Volley Fire Painting : Warlord Games plastic 1/56 SDKFZ 251/D review

Another review today! Warlord Games have recently released an SDKFZ/251 Hanomag half track. Whaaaaaat??? I hear you cry, but they've had a plastic Hanomag in their range for years! Yes, but this time it's the later D version, as used from 1943 onwards, (and in a modernized, updated form by the Czech army post WW2).

As you may expect this kit is very similar to Warlords 251/C kit, however asside from the difference in hull, the kit also comes with 4 seated passenger figures, which I think is frankly marvellous, and for me preferable to the standing gunner figure in the 251/C kit.

I've not had a chance to paint my own crew figures yet, and they may become StuG passengers on one of my StuG horde...

They are very nice, single piece figures and do add a lot to jazzing up the model. Warlord have pictures of the figures, as well as order the kit at this link Hanomag

The model is very, very simple to build, I think it took me around 20 minutes to get built, though I have built a lot of Warlords 251's and am very familiar with the build process.

I did modify the kit slightly by opening up the rear door and have it hanging open slightly, I also added some extra metal stowage from one of Warlord stowage sets.

I painted the vehicle using exactly the same procedures mentioned in my Panzer III review.

I've attached a couple of comparative shots with Warlords old 251/C kit, as well as Rubicons 251/7 I reviewed a few weeks ago. You can read the review of the Rubicon kit here.

Price wise, Warlords kit is cheaper, and comes with 4 figure, and is cheaper than Rubicons kit. The Rubicon model does come with more options and varients, however is quite a fiddly build with a lot of small parts. Built though both models do look good together. I think I found Warlords the simpler model to put together though.