Matchbox 1/76 Sd.kfz. 251

The Ausf. A and B had a different interior to the Ausf.C and D which are more commonly modelled. This view shows the front seats to be solid and the soft leather seats in the rear. 

Bruce Culver, author of so many books about military vehicles including Panzer Colors and countlesss Squadron and Opsrey titles drew these sketches.  

There is even a single Ausf. B surviving in Johannesburg, although sadly somewhat stripped out. Still the hard metal seat backs and bucket front seats are shown here. 

Tools were fixed to both sides of the rear top superstructure. On the left, an axe and pick axe.  

And shown here on this 251/6 radio vehicle are the two shovels on the right rear hull. 

Picking up where I left off about 40 years ago. Horrible brush painted desert sand painted interior, but some decent work to enhance the driver's cabin. 

I've begun scratchbuilding those unusual front seats. 

This kit lacks a lot of details I think are important. I adopted a modular approach to ensure the interior could be detailed and painted before coming together, so there was A LOT of test fitting to keep everything able to be assembled after painting. Here's an overview of all the mods I've made so far. Quite a few more still to come.
Clockwise from top left:
Rear doors engraved inside and scratched hinges added
Exhaust muffler drilled out
Dragon DS tracks to replace kit tracks
Road wheels thinned to fit Dragon track width (the tracks are of course nominally 1/72 so should be bigger than 1/76, go figure!)
Driving compartment scratch built and gear lever and other details added
Kit front wheel hubs replaced with equally ancient but more accurate Fujimi ones
Driver's vision ports, dashboard and steering wheel scratched and other details added 

Phew! It all still fits together! The kit includes two nice MG42s. Nice but obviously unsuitable for a 1941 vehicle. Fujimi came to the rescue again with a decent MG34. 

MG shield has been thinned to about 20% of the original thickness. 

A lot of filling and filing was needed to get the front nose plate flat and smooth. 

Rather pleased that I could get the Dragon DS tracks to fit and drape properly onto this different generation kit. Probably my favourite upgrade so far. 

Vision ports modified to better match the originals. Mr. Surfacer to the rescue as usual. 

In case anyone is wondering the reason to do this, here's what the original visors look like. 

Some more interior details and crew clutter added. A few resin items from Black Dog 

Driving compartment is now reasonably busy 

Shovels and their clamps are a combination of old Airfix parts and scratch building. 

Interior almost done now. Driving compartment roof plate needs thinning I think; looks like about 3x too thick in scale.
 

Still playing around with placements of kit. 

Big mistake here. If you spot it say so, if you don't I'll think I've gotten away with it... 

 

 

To get a little more light into the driver's compartment, I polished the roof inside and sprayed it gloss white. Impossible to see once installed and I reckon increases visibility of everything else in this dark area by about 30% 

 

 

Together at last with trial fits and composition of dio. I wanted to represent the advance on Moscow Autumn 1941. Researching Russian urban street photos in the 1930's shows cobble stones everywhere! So the base was remade with this feature. The ruined walls have been extended and detailed too. 

At last the black primer is on! Was anxious that all that filling, sanding and add on bits would turn out to be scabby, but all's well (enough). 

Been working on the base too. Quite a few tweaks including a scratch-built base with cobbles that's a bit larger all round than the kit base. 

Added some missing rivet detail around the nose and engine compartment. 

The building ruin has no interior so I added that. Floorboards courtesy Waitrose coffee stirrers. 

Well I made a bucket this weekend and got some panzer grey on. I quite like the bucket actually. 😉 

Base painting started. 

Rubble added, probably too little, but I don't want to overwhelm the scene 

Excuse the lurid green jerry can. It will be painted up, I just forgot to remove it. 

Building interior almost done. 

Cobbles and bucket inspiration! 

Gloss coat and decals on. Number plates from Dragon with individual numbers tested my patience and took forever. 

The Russian poster came from Ebay 

Weathering and figures next... 

Flat coat on and I feel better already 

Weathering begun. Timidly I know! 

Figure painting begins. These are Revell's Panzergrenadiers in the dreaded soft plastic. But I like the proportions and poses. 

More weathering today 

Hope to get this finished by tomorrow. 40+years in the making! 

All done now save the final touch ups. Will post better pics soon. 

At last! I'm calling this done now.