G is for German

The single most popular subject for military models, war-gaming figures and historical literature seems to be the German armed forces in the Second World War, and as a kid I was as guilty as anyone else of having a bias toward the Wehrmacht. In particular the campaign in the Western Desert and the entire range of armoured cars and half-tracked vehicles.

Toward satisfying my needs on both counts I produced these two in 1989 after getting out of the army, and realising I could spend my own money on whatever I wanted, and I wanted to go back to modelling!!! They represent a Sd. Kfz 222 Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle and Sd. Kfz 221 Signals Vehicle. While not up to the standard of serious modellers (I entered them in the BMSS Aldershot competition in 1990 and they weren't placed!), they do show what you can do with a couple of cheap kits.

This is the 221, built on the Airfix 222 chassis. The main work was to fill the original turret hole and cut a new one before casting a new turret using the 'push' version of vac-forming, the grenade screens were from druggies pipe-mesh! I added a few tool lockers, cut and drilled the wheel-nut protection covers, scratch-built the 'bedstead' aerial and jerry-can holders, added a sand-channel/plate from the Matchbox LRDG Chevrolet and piled kit on every surface it 'looked right' on! The MG34 was from Armtec. Faults; Aerial is too heavy as are the frames for the grenade screens, and the body of a real 221 was slightly different from a 222.

This is the Fujimi 222 with scratch-built grenade screens and not alot else! The major fault with this one was that the screens ended up too big and less accurate than the little flat ones used on the 221. Again I piled stuff on every surface I thought it looked ok on, as they did (and still do) in real life. Then it was just a case of lots of painting, thin layers of base colour and dry-brushing with base colour plus white or grey.

Width-markers are from stretched-sprue with a flame brought up close to one end. In keeping with photographs of the originals I added a rear-view mirror to the width-marker on the 221.