To camouflage or not to camouflage?
To be honest, I had not given much thought to how I was going to finish the two German vehicles beyond the standard dunkelgelb. Should they stay in the basic colour or be camouflaged?
Although I am not an obsessive when it comes to historical accuracy, since this diorama portrays an incident early in the Ardennes offensive I have tried to capture the essence of the time and place.
There are surprisingly few images of halftracks from the campaign, apart from the field full of wrecks taken near La Gleize, and when you do see them they tend to be 251s. I found this shot of a rather sorry looking 250, which I believe is taken near the same location, but, there is so much snow that there isn’t much to go on.
However, there are plenty of shots of 250s and Schwimms from the famous newsreel taken at Kaiserbaracke Crossroads.
I have referenced this footage several times already: you can find it in many places on Youtube (often as part of documentaries) and repeated watching is worthwhile.
Obviously the quality is not great (although I bet Peter Jackson could clean it up like he did with all those WW1 films that he worked on), but if you take some screenshots and look closely some interesting details emerge.
Looking closely at the 250 behind these two characters (who both appear in the iconic close-ups of of the Schwimm taken during the same sequence) you can see that the nose plate appears to have a distinctive camo pattern. So it appears that these 250s, despite being relatively new and issued for a Winter campaign, were finished in the standard three-colour scheme.
It’s even possible to read the registration plate: 929326. However, what is equally interesting is what you can’t see - the SS runes are not there. In case anyone thinks that this is internet censorship, remember that this is a still from cine film. In fact, from what I understand, Kampfgruppe Hansen deliberately painted over the runes to disguise the fact that they were part of the 1st SS Panzer Division LSSAH.
Here is a restored vehicle in much the same scheme - and with the same registration - although I don’t know if other details, such as the four brackets (for hanging spare track?) are accurate or not.
Anyway, once I had joined these dots I decided that this would be the finish for my 250. This camo pattern is also very close to some of the images of factory-fresh 250s taken in 1944.
The above pictures, along with others, appear in the excellent Panzer Tracts 15-1 which I have already referenced above.
So this is what I decided to attempt to recreate…
As I have said, my airbrush skills are rusty and I honestly don’t think I have attempted anything like this since I was in my mid-teens back in the 80s. Once again I went with the ‘new’ Tamiya acrylics, this time Dark Green 2 XF-89 and Red Brown 2 XF-90. Reminding myself to keep the air pressure as low as possible (around 5 psi), the paint as thin as possible (using Tamiya orange cap retarder lacquer thinner way beyond the 50% ratio) and the nozzle close to the model, I started…
Here is the outcome of my first attempt.
Now I have to admit, at first, that I was quite pleased with the results. Sure, there was plenty of blotching and some spatter here and there - but this is supposed to be a scheme applied, in the real world, with a spray gun by an amateur in a hurry… not an artist. It was also pre-washes and any weathering.
However, looking at it over a few hours and comparing it to the photos of the real thing, I grew unhappy with what I had done. Ironically, I think that it just looked too ‘artistic’: the gaps between the squiggles were to regular and the squiggles themselves too narrow.
So I took a deep breath and had a second go, adding to what I had already laid down. This time I was much happier with the way it turned out.
I finished this stage of the painting my giving the whole exterior a light misting of a lightened version of the base coat, as well as highlighting some of the panel lines, and then covered everything with a coat of semi-gloss varnish.
Now don’t judge me too harshly here. There is still a long way to go.
And yes, I know the number plate isn’t exactly right (I even lost part of the first number when I removed the masking tape). It was the best I could find from my spares stash. Also the loading stencil is clearly wrong - it’s for a Fiat! But that’s all I had and this side of the halftrack will be almost impossible to see once it’s on the diorama…
. That interior post wasn’t at all boring, just lost for more words of praise of your exemplary process 
. The Tamiya (re-work) is still a great kit. Surprising Dragon haven’t had a go at a 1/35 kit of the VW Typ.166 after the old 1/6 version. 
