Dragon Models 6217 – Sd.Kfz 251/21 Ausf. D “Drilling”
When Dragon released this kit in 2005 they were going through a phase of loading their kits up with extras to give great value for money. This resulted in a box so full to overflowing that you sometimes have to repack it two or three times to be able to get the lid back on properly. And that’s what you get here. With no less than 16 sprues, the hull tub, three PE frets, brass ammo and indicator poles and magic tracks this kit can seem somewhat daunting to those who have never built anything with more parts than your average Tamiya kit.
So what do you get ? 13 sprues and the body tub moulded in grey plastic, and one sprue of clear parts, for the vehicle, one sprue moulded in grey plastic for the added “Achtung Jabo” figure set, one dark yellow vinyl sprue with the driver and gunner figures, one dark yellow vinyl sprue with items of clothing, three photo-etch frets, two brass width indicator poles, half a dozen brass shells and shell casings, four mirror stickers, a sheet of decals for the dashboard, and three sheets of decals with an assortment of veicle numbers and unit insignias. And of course a set of magic-tracks to replace the existing individual link tracks in the kit.
All the mouldings are excellent with no flash, only faint mould seams and discrete knock out marks. There is an enormous ammount of detail and a number of various options for you to choose from which means there will be a lot of left overs. As well as the existing upper body Dragon has included a full sprue from their Sd.Kfz 251/22 kit as this has a corrected upper hull with the fuel filler cap removed and different hood mounting details. This means as well as two upper hulls you have a lot of parts from the 75mm Pak mounting of the 251/22 and four spare legs and two spare arms for figures. Also of course you get two full sets of track, the sprue moulded individual links and the magic tracks so one of those is going to end up in the spares box.
The interior detail is excellent as is and can be even further enhanced with the Eduard interior detail set which gives you one of ( if not the ) best representations of a 251 once finished. The clear sprue includes parts for the armoured glass blocks on the visors and in the spare block stowage points to the side of the drivers compartment.
The gun and it’s mount are also very well detailed, the existing shield does very well on it’s own but the Eduard PE set really brings it to life with the scale thickness only PE can acheive as well as all the ammo cans that come in the PE set. But even without PE the gun is excellent having close to a dozen pieces per gun, some of them very fine. In fact there are a lot of delicate small parts and care is needed with building the gun in particular.
One of the sprues is a generic Ausf. D sprue so you get spare seats, two spare MG34s and the MG34 front mount and shield as well as two MG42s complete with an ammo tin and a spare barrel holder each. On the subject of weapons you also get eight Kar98K rifles.
The suspension setup is a fully detailed and the front wheels are moulded in two halves to give maximum detail. Even so I personally prefer to replace them with resin wheels with greater tread definition.
The figures that come with the kit are the driver and the gunner, both of whom are moulded in DS Vinyl ( Dragon Styrene is supposed to be easier to paint than other vinyls but these still really need a good undercoat before painting ). Both have excellent detail and good facial features. As a bonus you also get a pair of boots, a folded jacket and a hanging jacket moulded in the same DS vinyl.
The other figures are a four figure set sold seperately as the “Achtung Jabo” set and are a very nice set themselves with clean, crisp moulding and very good detail to the faces and hands. They include a pair of binoculas and a small PE fret for their headphones. As this set was originally designed for a Tiger crew preparing to fight off an attacking plane it also includes an MG34 with drum mag and the AA mount for a Tiger cupola.
The decals come on four sheets, one being for the dashboard, the other three allowing you to pretty much create your own markings by providing one sheet of assorted unit symbols, one sheet of numbers to be used to make licence plates and one with a selection of vehicle crosses and numbers. This alone is a great bonus as you end up with a heap of generic decals left over for other builds.
If like me you’re a fan of German Halftracks then this is a must have. Not only does it build up into a beautiful kit straight from the box but the treasure trove of extras makes this kit true value for money because as well as all the added goodies like the figures and clothes you end up with quite a pile of spare parts for use elsewhere. And if you like to go the super detailing road then I personally think this ( or any of the 251s in this series ) are a great base on which to build.
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