Sd.Kfz. 7 half-track, post-war

[scottie3158]

Jakko excellent work mate.

[The Smythe Meister]

There`s white Witchcraft,there`s Black Witchcraft...... and then there`s MOGELLIN` WITCHCRAFT :dizzy:!!!!
Not so long ago you would have been either Burnt at the stake or Hung for that Jakko !!
Lovin` it!!
Andy

[Nicko]

That's some excellent work on the engine there Jakko.

Nick

[Guest]

Thanks, guys, though I assure you it’s nowhere near as difficult as it may seem. The carving out of the recesses for the spark plugs was the hardest part, and not one I intend to do again soon The difficulty of the rest lies mainly in figuring out what is there on the real thing and coming up with a way to build it.

[Guest]

As I’ve not worked out how to make the rocker arms, I went back to other parts of the model. Under the load bed, I added bolts, strips etc. as well as a replacement spare wheel carrier, because Dragon’s part is far too large:

[ATTACH]443934[/ATTACH]

The bolts etc. are only on this side, because the side panel will be hanging down on the other so they won’t be visible there.

The other part is a small fuel tank that sits under the dashboard. Dragon omitted this, but did include one for earlier versions of the Sd.Kfz. 7. By fitting that back to front, with the tap moved to the other side, plugging the opening with plastic card and adding a plastic strip retaining strap, it looks the part.

Inside the cab, I put in the battery box:

[ATTACH]443935[/ATTACH]

This is nearly all 0.25 mm card and strip, the whole thing is 14 mm long and 8 mm wide. The cables inside are copper wire with rings punched from plastic card, and though they’re complete conjecture, I think they look convincing enough.

[Guest]

More details added to the battery box, as well as a small hatch below it from some thin plastic card with stretched sprue for a hinge:

[ATTACH]444043[/ATTACH]

I also primed the brass mudguard:

[ATTACH]444044[/ATTACH]

For this, I used Mr. Surfacer 1000, applied with a brush. The reason is that I wanted to prime it before attaching the cab to the chassis, but I didn’t want to use an aerosol to avoid getting primer over all of the cab. I was thinking I may have to decant primer, before I remembered I have a bottle of Mr. Surfacer at the back of one of my paint drawers

Inside the cab again, I added the basic dashboard:

[ATTACH]444045[/ATTACH]

All the holes were made with punch-and-die sets, as were the two dials that are still present. It still needs plenty of details added, though, like switches, a filler cap and more.

[Graeme C.]

Impressive stuff Jakko, the rockers are going to be pretty difficult to do, a lot of awkward shapes. Do you have any pictures of the ones on this vehicle?

[Guest]

Thanks. Those rockers have a an awkward, curved shape with a roller on one end. They are very similar to the ones on this HL 120 engine:

(source)

Which means they will be very hard to build, especially as I need twelve of them …

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Those rockers will be hard to do and getting 12 done the same will be really difficult.
Could they be 3D printed or make one and cast another 11? :rolling:
Just another difficulty which I'm certain you'll overcome.
Dash and battery box look good.
Jim

[Guest]

That would be an option, but then I might as well have had someone print the whole interior of the top of the engine I think I’ll try cutting a few bits of plastic card and see how far I get with that. It’s small enough that the exact shape isn’t overly important anyway.

[adt70hk]

Simply outstanding detailing Jakko.

Very well done.

Andrew

[Guest]

Thanks You’ll be happy (I suppose ) to read that I thought of a way to make passable rocker arms. I began by glueing triangles cut from plastic strip to the shafts:

[ATTACH]444092[/ATTACH]

followed by punched discs of plastic card on the other side:

[ATTACH]444093[/ATTACH]

Once the glue is dry, I’ll add a piece of plastic strip over all this, but not just yet

Meanwhile, I turned to the radiator, which Dragon has missed completely. I replaced the front grill by one from Panzer Art, because it is actually open while Dragon has moulded a large piece of plastic behind the louvres. Next, I cut a square of 1.5 mm plastic card and covered both sides in fine steel mesh, to sit between the grille and the fan shroud:

[ATTACH]444096[/ATTACH]

The mesh is from some cheap garden light thingie that takes a tea candle, which my mother was throwing away last summer. As it had about 0.5 mm mesh in it, I said, “I’ll have that, thanks!”

Assembled, it looks like this:

[ATTACH]444094[/ATTACH][ATTACH]444095[/ATTACH]

It’s not easily visible in the photo from the front, but can be seen well enough in the flesh. I’ve glued the radiator to the fan shroud, but the grill is still loose for painting.

The Panzer Art grill had a Krauss-Maffei badge on it (as does the Dragon part), but on these late Sd.Kfz. 7s, the manufacturer’s badge was deleted, so I scraped it off. You should leave it on for earlier vehicles, or replace it by one of the other manufacturers, Hansa-Lloyd, Henschel, Krupp or Saurer.

Also, the louvres could be opened or closed from inside the cab, so another option would be to remove then entirely and replace them by a piece of plastic card scribed to represent them closed.

[Nicko]

That really is excellent work on the engine Jakko. If I'd had to guess, I never would have expected they'd be overhead cam either....

Nick

[Guest]

All these Maybach engines were, I think — it was recommended to me to also look at other types than the HL 62 because they’re really all built the same way. Talking of which:

[ATTACH]444144[/ATTACH]

I bent and glued small bits of plastic strip over the rocker arms to complete them, and then added bolt heads to the seven whatchamacallits that secure them.

And back in the cab, I think it’s nearly complete now too:

[ATTACH]444145[/ATTACH][ATTACH]444146[/ATTACH]

I made the supports for the driver’s seat from plastic strip (great fun, making L-profile from two bits of 0.75 × 0.25 and 0.5 × 0.25 mm plastic strip …) and also added all the dashboard details, including a cap for the fuel tank for the starting motor

I say “nearly complete”, by the way, because I noticed that I’ve forgotten to round off the two bits of plastic strip to the left of the steering column and add a knob to each.

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Excellent :thumb2:
Jim