Some years ago I felt the need for some 15mm self propelled Flak, I can't recall what prompted it, possibly the repeated accounts of the use of SP 20mm guns in Normandy in the ground role. Anyway, at Triples I spotted this rather nice BF Sdkfz 251/17 which I thought would fit in well with my 251/9s as panzergrenadier support.
Not a bad little model although it suffered the usual curse of metal kits, no instructions. I had to consult a few books to figure out which way round the bits of the AA gun went together. Apart from that it went together fine
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| The finished vehicle, it looks quite top heavy. |
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| Nice detail on the gun and tracks. Just one gunner is provided, there isn't a huge amount of room for any more in the gun compartment! |
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| It looks even more top heavy from the front. |
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| Nice sharp lines on the panels and doors which pick up drybrushing well. |
The vehicle was finished in late war three colour camo, in this particular case a curious lattice pattern I came across in a photo, but it basically fits in with my other stuff OK. It also had an inkwash and a drybrush to pick out the detail and tone down the camo.
It has had a suprising number of outings in games over the last few years, far more so than some of my other 15mm SP guns (my Brummbar has never been out at all) and has been a very useful piece all round. The only thing I need to do one day is stick the gun on a bit more firmly with blu-tak as it has a tendency to fall over all the time as the hole is much bigger than the pin. Apart from that, a great model and highly recommended.
Nice, I recently bought one as well. It was a mistaken purchase for my Stalingrad project. It has now become part of my mid-war forces. I did some research and only about ten were ever built.
ReplyDeleteThanks, yes it did have a hilariously small production run. I'm just amazed how many times I've found a use for it, but I'm not hugely fussy about vehicle variants.
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