The following picture provided the inspiration for this project:
It shows a SdKfz 250 armoured personnel carrier, with a camouflage pattern made from mud being applied. The vehicle that I will use is from Dragon, and has already been on my shelf for quite some time. Additionally, I will use some Aber PE sets.
I have now finished the construction of the Krad, and now it can be painted:
The third soldier is now also almost finished, and I started to sculpt the coat of the fourth guy that will be sitting in the trailer:
Now I have finished the last figure:
The small trailer of the Krad (called Sonderanhaenger 1) was built completely from scratch. The body is made from brass sheets, the mudguards from putty, and all other items are from my stash. Now the little thing is finished:
I did not detail the interior, as the trailer will be fully loaded.
In the meantime I finished the first two figures that will be sitting on the bench in the back of the Kettenkrad:
With the third figure, that will sit on top of the other two, I am currently working on the coat. I just realized that the belt is sitting way to high up, so there will be some corrections to be made. Work on the fourth figure (sitting in the trailer) has just started:
Based on my experience from scultping the PaK crew, I think that is really important to shape the body proportions accurately. Doing so, sculpting the clothing is much easier, as there is no need to correct the shape of the body, and full attention can be paid to get the clothing right.
I also noticed that it is so much easier to sculpt clothing from putty that has already started to cure. It is less sticky, holds the shapes much better and there is almost no danger of leaving fingerprints on items made from rolled out putty when applying them to the figure.
Bearing these findings in mind, I continued to work on the two soldiers that will sit on the back seat of the Kettenkrad. The pictures show them at a stage where the trousers are shaped, and the lower parts of the coats are also put into place. You can also see the much more defined upper parts of the body.
After I added the final details, the three figures are now primed and ready to be painted:
I continued to build the rear of the Kettenkrad, adding the rails on both sides and the exhaust (which was completely missing in the kit). I also started to glue the overlapping road wheels of the running gear together, to avoid later problems with adjusting the wheels precisely. The whole array of wheels can still be removed from the axles to faciliate painting:
The Kettenkrad scene features four soldiers sitting on the back of the Krad, and on the trailer. These figures will be sculpted next. For the driver figure, I plan to use the converted driver from the Kettenkrad kit.
I start again with the armatures from brass wire, this time soldering the wires also together. Then I add some Milliput and the boots. The two figures that will be seated the lowest on the Krad have already been formed into their poses, with some Milliput used to stabilize the legs. The last pictures show how the two guys will be seated.
I continued to add further details, like the equipment, collars, uniform pouches etc. So the figures are now on the way to get finished, with some details left to be sculpted, like the gas tarpaulins. The heads are also already prepared.
fieldgrau - military scenes in scale 