Plastic Soldier Company 1:72 scale Sd.Kfz 251/D Half-Track

 

 

I finished building and painting three 1:72 scale (20mm) World War 2 German Sd.Kfz 251 (Ausf D) Half-Tracks, which were produced by the Plastic Soldier Company; an UK based model manufacturer.  The Sd.Kfz 251 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251) family of half-tracks are the most common half-tracks produced by Germany during the war, with some 15,252 Sd.Kfz 251s and variants produced.  There are four main models of Sd.Kfz 251: the Ausführung (Ausf) A, B, C and D.  From these four models, some twenty-two Sd.Kfz 251 variants were created.

 

The Plastic Soldier Company’s Sd.Kfz 251 is the Ausf D model (produced from early 1943).  The Ausf D is characterized by the reduced number of angled body plates (roughly half those of the Ausf C model) and a simplified design; this was done to speed up the manufacturing time for each vehicle.  The Plastic Soldier Company’s kit allows you to create the standard Sd.Kfz 251/D1 or the Sd.Kfz 251/D10 variant.  The Sd.Kfz 251/D1 is the standard troop carrier (designed by carry 10 Panzergrenadier) and is armed with two mounted MG 42 machine guns; while the Sd.Kfz 251/D10 variant is armed with a 37mm PaK (Panzerabwehrkanone 36) anti-tank gun and a rear mounted MG 42.

 

 

1:72 Sd.Kfz 251/D Sprue (side 1)

1:72 Sd.Kfz 251/D Sprue (side 2)

 

 

The Plastic Soldier Company kit includes three easy-to-build (designed for wargamers) Sd.Kfz 251 vehicles and has extra components for customizing the vehicles.  I build two Sd.Kfz 251/D1s and one Sd.Kfz 251/D10 (37mm PaK) with this kit; the extra components allows me to give each vehicle an unique look.

 

 

Sd.Kfz 251/D1 (Side 1)

 

Sd.Kfz 251/D1 (Side 2)

 

Sd.Kfz 251/D1 (Side 1)

 

Sd.Kfz 251/D1 (Side 2)

 

Sd.Kfz 251/D10 37mm PaK (Side 1)

 

Sd.Kfz 251/D10 37mm PaK (Side 2)

 

 

I really liked the Plastic Soldier Company’s Sd.Kfz 251/D1 kit; the sprues were made from hard plastics and included several extra components allowing for customization and for kit-bashing future hobby projects with the left over bits (components).  I paid $35 Canadian for this set, which works out to less than $12 CAD per vehicle: an excellent price for a good quality model kit. I am planning to purchase more models from the Plastics Soldier Company and will post these in future blog posts.