View of a radio vehicle. It has in it a table, and so will do for either the 251/3 radio variant, or the 251/6 command variant. On the table is a hinged box. When opened (it was much easier to model it closed), this looks like a typewriter. In a 251/6, this would be an enigma machine for decoding signals. Because I have too much time on my hands, I added a pair of gloves and an ashtray to the table. These will show up better when I've painted them.
The vehicle is a late radio variant, with the "crow's foot" aerial, and these were on the C version. In this photograph, you can see the large cover for the air ducts either side of the nose. These were made from thick pieces of plastic card, carved down to a fine edge with a scalpel. You can also just see the pipe coming down from the left cover into the top of the exhaust. The outside lockers have been glued on further back on the mudguard, with the recesses for them on the mudguard filed flat. There are other C-version alterations which show better in other photographs (below).
The aerial is a piece of bicycle brake cable, with the ends splayed out, and with super-glue applied down the main twist of it, in an attempt to conceal the twists of wire. This should look okay once the aerial is painted. The base of the aerial is Milliput, and the aerial goes through a hole in the body burned with a hot pin, and into another putty box inside.
The kit has a single piece for the back of the vehicle. From this, the back doors have been cut, and they have been glued on at the angle which gave me the strongest join, with as much of the edge touching the main body as possible. The hinges are made from plastic card, and metal wire. You can also see a fire-extinguisher, complete with a strap made from transparent self-adhesive book-covering film.
The main radio is made from a sandwich of plastic card and Milliput, with details scored and punched on the front, and sculpted into the top and sides. Around this are two loops of wire, to represent the frame of the radio. Milliput was also used to make coats, bedrolls, man-pack radios, and other internal details.
The same vehicle, with its crew cartridge in place. The three crewmen are by three different manufacturers. Can you name them? You can see a large tarpaulin hanging on the right side of the vehicle, and that the front left (driver's) visor has been opened and glued sticking out. The seated crewman has pink piping on his uniform - the branch colour used by panzer grenadiers.
This is a model of an earlier version of the radio variant, with its large frame aerial. These were replaced with crow's foot aerials, once it became apparent that the frame aerials were too conspicuous, and drew too much fire. The vehicle is a B version. The frame aerial is wire, bent, and super-glued together, then re-enforced at the joins with good old made-in-Wales Milliput. The vertical poles enter the vehicle through holes burned with a hot pin. These holes are hidden by the Milliput rolls of tarpaulin down both sides. The arrangement of the radio inside is the same as with the later variant. On the right you can see the crew cartridge. The slot in its base is where it fits around the edge of the desk. The seated men fit on the benches opposite the radio and desk. I had to make the frame removable, so that I could get the crew cartridge in and out. If it proves a bit fragile, I might use more Milliput at the joins, and then hide these blobs with foliage.
The extra big tarpaulins on the sides, with their splinter-pattern camouflage, are big enough to cover the big frame aerial. I have no proof that this was so, but it is a convenient excuse for my method of hiding the holes through which the wire of the aerial slots. I notice that the colour of the mud rather fortuitously matches that of the road.
You should just be able to make out the pink piping on the epaulettes of the standing crewman, and on the hat of the man on the left. This tells us that these men are panzergrenadiers. Above each man's right breast pocket is a pale Wehrmacht eagle, which tells us that these men are not SS panzergrenadiers. I wanted to make this clear. Many panzergrenadiers were SS troops, and there are gamers in my club who refuse to play with SS figures. While this may be going a bit far, I do question the good character of the occasional wargamer I meet, whose only wargaming army is an SS force equipped with King Tigers.
The bushes on the left are made from tiny pine cones which grow on trees in the suburbs of Newcastle, covered with flock.
The later radio car. You can see the white ash-tray on the table, and the sand-coloured Afrika Korps hat worn by one of the crewmen. Afrika Korps veterans were often proud of their old uniforms, and hung on to them. The commander standing next to him is wearing a black panzer uniform. These were popular and high-status to wear and a lot of officers wore them even if they were not meant to by regulations. The brake-cable aerial looks the part and is very strong.
The camouflage pattern on the 251/3 is not one which I can guarantee was used on these vehicles, but it is certainly a possibility. One snag with painting camouflage on vehicles, is that it can hide their shape so much that they become ugly and difficult to distinguish on the table top. You can see that I have dry-brushed the Hanomag to bring out the edges and the shape of the thing. I used a pale sand colour, which resembles the base paint of the vehicle as it would look if the camouflage paint had worn off with wear.
Panzergrenadier companies had two VW cars attached to them. Here we see the Hasegawa Schwimwagen, with a Wargames Foundry driver. Crates and oil-drums by Faust Studios.
