Book Review: SdKfz 251/9 & 22, Kanonenwagen, Dennis Oliver (Land Craft)

 

Another excellent instalment in the ever-growing Dennis Oliver section of the WWII German Tank/Land Cradt series. This time on kanonenwagen variants of the German half-track workhorse that was the SdKfz 251.

All the usual elements are in place: a brief history of the design and manufacture; unit histories; the ever inspiring colour profiles segment; model showcase/products; unit composition (under the official German 'kreigsstarkenweisung' heading!): technical details, etc. 

Terrifically illustrated on all fronts, from contemporary black and white photos to the colour profiles and beautifully built models. One of the nicest builds, by Juanjo Domingez, is in my favourite/chosen 1/72, and, despite its tiny size, is the chosen and favoured 'cover girl', so to speak. 

Perusing this inspires me to possibly try converting one of my extant 251s into a long-barrelled kanonenwagen! And I would, unhesitatingly, recommend this to those interested in the AFVs and suchlike of this fascinating era. Excellent!

Kit Build/Review: Heller 1/72 Jeep (+ Academy Jeeps!)

After reading and reviewing the inaugural Land Craft book on the Jeep, I fancied making another, having already built one from the Allied & Axis light vehicles set by Academy, many moons ago. In an excess of zeal I bought the Academy set again anyway, so I can rebuild that one as well. You can't have too many Jeeps can you? I think in excess of 90,000 were built during WWII.

I had hoped to build both Jeeps today. Indeed, I almost set myself the challenge of building and painting them both in this one day. But what with a lazy Sunday lay in and the World Championship snooker as a distraction, that was a forlorn hope!

Prepping all the parts, laying them out ready to assemble.

Jeep assembled, trailer ready to go.

I decided to do the Heller Jeep sans hood, so it'll make a nice companion for the Academy ones. This meant fabricating the frame, from wire and plastic card, as the only supplied frame elements in the kit were for the hood up scenario.* The hardest part of doing that was keeping the frame components separate. A very fiddly process!

I also broke one of the hood attachments on the windscreen, whilst masking it. The masking is made trickier by the fact that aheller have included windscreen wiper detail in the windscreen part. I fabricated a new one from plastic card. It's a bit chunky. But I hope I'll be able to pare it down a bit. I also had to repair the MG-mounting post, in a very minor way. As it happens I think I'll leave that off the model anyway.

Heller Jeep alongside the already built Academy Jeep.

* This is a bit odd, 'cause if you build this with the MG deployed, then the hood needs to be down, yet they don't supply suitable parts for that iteration.

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Day 2...

Academy Jeep #2

I've already built one of these Jeeps, but fancied making another. It's a nice clean moulding, and goes together nicely, but lacks one or two of the nice details the Heller kit has, such as the clear plastic headlights, or the wrap-around handles on the rear corners of the bodywork.

Parts prepped for assembly.

I've opted to leave the machine out again, so that's two for the spares box now.

Chassis first...

Body pan next...

And before you know it, done.

Loading with stowage...

I think I'll load this Jeep to the gunnels: just added two tarps and a box so far. But a load of jerry cans, and perhaps some scratch-built bits... maybe a toolbox? Hmmm... time for a break. Keep tabs on Trump vs. Higgins, in the Snooker final.

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Yay, the Judd-ernaut won! I had hoped the final would be Gary Wilson vs. either Trump or Dave Gilbert. But as it was Trump vs. Higgins, I wanted Trump to get his first World Championship title. And what a game he played!

My next batch ready for undercoats and base-coats.

Anyway, back in Styrene-land, my two latest Jeeps are built, and a certain amount of clobber has been added. I thought I'd add some finishing touches and stowage to a couple of PSC Sherman's that had kind of stalled, so I could undercoat and base-coat a decent batch of models in one go tomorrow. 

Book Review: M2/M3, ed. Robert Jackson (Land Craft, 2)

After the disappointments I mention in my review of the previous publication on the Jeep, it's great to be able to report that this, the second in the new Land Craft series, is back on track (boom-boom!). 

This iteration of these very useful publications follows the standard form - Design & Development, In Detail, Variants, Camouflage & Markings (aka 'colour profiles'), Model Showcase, Modelling Products, In Service & In Action - covering each aspect with a good balance of clarity and thoroughness. 

The archival and contemporary images are superbly chosen, conveying maximum info with great concision, and the colour profiles are excellent, and include front, back, side and plan elevations, for maximum coverage. The difference in quality between the rather poor illustrations of the Jeep in the previous title, and these - crisply detailed, terrifically coloured, and with nicely rendered shading/texturing - is very noticeable.

M3 mounting 75mm gun, Sicily, (1943?)

Whilst no 1/72 examples are included in the Model Showcase section - they're all 1/35, with the lone exception of one 1/16 example - they're much better covered in the Modelling Products segment, with mention made of PSC, the Italeri fast-build kits, Hasegawa and Academy kits. The old Airfix 1/76 is there as well. And they even cover the large range from Milicast, also in 1/76, a manufacturer I haven't seen mentioned in this section until now.

As is normal for me now, when I enjoy these books as much as I've enjoyed this one, I feel more than a little tempted to acquire a model or three and have a crack at building and detailing them, using the images herein as inspiration. Uh-oh... I can feel a trip to either the Ely model shop or Creative Models in Chatteris coming on!

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Thanks to the middle of the black and white photos on the cover, of an M3 ambulance, I fancy making up one kit as this vehicle, as well as some more typical variants. So I tried to find that very photo, but couldn't. I did however find the following:

Possibly taken at the same photo-shoot as the image I can't find?

An example in context.

A contemporary survivor.

Looks fab!