SdKfz 232, heavy 8 wheeled armoured car, Tamiya

A quite old kit

Although the kit had its debut many years ago, there is still no substitute from Tamiya or another company. This surely is due to the fact, that this kit is good in quality. The parts fit very good and the details are also o.k.. Only the side deflector bars are too thick. In fact the hinges tie up with the original, although "The Show Modelling" provided some in their upgrade set: superfluous because of the poor details of that much too flat hinges! Apart from the excellent muffler grids the money for this detail set could have been saved!

Construction of the SdKfz 232

After the fixing of the somewhat complicated running gear, whose road wheels where shown turned by cutting the axle flange and sanding the cut at an angle, I finished the hull. Then I made the weld seams at the edges of the superstructure by means of a syringe and diluted (Nitro) "Modell Masters" one compound putty. One has to seal the areas beside the weld seams with tape previous to this step. The motor panels were cut out and replaced by self-made ones from aluminium sheet metal. Thus I could make them in opened position! At least I did fix or tinker all the little details and PE parts. As one can see, when looking at the photos, they are big in number:

• the frame aerial mounts at the turret (aluminium sheets and plastic),
• the frame aerial mounts at the rear hull (copper tubes),
• the aerial wiring with their accommodation (electric wires, plastic),
• the side steps for the crew (aluminium plate and self made anti skate plating),
• the side deflector bars (soldered up wire),
• the Armament,
• the distance estimator device at the mudguards (pins),
• all mounts of the accessories and tool (aluminium plate, wire, plastic),
• the tool box padlocks (wire, plastic),
• the valves with their armour tubes (copper tube, stretched sprue)
• the horns (aluminium plate).

Painting techniques

As usual I applied a base coat of gray to detect mistakes. Then I pre-shaded the edges and lower parts with dark brown and black by means of my airbrush. This was followed by a see through cover of dark gray ("German gray"). Finally the SdKfz 232 was painted with the Afrika colour sand brown (Tamyia), mixed with white and gray. Here and there the dark gray colour should shine through. Several "Filters" help to bring the vehicle to life. Some scratches were painted with dark gray and a small brush as well as with a pencil to simulate fresh wear and tear.
All decals are "Dry-Decals". The "washed away" tire pressure marks were made by directly painting onto the model with a white pastel chalk. Some further steps with brushing black and brown pastel chalks round the muffler and the engine compartment as well as with yellow, brown, orange and white all around the superstructure bring this work to an end. Only a final cote of dull varnish (important due to the heavy sand cover, that accumulated all around the vehicle!) and some small parts of semi gloss, where the crew polished the armour plates, is left to do.

The display base

This base was made without much effort:
Plywood was fitted into a self made frame. After taping the frame a thick cover of white glue was applied to the plywood. Onto this I sprinkled food soda, pebbles and some fine sand. A little piece of root represents a withered bush. Some wheel marks into the still wet white-glue-and-so-on-materials, an airbrush to give this a convincing sand colour, the SdKfz 232 on top of it: finished!
More pictures can be found under "Gallery" (see link below!)

© July 2002 Schachinger