I bought dragon’s sturmpioneer 251with the assault bridge. The boxart cover suggest there were 251’s with both the bridge and the 3.7cm “door knocker” cannon on top. The instructions however dont suggest this, but you can buikd the 251 with either the bridge or the cannon.
I have several books about the 251 and other material, but I coul’nt find any photo of this vehichlle. I canvased my refernce and the net and came up with nothing.
In other forums it appears that these vehichles have’nt been so rare. If so, why can’t I find one pic?
were these vehichles in service at the kursk battle?
Does anyone know where I can find a picture?
Can someone link me to another website?
Maybe someone has a pictuere and can scan it for me?
This isn’t something you are likely to find online. A thorough search through a 200 page book on German Combat Engineers yielded nothing.
But all is not lost…Page 21 of Osprey’s; SdKfz 251 Half-Track, has a photo of a riveted Ausf C with assault bridges and a Door-Knocker with the short, left-side only, shield. So yes, they did exist. No date or location for the photo is given.
I have no idea how many of these were built, but there seems to be a considerable amount of variance in the 251/7. Osprey breaks them down into a type 1 and a type 2, they are similar, differing only in stowage. Like the earlier 251/5, the exact layout probably varied, as units in some areas and climates required equipment and supplies different from those used in other areas. Considering the number of different gun shields available, this too would vary, though early variants would have started with the full sized gun shield, then later versions would have the smaller shield, one sided shield or possibly no shield at all. Some crews also put boards in the bridge brackets to provide extra stowage space for personal gear or extra equipment.
I wouldn’t worry too much about riveted vs. welded construction, Ausf C or D, or the paint scheme for that matter either. This is a field modification, so pretty much anything goes.
I know that field modifications were applied to most vehichles, but this is a very beautiful kit that should be awrded with more attantion to details then a “regular” kit. I would like to build the model as close as possible to a real vehichle. Yes, some would say “Impossible!” but I want to make mine accurate. showing a model with a big IF aroud it would’nt cut it for on this 251.
That’s why I require a picture that would fit my model, I dont want to bend the facts.
So can, maybe someone post a picture of welded hull?
KyKeon, I dont mean to disrespect your help. I appriciate it alot!! Thank you!
I understand, I like to build specific vehicles too, especially when you build something rather exotic like this one. If you show up with something like this at a contest, you better bring the photo along to quell the flames of the judges who are busy trash-talking your “fantasy vehicle”. I’m sure you can scrape together all the parts necessary to built this vehicle, but I wouldn’t hold out too much hope on finding many more photos of this in the variant that you want.
Hello ShModeler. I am going through the exact same research your are going through for my Dragon 251/7 project I am currently working on. I am also trying to model my 251/7 as accurately as possible too. I have spent quite a bit of time researching on the internet without much success.
Here are a few sites with information that may help you:
Photos are hard to come by, but one of those links talks a little bit about paint schemes and different hull versions. I decided to go with the German Grey paint scheme, so I am modeling a 251/7 as it would have appeared in the earlier days of “Operation Barbarossa”. I did mine with the two machine guns only.
If you wanted to do a 251/7 that would have been involved in the Kursk battle, you may be best to model a Grobdeutschland Panzer Grenadier Division 251/7 that would have been attached to either the 2nd or 3rd Panzer Group that were included in the Army Group Center of the Barbarossa campaign. This was the group that rushed to Moscow, and then as they were withdrawing from Russia, were involved in the battle at Kursk. This may also be a good division to pick for you because the Grobdeutschland units were known to have the best equipment, and the most recently developed equipment. It would be a good guess that if the there were 251/7’s with both the bridge and the cannon, this unit would have had one.
