Building the 8 ton Sd.Kfz. 7 Mittlerer Zugkraftwagen Chapter 14: Dragon kit: Adding a 3.7mm Flak gun

 

Whilst waiting for scenic supplies for the diorama base, it was time to start work on the towed vehicle. In this case a Flak 36/37. This was taken from the recently released Tamiya/ICM Renault AHN combo kit. As the Sd.Ah 52 trailer wheels had been removed in the image I used a set of 3D resin brake drums from a Sd.Ah56/57 trailer. To replicate the hub and wheel studs I sanded the rear of a pair of outer Sd.Kfz 251 wheels until just the central hub remained. These were then added to the 3D drums and fixed to the trailer axles. Looking at the image the trailer also had a few grab handles that were not present on the kit, so these were made up from copper wire.

Building the 8 ton Sd.Kfz. 7 Mittlerer Zugkraftwagen Chapter 9: Dragon kit: choosing a subject

Over the last few years, I have started to base more and more projects on period images of vehicles. With such a wealth of online material it is often possible to find multiple images which makes the task of replicating them accurately a real possibility.

Before I added the decals which included the licence plate, I did a little research and picked out a vehicle that I would loosely replicate. Two images caught my eye from the fantastic Canfora publication ‘AFV Photo Album’ As per the caption this 8t was likely to have been from the 6th Pz.Div and together with the 3.7cm Flak it was towing was abandoned in Polná, Czechoslovakia in 1945. 

Schwerer Wehrmachtschlepper (sWS) armoured cargo version. Chapter 4: Adding tarpaulins and stowage

 

Loadbed cargo added using resin and plastic accessories. The tarpaulin on both the bed and the cab is made using VMS paper shaper

 

Chapter 5

Building the 8 ton Sd.Kfz. 7 Mittlerer Zugkraftwagen Chapter 8: Dragon kit: painting the engine bay, accessories, wheels, tracks and tyres

The engine details and visible portions of the exhaust were brush painted with Vallejo acrylics.

 

Building the 8 ton Sd.Kfz. 7 Mittlerer Zugkraftwagen Chapter 7: Dragon kit hairspray chipping

 

Hairspray chipping

I have always found the best results can be obtained using acrylic paints but with a slightly different approach it can also be effective using lacquers. Keeping the paint layers thin with just the right amount of hairspray coverage is the key. To achieve a realistic effect over multiple colours means adding hairspray in-between each layer. Although it is possible to ‘chip’ after all three layers have been added, it is much harder to achieve and I have found chipping each layer as you go makes life a little easier. It is then far easier to adjust the level of chipping and fine-tune the effects along the way. To illustrate the process, we can use the bonnet as an example.