AFV Club / Dragon Sdkfz 251/21 Drilling 1:35 – build review

By Lester Plaskitt

The Second Snows of Winter – Hungary 1945

Short intro from Geoff…

I have admired Lester’s work over many years that’s usually been confined to seeing it on the competition tables at the Northern Model Show here in the UK or elsewhere like Euromilitaire. I simply love the realism and storytelling that Lester brings to his pieces and this one is no different. What’s especially exciting is that as I type Lester is preparing for his debut as a tutor on the SMN’s next Modelling in a Day workshops to be help on 6 March 2016 – find out how to attend.

In the meantime, on with Lester’s great build – and here is a photo to show you what a treat you’re in for… :) Geoff

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Over the last few years I have found myself more and more finding my inspiration for modelling projects coming from photographs of wartime vehicles which have something about them which sparks my interest, this can be a particular camouflage pattern or something unusual about the vehicle, such was the case when I started researching this particular model.

Having always liked the look of the 251D halftracks I had started out with the intention of building a 251/22 pak wagon but as with all good intentions things can easily become side tracked. This started when I was talking to Swedish modeller Mirko Bayerl about my ideas and he sent me a picture which showed a Drilling in Hungary 1945 with the crew warming a jerry can of water in the engine bay and a very worn winter white wash, almost as if the crew had tried to remove as much as the white wash as possible after the snow had thawed.. This picture fired my imagination and I decided to build a Drilling based on this picture to try and recreate the partially removed white wash finish.

On with the construction…