SPA Modeler

Great progress thus far - those tracks look like lots of fun!

They really are but mostly relaxing. I cleaned them up and built them over several days of sitting in front of the TV watching Man vs Wild with Bear Grylls

Floki wrote:

Bish wrote:I don't know whay they tell you to make 2 sets, very odd. The steerable front suspension is one on my favorite features on the Dragon kits, its the only brand i have built that allows that.

It's really useful when building a diorama and you have a uneven surface.

Your not wrong. On a couple of my 251's i have had to bring the ground on the base up to the front wheels.

Over the last few days I've cleaned up the road wheels and the swing arms and today I tackled the first hurdle of the Dragon 251 builds. Getting all the wheels to sit flat with each other. I glued the front suspension into place then using pieces of bluetac I stuck the front wheels on. Then working fast I added all the swing arms angling down as far as each one would go. They have two pins to help with alignment but both have a lot of play in them. Then I added the inside road wheels and the center line road wheels using bluetac to temporarily hold them. I added a bit more extra thin glue around the swing arms and sat the entire assembly down on the the tracks and got it to where all the road wheels where touching the tracks. I'm going to let it sit like this now for a good 24 hours I want to make sure that this alignment doesn't move before moving onto the next big hurdle.

That's all for now, thanks for looking in!

I Got the floor and sidewalls installed as always it was a pain to get them all lined up. As with my last 251 I ended up with a slight gap where the rear panel is. I've only had this problem with the Ausf.C the Ausf.D with flat rear end is always flush.

In the photo I now see I need to go back and add a bit more putty to the gap before moving any farther.
I also realized at this point that the Cyber Hobby instructions doesn't tell you to drill out any additional holes in the floor to accommodate the load out of this variant. The Dragon instructions always do, so stupid me glued the floor down with out drilling any holes, I should of known better.
With the side panels on I just placed the top on to see how it lines up and really can't ask for much better. When I get to that point I will add it slowly working from the rear to the front using clamps to keep it lined up. Also worth mentioning the kit just like the real 251, the top will over hang the bottom just slightly to keep rain water from collecting in the weldbead.


Thanks for looking in!

Coming on nicely. I aften have fit issues in that area on 251's.

I got all the radio equipment built, all are very detailed, I would say on the same level as the resin radio equipment that came with the AFV Club Command truck I just built. Going to have to do some research on how to wire all this up

Also got some more of the interior built up. This is going to be as far as I go then start on painting the interior.

Thanks for looking in!

I used these images to wire up the 2 command variants i have built.

Thank you Bish that will help going foward.

First thing I've done here is spray the rubber on the tires and the road wheels with Tamiya Nato Black. Then using a circle template as a mask I spray all the inside faces of the road wheels a mix of Tamiya Hull red and red since on most examples only the outside facing of the road wheels was painted in camo and the inside left in primer. I also had painted the interior with the hull red mix, I was going to use hair spray to add chipping to the inside then decided not to since I don't want to take a chance on reactivating the hair spray later on when I try a weathering technique I've only tried once before. Using the circle template I sprayed the road wheels and rims AK Real Color RAL 7028. Then sprayed the interior as well. Finished my painting session tonight with painting some of the radio equipment Tamiya field grey and other parts Tamiya German grey.


Thanks for looking in!

Those pieces-parts look great as does the hull.