Introduction

The Sd.Kfz. 251 half track was designed to transport Panzergrenadiers to battle. It is one of the most famous German half tracks, and was produced in over 15,000 examples with 23 different official versions. Glenn Bartolotti’s “Step-By-Step Finishing Armor” series has released a new booklet that covers the Sd.Kfz. 251/1 used by Romania, Hungary and Germany.

what you get

The booklet is a 15-paged PDF file.

The first two pages describe the history of the vehicle and the materials that were used to build the model. The next page describes assembly of the model.

Pages 4 and 5 are basic painting. From pages 5-10 we have decaling, weathering and some other techniques. The last two pages cover photos of the finished model.

the review

The kit in the review is the 1/48 Tamiya 251/1 from their wide and very nice series of 1/48 military kits. While quarter scale is not that popular with most AFV modellers, it is a very wide market of nice kits, especially from Tamiya.

Glenn builds the model almost OOB, adding only a few details. After the one page of assembly with brief descriptions, he heads on to the painting.

Using Tamiya paints to represent a white-washed vehicle, he starts with a dark brown for the pre-shading, then he paints it with desert yellow, followed finally by the white for winter wash. I must say I never saw this technique of winter washing before, and I think it is much faster and easier than the usual hair spray technique.

After applying the decals he puts on a clear coat. After the clear coat has dried, he starts with the weathering. For winter whitewash, he uses some oil paint and a sponge. He applies small amount of white oil paint to the very edges of each plate. The next step is to paint the tarp and give the model a light wash with dark color. In the end, some chipping and pigments.

I tried both of the techniques he used here, the tarp and the winter whitewash. Both are really easy to learn and I had no problems with them.

Conclusion

This is another interesting booklet from Glenn in the “Step-By-Step” series. I find this booklet to be very helpful when doing a particular model as you get all information you need and for only $2.

Thanks to Glenn Bartolotti for providing this review sample. Be sure to mention you saw it reviewed on Armorama when ordering.