Ace Model's 1/72 Sd.Kfz10 with 3.7cm PaK 35/36

By Brian Medina

Background

One of the most versatile and widely used German tactical vehicles of WWII was the Sd.Kfz 10. It's versatility stemmed from its long production run and multitude of variants built. Initially designed as a tow vehicle for light artillery, the Demag Sd.Kfz track vehicles also saw service as an anti-aircraft Flak vehicle, mounted Pak 35/36 artillery, chemical weapons platform, and many other roles. The Sd.Kfz halftrack could transport eight troops with light artillery in tow.

The Kit

For a complete In-Box review including photos of all the sprues and contents, please visit the First Look review by Chris Banyai Riepl here.

The Build

There are two versions of the Sd.Kfz 10 in this kit. One standard and one up-armored vehicle. I chose to build the up-armored vehicle based on the final appearance of the added armor cab-over and armor plate protecting the front of the vehicle. The up-armored version also uses a larger shield represented in styrene for the Pak 35/36 whereas the regular version uses a smaller shield included on the photo-etch fret.

The drivers compartment is first up and consists of a pair of seats, dash board, steering wheel and a few levers that go between the seats and on the rear wall of the compartment. A bit of sanding on the bottom of the dash assembly was needed to improve the fit.

Next, construction moves to the bed of the vehicle. The stowage boxes in the bed area are a notched box base and need some adjusting to get them to sit flat.

Parts 10 & 11 which fill the space between the front fenders and the rear stepside panels were a terrible fit and required quite a bit of reshaping to get a decent fit. There were still sizable gaps which I filled with strecthed sprue. All the side rails mounted around the bed perimeter also required some fit correction. There was alot of trimming and filling required to get all the rails to the same height, and have proper looking vertical joints.

Installation of the hood and radiator was next. In order to get an ideal fit of the hood, I first glued the radiator to the lower body of the vehicle using the hood as a guide (dryfit). By installing the hood to the radiator, you end up with a positive fit at the front, and a gap that can easily filled with strip stock at the back of the hood.

There are some photoetch louvered panels included in the kit that attach to the sides of the hood. Once installed, there is a step at the top of photoetch piece to the hood. This is because the PE panel is glued on the surface of the hood. Ideally there would be a recess in the hood which the panel would fit into, eliminating the step.

To blend the louvered panel in with the hood, I attached the panels to the hood, then added stretched sprue to the top of the PE pieces that ran the length of the hood. Then it was just a matter of sanding the stretched sprue to contour, creating a smooth transition from louver to hood.

The front axle and related suspension were next and consisted of more parts than you might expect for a 1/72 scale and the fit was trouble free. I also attached the track wheel axle bars to each side of the hull at this time.

Next I built up the PaK 35/36. Right from the start I knew I wanted to replace the main barrel. The kit part was poorly molded, not very straight, and would need the end drilled to have any resemblence of a gun barrel. So off went the kit barrel and I drilled a new hole into the gun to accept an appropriate sized surgical tube that would be the new barrel. Another area I found that need revision was the hinge pin on the gun used to mount to the frame. Since one pin was missing, I need to remove the remaining pin and drill through the gun where the hinge pins should be. A section of surgical tubing was cut long enough to run through the gun, into each side of the mounting frame. For 1/72, the Pak has some nice detail and builds into a nice representation of the real thing.

There are 10 wheels per side not including the two front wheels. These wheels easily required more clean up than any other parts in the kit. Each wheel has five openings and on nearly all 18 wheels, these holes were full of flash and nearly closed off. It took a while to clean up the holes. There's also a ring around each the outer edge of each wheel that I chose to scribe a bit deeper since it was rather shallow and not very pronounced.

Assembly of the wheels is tricky and the instructions lack any description for wheel installation. The issue is that there are three pairs of wheels per side that have a single wheel sandwiched between the two pairs in front and back of this single wheel. So here's what I did.

Working quickly, I put a little Tamiya extra thin on the axles that hold the inner paired wheels. I put all three inner wheels in place and immediately glued the three single mid wheels in place, followed by the outer wheels. Tamiya Extra is a bit slow to setup, so there was enough time to get all the wheels attached and adjusted before the cement hardened.

To embellish the armor-up pieces a bit, I used a micro-drill to open the small slots the driver would use to see while protected by the armor cab-over. I did the same thing for the armor plate that covers the headlights/radiator. I also opened up each louver that allows airflow to the radiator, but it's nearly impossible to see. There are plastic braces

which are supposed to brace the front armor to the front fender, but if these are used, the point at which they contact the fender is exactly where the tools mount. So I abandoned the plastic version, and made some shorter, thinner replacements out of some spare PE strips. Even with this modification, the tools still don't fit quite right, mainly the pick axe. To make the pick fit better, I shortened it's handle. To finish the construction phase, I added the front wheels, cloth top, and various small bits that attached to the rear of the vehicle.

Painting and Weathering

The base coat was painted with Tamiya XF-63. I applied a few filters to give the monotone color some tonal variation. From photos I've seen, halftracks vehicles tend to be caked with quite a bit of mud. I made the mud with a mixture of Elmers glue, water, and a few different earthy colors of pastel chalk dust. The wet mixture was applied to the road wheels and the tracks as well as the inside of the wheel wells. My goal was to get it dirty without going overboard. I also used a bit of this same mix to apply mud to the areas the crew would step to get in and out of the rear of the vehicle.

The rubber tracks were first painted with Testors Steel, then a rusty wash applied. Then the mud mixtures were added taking care not to get too much mud on the contact areas. Once the tracks were dry, it was time to install them. This is when I found out the fit around between the front edge of the drive sprocket and the wheel well was much too tight. Some careful trimming of the drive sprocket and removal of some of the tabs on the inside of the tracks created enough of a gap to get the tracks to fit.

Conclusion

Typical of short run kits, there are a handful of issues which will need to be addressed and a fair amount of parts cleanup necessary in order to produce a well built, moderately detailed 1/72 German Halftrack. My thanks to Internet Modeler for the opportunity to build and review this kit.

PROS:

Inclusion of PE details
One piece rubber tracks
Two vehicle types with three markings options

CONS:

Excessive flash in all 20 track wheels
Sink marks on front wheels and tires lack tread
Rubber tracks don't fit around front of drive sprocket without trimming some parts
Fit issues typical of short run kits

Ace Model's 1/72 Sd.Kfz10 with 3.7cm PaK 35/36

By Brian Medina

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