Sd.Kfz.10 tows for German Anti-tank Guns

Having bought the Plastic Soldier box of 15mm German Pak 40 with Raupenschlepper tractor, I belatedly discovered that the appealingly eccentric looking tracked tow vehicles were predominantly used on the Eastern Front. Although a few seem to have appeared in Normandy. I thought it would be better to have the more common Sd.Kfz.10 half tracks as my tow vehicles. 

At that time, the only option was from Skytrex so I bought two of these. The body, wheels and tracks are cast in one piece so there are inevitable compromises with undercuts. Perhaps the moulds are getting a bit tired because my copies suffered a bit from rough excess metal between the track wheels and some mismatch along the mould join. Overall though I think it gives a reasonable representation of the vehicle.

One of the issues with Wargames open-topped vehicles is whether to make them empty, with only the driver, fully-occupied or double up and do a set of both. Another option, where applicable, would be to have the canvas roof up but that seems odd in action and suggests the weather is one thing whilst everything else on the table suggests something else. 

For A/T tows, I tend to think they are mostly there as 'set-dressing' for deployed guns so empty or with just the driver is OK - maybe best with a driver so they don't look like ghost vehicles on the rare occasions they do need to move the guns. For variety, one of the drivers is from the kit, whilst the other is from Peter Pig. I also added a roll of canvas to one vehicle to break things up a bit - I wish now that I'd added more stowage and removed the moulded on roll of barbed wire from the back, having read that these were not fitted to later vehicles.

These are the first German vehicles I have painted using Mig Jimenez Ammo paint. I'm impressed so far - I like that they come ready-thinned to use with brush or airbrush and also that my local model shop in Coventry, The Paint Rack, stocks them. I'm also really impressed that common colours, like Dunkelgelb, come with a full range of colour-modulating shades, saving me the trouble of mixing up all the varieties and finding empty dropper bottles to store them in.

These are also the first models where I have tried to free-hand airbrush a soft-edged camouflage. Although I have a fine 0.2mm nozzle and needle on my airbrush, it all looks a bit fuzzy and oversized but the general effect is OK. I'm not sure whether the answer is more practice or to go for hard-edged masks in future.

A third first is that I applied some dust and mud effects to the lower parts of the model. Again I used Mig Jimenez Ammo, trying to follow the how-to guides from Heresy Brush. I don't think this is entirely successful. It is easy when camouflaging and weathering these small models to lose definition and make everything blend in too much. Again more practice is probably the answer but I might dial it back a bit in future.