DML 1/35
Sd.Kfz.251 Ausf.C

History

Like its lighter sister vehicle, the Sd.Kfz.250, the heavier Sd.Kfz.251 was the one of the workhorse APC’s in German service throughout WWII. Between the Ausf.C and D types, it appeared in no less than 22 versions. The vehicle was used on all the fronts that were fought on.

DML’s new kit gives the modeler the options of doing one of 3 variants on the C chassis.

It can be built with just 2 MG34 machine guns on it as the Sd.Kfz.251/1, the Sd.Kfz.251/7 Pioneerpanzerwagen with 2 small bridges mounted on it, or the Sd.Kfz.251/10 which mounted a 3.7cm Pak gun.

Further history of the 251’s can be read on this site in other reviews of DML’s other releases of the 251 vehicles.

What’s in the box?

The kit comes in a tray and lid type box. The box art shows a Sd.251 in kind of a mix. It has both the 3.7cm gun and the bridges on it. I don’t see, in any of my books on the 251 that the Pioneerpanzerwagen ever was mounted with more than the bridges and the machine guns. Correct me if I am wrong. The vehicle is shown with a 4 man crew manning the 3.7cm and moving through a village.

Side panels of the box show illustrations of all the bonus items in the kit and one color photo each of the possible variants that can be built from the kit shown built.

The kit contains 16 medium gray sprues of parts in 13 cello bags, the single hull bottom tub part (in it’s cello), a tree of vinyl grenade and mine cases (in it’s cello), and a tree of clear parts (also in a cello). Another cello holds some turned brass ammo rounds, wire grab handles, 4 decal sheets, a length of string, brass fender indicator rods, 2 brass PE frets, a vinyl driver figure, a vinyl rolled tarp, some vinyl clothing and boots, self-adhering silver stickers (for the rearview mirror faces), all attached to a stiff cardboard sheet. The instructions complete the contents.

The instructions consist of a large single sheet that accordion folds out into 10 pages. A second, smaller sheet, shows full color illustrations of the grenade cases, explosives, personal weapons and pioneer gear, vinyl clothing, wire spools and vinyl clothing and boots at the top of the page. The bottom of this page is full color painting and assembly instructions for the 4 bonus Panzerpioneer figures. These figures were previously sold by themselves as kit no. 6146 “Sturmpioniers (Eastern Front, 1942)” by DML. Their poses do not lend themselves very much to being posed in a 251, unfortunately.

Page 1 of the instructions begins with a black and white repeat of the box art. This is followed by parts tree illustrations. Some parts on these illustrations are shaded out in blue color, indicating that they are excess/spares and not needed to complete the kit as any of the 3 variants.

Page 2 begins with CAUTIONS in 6 languages, including English, followed by international assembly symbol translations, a color listing of Gunze Sangyo brand paints and the first 3 assembly steps.

You have to decide, by the 5 th assembly step, which version you are going to opt for to build from this kit. The instructions repeat the steps, from the 5 th step on up, Three times and you follow one of these sets of steps for the version you want to make.

The bottom of page 9 and page 10 gives us 7 paint schemes:

• Sd.Kfz.251/7 “Barbarosa” 1941 (in overall Panzer gray)
• Sd.Kfz.251/7 Eastern Front 1942 (in winter white-wash)
• Sd.Kfz.251/7 Kursk 1943 (in a base of sandy-brown with green stripes)
• Sd.Kfz.251/10 Kursk 1943 (in a base of sandy-brown with green stripes)
• Sd.Kfz.251/10 Kursk 1943 (in a base of sandy-brown with red-brown and green stripes.)
• Sd.Kfz.251/1 Kursk 1943 (in a base of sandy-brown with red-brown and green spots)
• Sd.Kfz.251/1 of an unknown unit 1944 (in a base of sandy-brown with red-brown and green spots.

Unfortunately, we are not told what divisions these vehicles were with or what tactical symbols they carried. However, these markings are on the decals.

The bottom of the page gives decal application instructions in 6 languages.

Because this is the 4 th reincarnation of the 251 in kits from DML, it naturally shares common trees with the previous releases. I understand that at least a 4 th kit will be coming yet of the 251?

Tree letter A holds the upper body shell, fenders, floor board, nose piece etc.(25 parts)

4 parts are marked as excess…not needed.

Letter B tree holds: chassis side panels, rear door frame, tools, front vision ports plate, etc. (39 parts) 4 of these parts are excess.

Letter C tree holds: head lamps, notek light, machine-guns and their mounts, transmission, undercarriage parts, steering wheel, control levers etc. (61 parts)

One of these parts is excess.

A tree marked as lower case letter “c” is parts for the 3.7cm gun etc. (42 parts) One of these parts is excess.

There are 2 identical letter D parts trees. They hold: suspension parts, driver’s seat back, some rifles and other small parts (42 parts per tree) 3 parts per tree are excess. One of these parts, marked as excess, appears to be a jerry can which I would think would be a very useful cargo load in any version chosen to build from this kit.

There is a second single part marked as letter D. This is a panel that goes under the front of the vehicle.

There are 2 identical letter E parts trees. These hold: the individual track links and their pads, road wheels, drive sprockets, the front tires etc. (137 parts per tree).

There are no letter F & G trees.

Letter H is the single lower hull tub part.

There is no letter I parts tree.

Letter J tree holds parts for a rather complicated machine gun mount (13 parts).

There are no letter K or L trees.

Letter MA is one of the brass PE frets. It holds the canvas roof supports and some perforated parts. (12 parts)

Letter MB is another of the brass PE frets. It holds some boxes that need to be folded. (4 parts).

MC refers to the turned aluminum 3.7cm gun barrel, some brass ammo rounds, the wire grab handles and the turned brass fender indicator poles. (14 parts).

Letter N has two trees. One holds a single part that is a base plate for the 3.7cm gun. There are 2 identical second N trees. These hold parts for the framing of some internal storage bins, the bridge sections etc. (18 parts per each of the duplicated trees).

There is no letter O parts tree.

Letter P parts tree holds: parts for land mines, grenade cases, explosives, wire spools etc. (56 parts)

Letter Q parts tree holds more weapons cases. (35 parts).

The tree of clear parts, for vision block lenses. Is molded with the letter W on it, but it is not shown on the parts tree illustrations. (16 parts)

Lettering now jumps to letter Y, which is the single vinyl folded roof tarp piece.

There are 3 trees of parts for the 4 Panzerpionier figures. These are not given letter codes. They hold the parts for these figures and all their weapons and personal gear. (129 parts between the 3 trees). One small, unlettered tree, also holds 3 rifles and the other small tree has parts for a flame thrower.

Final items are the length of string the vinyl driver figure and the vinyl clothes and boots and the silver stickers for the rear-view mirror faces.

There are 4 decal sheets. The largest gives vehicle numbers and German national crosses in various styles. The second sheet gives license plates and numbers to go on them. The 3 rd sheet gives us tactical marks and load stencils. The final sheet has same division marking on it.

I think that this vehicle will make up very nicely. However, the instructions get very BUSY at times and will take careful study to get things just right for the option you choose to build. Trying to decide which one of the three types of vehicle you want to model may just chase you to the hobby shop to buy another of this kit. I also understand that another three in one kit is forthcoming in the Ausf.D chassis that will build into these 3 variants too. Nothing like getting lots of mileage out of kit molds.

The detail and molding of this kit is super and there is no flash on any parts.

Conclusions

I highly recommend this kit to all armor modelers that have a few other armor kits under their belts, because of the some of the complexity of the assembly.