles in plain Dunkelgelb plus I wanted to see what I could do with it from a weathering perspective so it was an "experiment" in more ways than one.

Not sure I understand your question though about swapping out parts for a 251 D? Do you mean if the Hangelafette turret can be used on another 251 D like the AFV or on another kit/ vehicle entirely? The turret is a stand-alone set of sprues/parts with a specially provided hull roof with turret ring as a one-piece modification, otherwise everything else in the kit is standard 251-D parts.

No I mean, since this is a one time limited edition "it will never ever be produced again" model, can you take a similar turret from another kit, and craft that on a regular D without too much additional modifications?

I love the way a 251 looks, although I've never ever built one, and this one looks very "aggresive".

So, should I wish to build one using a standard D, can I plop in a Schwebelaffette from a 250/9 or something like that?

Herbert,

Makes sense now, for you to get the right hybrid you'd have to take a 251-D and scratchbuild a roof top for it with turret ring and then could adapt a Hangelafette turret from either the 234/1 or Aufklarungspanzer 38(t) to get the right turret and gun mount. The 250/9 or 222 turret aren't the same layout/design in relation to the gun mount and interior and won't work on the 251 hull. The 250/9 turret has post mounts for the seats and gun whereas the 251/23, 241/1 turret has the seats "hanging" (hence the name of the mount) from the turret frame itself and uses a tank like turret ring for rotation.

Looks great Bill.

Thanks Dave, better than the T-35 eh?

A beauty Bill very nice finish on this one i like it a lot, i am yet to tackle one of dragons halftracks but i have 3 in the stash and it will be nice having this for reference when building one.

Ron.

Thanks Ron, the DML 251 series of kits present some interesting subjects although the accuracy/detail varies from the earlier to the later versions, they are all solid kits IMHO.