Tamiya sdkfz 251/1 (ish)

[scottie3158]

George,
This is coming on nicely

[Guest]

muck around with the seats (eduard wants me to shorten the forward two to the same ‘length’ as the bins...not sure how well that’ll go!).

Tamiya’s aren’t the same length, are they? The front seats should in any case be shorter than the rear ones, to seat two vs. three people. If you have a modelling saw and a mitre box, it should’t be very difficult to remove a part from them, though: saw it in half, then remove a bit from one of the two halves, clean up both parts, and glue them back together. You can put a bit of plastic card or sprue underneath to strengthen it or make sure the pieces line up, if you think it’ll be necessary.

I’m assuming the seat covers would’ve been grey as well.

I'm not sure. I’d go for a redbrown leather myself, if I couldn’t find good references on what the real colour was.

[JR]

George .
Well done on the PE, it's all coming together .
John .

[Guest]

I thought you liked gluing your fingers together Mike?:smiling5::smiling3:

Steve,
I do, I do, but it is so much better when you forget and touch the c/a needle to your finger/thumb without realising and then do about 2 minutes brass bending with a pair of tweezers in the same hand - note to self be carefull when scratching nose or other parts of anatomy...
Mike.

[Guest]

Good idea Mike. I'll have a root through the missus' make-up kit...or something :smiling:
Some if the weeny little 'fasteners' are just too small so I'm going to omit most of them.

George,
Just do not get caught!!! It's a hard job trying to explain the need to apply makeup...:flushed:
Mike.

[Guest]

Tamiya’s aren’t the same length, are they? The front seats should in any case be shorter than the rear ones, to seat two vs. three people. If you have a modelling saw and a mitre box, it should’t be very difficult to remove a part from them, though: saw it in half, then remove a bit from one of the two halves, clean up both parts, and glue them back together. You can put a bit of plastic card or sprue underneath to strengthen it or make sure the pieces line up, if you think it’ll be necessary.


I'm not sure. I’d go for a redbrown leather myself, if I couldn’t find good references on what the real colour was.

Yes they are...

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I just threw caution to the wind after trying on a piece of sprue to see which angle the blades of my sprue ‘snippers’ took the plastic away & which side cut cleanly...luckily it worked :smiling:
The cut edges are in the shade enough not to need any tarting up I think.

Glued in place now, I’ll have a think about the seat colour but kind of agree that a red brown colour could work

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[Steve Jones]

Nice update George. All heading in the right direction. Have you had a chance to look at the tracks or wheels yet??

[Guest]

Nice update George. All heading in the right direction. Have you had a chance to look at the tracks or wheels yet??

Not yet Steve...I've sprayed the wheels so they're ready to go pretty much. The track I'm hoping will fit a bit better than on the Panzer IV!! :flushed::upside:

[Guest]

Eduard mudguards, lights & number plates fitted...with some considerable difficulty in places!
Wheels painted & glued in place. Some aren’t exactly symmetrical to the body but as they rotate they should look ok if/when I can get the tracks on.
I’m planning on trying a snow camo effect on this, so what with weathering, I’m hoping all the little ‘problems’ will be hidden from view.

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[Guest]

Eduard mudguards, lights & number plates fitted...with some considerable difficulty in places!

Ah, I see you’ve really discovered the joys of photoetched parts now

Wheels painted & glued in place. Some aren’t exactly symmetrical to the body but as they rotate they should look ok if/when I can get the tracks on.

As long as the other ones are mostly straight, it’ll be hard to notice on a vehicle with this many wheels.

[Guest]

I’ve bought a set of 4 teeny weeny eyebrow tweezers which should really help bend some of the fiddly bits. I’m not getting that implement that was on anothed thread...yet...anyway :smiling:

Yup. I think the wheels will be ok...it’s thebtracks that worry me. Though I’ve not yet attempted to cross that bridge!

[Guest]

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Any ideas what I’m supposed to do with #40 (2 ammo belts) on the rearward AA gun?
Eduard seems to suggest I roll it/them up which seems odd as they wouldn’t just hang like that with gravity in place...surely?
There are no ‘drums’ provided by tamiya or Eduard to hold the belt in place despite what the small diagram shows...

I assume the belt would just hang down from the breach

[Guest]

You do see photos of the machine guns on German vehicles with a length of belt hanging down into the vehicle, with no drum to hold it.

[Guest]

You do see photos of the machine guns on German vehicles with a length of belt hanging down into the vehicle, with no drum to hold it.

I may give it a go as long as I can get the belt to stick to the gun!

[Guest]

Drape it partly over the mounting or the hull roof, that gives more places to glue it down

What also helps for that is to anneal the brass to make it softer and more pliable: heat it (for example over a cooker) until it’s good and hot, then let it cool. With brass, you can either allow it to cool naturally or quench it with water — if you do the latter with steel, it’ll harden it instead of making it softer, but brass will become softer with either method.