Sd Kfz 260 /261. Part A-11. What is it? Optional with these. Not used (?) for the 222. I don’t think I’ve seen photos of one for real.
Desert air filter? For panning gold for units stationed in the western Sierras. Boiling potatoes? Some model designer thinking, "What can I do to screw with peoples minds?
1 Like
Yeah. You’re on the right track. It’s a wash basin.
3 Likes
Like Matt, I believe that’s a wash basin.
One wouldn’t want the first impression of one’s invading recon troops to be that they are unkempt 
1 Like
Wash basin
1 Like
I would vote that it is a wash basin and should be painted in either dull aluminum or some of the many colors used for enamel ware of the day.
As to an air filter, I would think not, as the intention was for the engine to draw cooling air through the driver’s cabin and then to exhaust it out the rear. As I recall the “firewall” between the engine compartment and the passenger area was only metal screen wire mesh.
Frenchy is that a figment of my imagination? Not sure after all these years.
1 Like
It didn’t come out of nowhere, although the kit has it mounted backwards. 
3 Likes
Just for the record Tamiya does not market a Sd Kfz 260/261 kit. And the “Tamiya” 222 is the ICM kit with a single Tamiya sprue of Panzer III/IV parts. Edit needs to be edited.
This is what a German military-issue wash basin looks like. This one’s made of aluminum, but finding a porcelain enamel one would not be out of the norm.
3 Likes
@sluff
Hi Timothy
What kit are you talking about? Tamiya doesn’t make a Sd.Kfz.260|261 in 1/35. The Tamiya Sd.Kfz.222 is, as far as I know, an original moulding from 1975.
Ah, I see you are at 1/48…with ICM.48194/48193.
The instructions for the Tamiya 223 in 1/35 clearly mark this part as a wash basin. No mystery.
best regards
John
4 Likes
Mystery solved. I knew Tamiya had the old 222 kit. (has had more lives than Lazurus!, like the 234.) I seem to remember a Sd Kfz 223 Funk -mobile. But not the 260/61. Must be a magnetic wash bowl to stick to smooth steel armor. The BMW 750s with DAK had big air filters on top the gas tank that look similar … or maybe they too are wash basins.
The BMW 750 also has a very big stupid looking grill to match. I don’t think Rommel would have accepted it for DAK use because it’s just too ugly…wink
4 Likes
Does look like its RAL 7021.
1 Like
I got my Wash Basin at the P.X. it was plastic, in Desert Tan. I didnt mount it. It was stored inside my M106A1.
Looks like a hub cap to me…
2 Likes
Wehrmacht didnt have plastic.
I never said I was in the Wehrmacht.
1 Like
I always thought that was a duel purpose Hairencuttenbowlenshapenwashendingen issued to German ground troops as a template for regulation hair cuts, as commanded by Adolf Hitler himself circa 1936. If I recall correctly, it was not popular with the troops. When Hitler was told, he became enraged and hurled his personal Hairencuttenbowlenshapenwashendingen, which he planned use and then debut at an upcoming rally, at General Werner Freiherr von Fritsch. The general stepped aside such that the device flew out the door, across the house, and into the kitchen where one of the female maids picked it up and exclaimed, “Ich needen eine neuen washen basin dingen thingen!”, and so the device was subsequently repurposed as a wash basin because German industry had already produced a quarter million of the things.
It should be noted that the earliest Hairencuttenbowlenshapenwashendingen, as seen on vehicles during the Polish campaign, included two cut outs along the rim, intended to allow room for the user’s ears, and two additional holes in the side. The two holes in the side are vision slits, as Hitler’s original specification included a secondary function as an emergency helmet, the so called Dummenkopfenprotectendingen. The eye holes were removed after the Polish campaign, this time because troops complained about water leaking out of the device. The ear cut outs remained for the campaign in France but were subsequently removed to speed production. However, earlier versions of the Hairencuttenbowlenshapenwashendingen appear right through the end of the war.
It is rumored that General George S. Patton kept one of the earliest model Hairencuttenbowlenshapenwashendingens as a personal memento of battle and made staff officers who displeased him wear the thing during meetings. The worst offenders were made to wear the device while standing next to Patton when he was making speeches to his troops.
(I am so very, very sorry…but not really.)
8 Likes
You can use it as air filter to convert T-55 in T-54
1 Like
Doug, has it ever been confirmed that the real reason the German advance stopped in winter of 1941 at the proverbial Gates of Moscow due to a Furher order that all soldiers had to get a new haircut with that thing in advance of taking the city? Due to shortage of ‘bowls’ and resulting delay, the Russian’s were able to rally and hold the city.
Heard that from a friend who’s third cousin twice removed on his mother’s side who was there and froze to death while waiting in line for his hair cut.
4 Likes
I have long wished to confirm this anecdote, but every time I request the relevant documents for further research, the mean Fraulein who answers the telephone at the Bundesarchiv starts laughing, says a number of rather unkind things auf Deutsch, and hangs up. How can I possibly model an accurate German unit or vehicle from the Moscow advance without this critical information?
Oh well. I will continue to add buckets and wash basins to all my German vehicles and hope for the best.
3 Likes