Cyber-Hobby

1/35 German Sd.Kfz. 250/10 Neu w/ 3.7cm PAK

Kit Number: 6595

Reviewed by  Jim Stratton, IPMS# 20703

MSRP: $46.95 Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com Cyber-Hobby.com has released another kit in their small half-track series. This version of the 250 light half-track was equipped with the 3.7cm PAK 36 and was considered to be a "Recon, Platoon Leaders" vehicle. This new "Limited Edition" release retains all the previous upgrades and includes the one piece lower hull seen in previous releases. Once again the kit includes the small "Magic Track", which is easy to assemble if a jig is used. The drive sprockets are made up of three pieces and the front wheels are the newer "sandwich" type consisting of five pieces for each wheel. The kit also includes an engine. The two engine compartment hatches are separate pieces and can be displayed open to show off the completed engine. There are two PE brass screens for the vents on the upper hull. The stowage lockers on the sides of the hull have separate lids and these can also be displayed open because they have detail on the inner surfaces and the piano hinge is nicely detailed. The kit interior includes a three part 3.7cm ammo rack with seven ammo boxes. Data sheets indicated that the vehicle was equipped with fourteen. I added a loose open ammo box and littered the interior with the extra (rather anemic) single rounds found on the ammo box sprue as well as some personal equipment.

The 250/10 had a crew of four, and sprues of Gen2 personal equipment and weapons are included for fitting out the interior. The equipment is held in place with etched brass straps. I found these to be better detailed than previous equipment holders. However they did tend to interfere with assembly of the upper hull to the lower hull. Care needs to be used when applying them to the hull and test fitting will show any potential problems. The driver compartment is equipped with a multi-part steering wheel and also included is the transmission housing and gear shift levers. There are no foot controls provided, but this should not be an issue as they cannot be seen once the upper hull and gun are in place. Assembly of this kit is straight forward with no problems encountered. It builds quickly and most of the time was spent detailing and painting the interior before placing the upper and lower hulls together. The 3.7cm gun assembled with no major problems. The gun barrel is split lengthwise and requires care when assembling. I have built the 3.7cm gun before and I know Dragon has a metal barrel out there. However, I don't know why they didn't include it in this kit. That would have been a nice addition to this limited run release. One problem with the kit is part C2. This is the firing lanyard and should hang down vertically. As molded and assembled it sticks straight out horizontally. After gluing it on the gun, I bent it down so it would look more natural. The gun shield was a little troublesome assembling but it finally went together. I started the paint job with a base of Tamiya Dark Yellow. I then masked the vehicle with silly putty and painted the green with Tamiya Dark Green and Tamiya Red Brown. The muffler was painted with Sophisticated Finishes Rust. This starts with a base of dark gray paint that is impregnated with iron filings. When this is dry, you then wash with a solution of copper sulfate and that rusts the iron filings in the base coat. This gives a very convincing rusty look, particularly on mufflers and tail pipes. There are only markings for one vehicle, an unknown unit fighting on the Western Front in 1944. The decals went down nicely and responded to Micro Sol without any problems. After the decals set up, I overcoated with a clear flat coat and started the weathering. I started with an over spray of Tamiya Dark Earth, followed by a wash of thinner and burnt umber oil paint. As stated earlier, this is a quick build and the vehicle looks really nice when completed. The box top had a vibrant green label the indicated that this is a "One Production Run-Limited Edition" model, so if you want one, be sure to pick it up before they disappear.

Disaster Strikes! I finished the model and the review. The only thing left was to shoot the pictures. I set up my photo stand outside on my pool deck, and got the background paper set. I then placed the finished model on the stand and went inside to get my camera. While I was inside, a gust of wind flipped the background paper upwards and along with it the finished model, which then landed on the pool deck, squarely on its top, smashing the 3.7cm gun into multiple broken pieces. Not the finish I was looking for. I have included the final images of the model just for your amusement. Mother Nature is a cruel woman. I would like to Thank Dragon/USA for the review sample and IPMS for letting me build and write this review.