Tamiya

1/48 Sdkfz. 251/1 Ausf. D "Stuka Zu Fuss"

Kit Number: 32566

Reviewed by  Andrew Birkbeck, IPMS# 27087

MSRP: $33.00 Website: www.tamiyausa.com Last year Tamiya added to their excellent range of 1/48th scale military vehicles with a kit of the very important Sdkfz. 251/1 Ausf. D "Hanomag" halftrack. This vehicle was a key component to the WW2 German military machine's "Blitzkrieg" style of warfare, providing as it did armored mechanized transport for the Panzer Grenadier units that followed the Panzer units into battle. The Sdkfz. 251 was produced throughout the war and became a very large range of different sub types, from troop transport, radio vehicle, bridging vehicle, anti tank platform, dedicated ambulance etc. The "Stuka Zu Fuss" was just such a sub type, taking the standard 251/1 troop transporter, and arming it with unguided short range 28 and 32cm rockets, which were mounted on the exterior sides of the vehicle. The standard troop transport version of the 251/1 was reviewed earlier by IPMS/USA, kit 32564. Opening the box of this new kit you will find all of the parts from the earlier kit, minus the gray sprue containing the small arms, gas masks, bed rolls etc. Also missing are the two crew figures contained in the earlier kit. Added to the contents is sprue "D", which contains all the parts for the required rockets (eight 28cm rockets and two 32cm rockets), and parts for their wooden launch/transport crates, as well as the parts for the launch frames to hang on the vehicle sides. To replace the two earlier figures, Tamiya gives the modeler four new figures depicting four crew men posed in various positions for loading the rockets into their frames. Construction of the kit is pretty straight forward, involving almost a complete duplication of the instructions from the earlier standard troop version, which makes perfect sense as the real vehicle WAS the troop version, with the rocket launch frames added. Construction progresses along easily if one follows verbatim Tamiya's excellent instructions. Highlights include the now standard Tamiya link and length tracks, which fit like a fine leather glove, together with the nicely scaled rocket launch apparatus and rocket crates, which have nice wood grain effect to them. As I worked through the instruction step by step, I found the following areas caused me a few issues: Section 1: make sure you study the placement diagram for part B20. Also, part B20 has four pin marks which can be removed with careful sanding. Section 6: construction of the tracks. Each track part has ejector pin marks on it, and if rather tedious to remove, can be remedied with careful sanding.. Section 15: be extremely careful when removing parts E15 and E16 from their sprues, and in their clean up. They are easily fractured. I used the "heat method" of removal, whereby I heat up a scalpel blade with a flame, and then slice through the sprue attachment point. This puts zero stress on the parts. Section 19: construction of the MG42. Parts C2 and C12 both have unfortunate ejection pin marks that need very careful removal. Other than the above, I sailed easily through the kit's construction. Overall parts fit as one comes to expect from Tamiya, was superb. The kit comes with markings for three different vehicles, all of which are standard late war three tone examples, Panzer Yellow, Green and Red/Brown. Scheme A, a unit from Panzergrenadier Regiment "Grossdeutschland", Lithuania, August 1944. Scheme B, a Panzergrenadier unit from 6th Panzer Division, also Lithuania August 1944. Scheme C, an armored engineering battalion from 2nd Panzer Division, Normandy, August 1944. Decals were well printed, if a little on the thick side, but they laid down nicely over a layer of gloss clear, followed up by a sealing coat of the same gloss clear, then a coat of matt clear. Paints used were from the Tamiya "acrylic" range, thinned with Mr Leveling (lacquer) Thinner from the Gunze Mr Color range. This combination works extremely well for me, with the matt clear used being from the Mr Color range of lacquer paints. Following initial construction, painting and decaling, the model was given a "wash" of thinned oil paint, and when dry, I proceeded to add chips and scratches with a small pointed brush and some suitable dark gray color from the Vallejo range of acrylic paints. Finally a very dilute mixture of Tamiya "Buff" paint was airbrushed over the model, concentrating on the lower sections of the vehicle to simulate "road dust".

All in all a very fun build which I can highly recommend to anyone with average modeling skills and above. My thanks to TamiyaUSA for supplying IPMS/USA with the opportunity to review this kit. You can find this and many other excellent Tamiya kits at their web site.