There were several different types of 251/17, and it is very difficult to get information on them. The only well-known and publicised type is the one made for the Luftwaffe, which had armoured folding sides. Only twelve were ever made, and only ten of these were armed, and all were used by the Luftwaffe. For my panzergrenadiers, I will have to model a different type. Here you see my two models of the type with the open unarmoured back. Almost all of these were on the D version chassis, and so I have modelled them as such. I think that these were not intended as front-line vehicles, but would normally be back in defensive positions, pointing their barrels into the sky, but towards the end of the war, the Germans got desperate, and pushed all manner of vehicles into service, and that's my excuse. In truth, I didn't find out about the more common panzergrenadier type until later.

The D chassis had a different type of side to the bonnet/nose. On the model on the left, the second one I made, you can see that I have carved down the model kit's nose, and replaced the sides with flat plastic card. On the other model, I have instead left the kit's sides in place, with just the little hatches filed off, and I have added a little extender piece of card to complete the shape. I think the model on the left is more successful. The front mudguards are cut back further than on the C version, and the headlamps are quite different - a hooded one on the left fender, and a cylindrical one on the right fender (sprue). The sides and back end of a D version were quite different from the C, but we don't have to worry about that here, because the entire back-end is rebuilt anyway.

Each model has a wide flat platform mounted on the back, with a short flight of steps running down from it into the cab. The details of the platform itself I have taken from the Luftwaffe version, which may or may not be accurate. This consists of four squares of plastic card glued down, each one with a disc on top of it. The whole of the platform is cross-hatched (lines scored in with a scalpel), but this doesn't show up in this shot.

The sides of each model fold down, and you can't really see how I managed this, so I'll have to write it. On the model on the right, the side pieces have tine plastic protuberances at the bottom. These fit into tiny holes burned into the thickness of the side walls at either end. This is very neat, but rather delicate. The model on the left has a much stronger solution to the problem. The side pieces are cut with extensions sticking out at the bottom, either end, and these are held in place, and allowed to pivot, by pieces of hollow plastic rod, which I have cut into a quarter of a circle, and glued firmly to the floor and inside walls of the vehicle. The little strips of thin card along the tops of the sides protrude a little at either end, so that the sides come to rest in the raised position with a satisfying click. I don't know whether in reality these folded-down sides would support a man's weight. They may not have been to stand on, but merely to get out of the way of the traversing gun. One model has sides made to look like wooden planking, and the other depicts a wooden/steel frame, with mesh in between.

At the back of each vehicle is a big bin, which runs most of the width of the vehicle. I assume that here was the ammo store. The ammo boxes and clips are by SHQ, made specifically for this gun. SHQ also made the stowage glued to the sides of the vehicles, and the gun and crewman you see on the left. For this photograph, though, the gun sits on the mount which comes with the Britannia 2cmm FlaK gun. My scratch-built gun platform sits on the floor in the picture, and is a fair bit more accurate and detailed than the rather crude Britannia model. The SHQ gun is far more detailed, but a little on the small side, and very fiddly to put together. The MMS model of this gun appears to be the best, although I haven't actually picked one up to have a look at it. The white-metal guns are far heavier than the rest of the model, and I discovered too late that they unbalance the model horribly - lifting the front wheels off the ground. To counter this, I had to chop up lots of little bits of metal and thread them into the front compartment of the model, in the nose. Now that you are aware of my mistake, you may wish to avoid it, and put some weight in the nose of the model before gluing it all together.

The spade and shovel on the left-hand vehicle are in the authentic places.

I've got a horrible feeling that those two front seats should be the other way around. No matter. Anyway, on the right, you can see the underside of the model, which shows you just how much longer this variant is than the usual. Two long triangular supports strengthen the underside of the platform, and there is a step made out of thin rod and strip, either side of the rear end, to make it easier to get on and off the vehicle. Both models have their sides in the raised position.

The rear view shows the open ammo bin, a bucket hanging off the side, a man-pack radio (on the right, inside), and some stowage in what seems to me a logical place to put it - down the sides under the extended roof. You can't alas quite see the steps running down into the cab. These are a narrow flight, the width of the flat part of the bottom of the vehicle. Either side of the steps I have modelled as a simple slope. The plans I worked from don't make it clear what was here.

The two finished vehicles, deployed with sides folded down. The crew is mainly SHQ and have had their bases painted to match the camouflage pattern on the vehicles. Some mud-mix has been smeared on surfaces which would be walked on by the crews. The further of the two Hanomags has the Britannia gun, which has a stocky barrel which can be glued at whatever angle the modeller wishes. The central gap in the gun shield was far too wide, and I had to narrow this by cutting, shaving, and re-gluing. The nearer vehicle has the SHQ gun, which has a more realistically narrow, but fragile, barrel, which can only be fixed at the angle you see here. Sometimes the barrels are pictured as having the same camouflage as the rest of the gun, and sometimes, as here, it is dark gun-metal.

The more common 251/17

This is the first stage towards modelling the more common type of 251/17. It seems that there are no photographs of the inside of this vehicle, so a fair amount of speculation is necessary here. I am particularly indebted to Jose Ventura of Portugal, for his help with this model. The body is a C chassis. The front benches have been removed, and the girders for a gun platform have been glued inside. Two horizontal girders span the width of the vehicle, and are fixed to the sides, immediately above the angle. Four vertical girders support these two horizontal ones. You can only see two in this photograph. I couldn't see the point in putting the front two in, since once the model is complete, they would be invisible. The vertical girders are as far apart as they can be on the flat floor. Two sloping girders attach to the front horizontal girder, and to the floor toward the rear of the vehicle. I have used T-section girder. The structure may have used L, H or U-section girders instead.

Next, this platform will be planked over, and a gun mounted on top of it. The roof above the driver has been cut back a bit to give the gun a bit more room.

Here stands the finished vehicle on the railway crossing. If it has broken down, then this may prove embarrassing, as the 11.45 from Ypres is due along in a minute or two. I am stupidly proud of the crew for this vehicle. These were made using the figures which come with the Matchbox kit. One is the gunner (middle figure), one is another gunner, with his legs cut off and glued back on at different angles so that he can sit up on the gun platform, and the last is the figure of the soldier jumping off the vehicle, with his lower foot cut and glued back on horizontally. All three are glued together in a single three-man lump, and fit very nicely. The left hand of the furthest figure curls over the rear MG. A single man couldn't work this gun very well, as it took small clips of ammunition, and used these up rapidly.

The girders that you saw pictured above have had plastic-card planks thrown across them, and the centre plank has had a simple hole cut in it, to take the pin under the gun's turntable. The mounting of the gun was tiny and entirely hidden by the turntable. I cannot tell from any of the pictures I have seen of the real vehicle, whether the gunner was seated on a seat fixed to the traversing gun, or whether this seat was removed and the gunner stood. I have considered that a standing gunner is more likely. I have included the smaller gun shield behind the first, but believe that this was often removed. The main gun shield I have cut to be narrower, to allow the gun more traverse. Even so, it still doesn't have much of an arc of fire. I'd have thought that an AA gun would need a wide arc to be of much use, and this suggests to me that this AA gun was used mainly in a ground role, although I have a photo of one clearly trained on the sky.

This vehicle was also used in place of the 251/10 platoon command vehicle. Indeed, on paper it was the late war official vehicle for this role, but there were not enough to issue to all units. Many instead had 251/10s or 251/1s.