Part 2: The Build

Kit Construction: Since this halftrack has a fully detailed and visible interior, I painted this kit as I progressed with construction. I started with the lower hull minus the wheels, road wheels, sprockets, and tracks (leaving these parts until the weathering stage of the model). All parts on the lower hull fit well. The next part of the kit for me was the highly detailed interior. Everything fits well and looks right. I really like the rifle racks behind the passenger seats. Without aftermarket supplies, the interior looks busy enough for me. I did have a problem with placing the dash board and firewall assembly (part A17). I put it roughly 1/8" further back than it needed to be, and the part ended up interfering with the upper hull (part A1) and the radio (part B18). I think that with a good amount of dry fitting, these parts will fit together properly. My only real problem with the interior was the ejector pin marks on the rear hull plate (part A16). I filled them with superglue since they would be visible next to the fire extinguishers. After painting and detailing the interior, I glued the upper hull to the lower hull together. The fit wasn't perfect, but I blame the poor fit to my failures with the firewall. Using superglue and kicker, the upper hull did snuggle down to the lower hull. All of the upper hull parts and attachments fit well and are well detailed. The gun assembly built up very quickly. I used the plastic gun shield (part G8) as a master to bend the photo etched gun shield (part MB). The plastic shield has more detail, but the photo etched shield looks more realistic in terms of thickness. I had no fit problems with the gun assembly. The photo etched parts in this kit are superb. I used all of them but the interior Luger mounts (parts MA2 and MA4). They were really tiny, and they would be hidden by the roof of the driver compartment. The wheels, road wheels, sprockets, and tracks are all well detailed and fit together nicely. I used a 10/0 sable brush and lots of patience to paint the rubber on the wheels. Fortunately, the wheels are detailed enough to allow for ease in painting. The tracks fit perfectly with just the right amount of tension. Paint and weathering: I used Tamiya Dark Yellow (XF-60) for my base color and Testors Header Flat White enamel for the white blotches. To make the blotches, I dry brushed the white onto the kit with Q-tips. After a mist coat of Tamiya Flat White (XF-2) diluted 10-1 with isopropyl alcohol, I coated the exterior surfaces of the kit with Future Floor Polish in preparation for decals. After decal placement, a layer of Tamiya Flat Base (X-21) diluted 4-1 with Future Floor Polish was placed to dull the surfaces and to seal the decals for weathering. I placed two more diluted paint coats with flat white and Tamiya Buff (XF-57) to tone down the dark yellow and to blend the winter scheme. I placed a wash with Testors Burnt Umber enamel over the exterior of the kit followed by a dry brushed coat of Winsor Newton Titanium White artist oil. The snow seen in the pictures is a mixture of chalk, one drop of white glue, and water mixed to a milk-like consistency. Decals: I had no problems with the decals. You can choose the vehicle number that you want in this kit and there are a few choices to make for crosses. My kit had 18 decals on it with 14 of them being letters and numbers. For me, it worked best to place all of the numbers at once with a #11 blade, warm water, and a 10/0 paint brush. Work slowly. If you mess up any of the lettering, Dragon has provided many replacement letters.

Conclusion: It took me 12 hours to complete this kit. With the full interior, 12 hours seems about right to me. Most of my time was spent painting tires and painting the winter scheme. Any level of modeler will like this kit, and it is the nicest 251 halftrack that I've built. With all of the extra parts in the kit, I'm sure that more variants are forthcoming. If I had a vote in which ones for Dragon to bring forth, I would choose any type of 251/8 ambulance or any "A" or "B" version of the 251. Once again, I'd like to thank Dragon and IPMS/USA for this beautiful review kit.

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