Dragon, Sd.Kfz 251/1 + Pa.K 40 Anti-tank gun 1/72 kit

This kit was bought to be displayed on my WWII French Countryside Ambush display, as part of the retreating German armour.

Instruction manual:

Parts sprues for the halftrack and Pa.K 40 gun:

Parts are typical Dragon; nicely detailed, though some are far too small to be used by middle-aged adult hands!

Photoetch and metal detail parts:

Small waterslide decal sheet:

Basic construction started 17/07/25. Intending to leave the wheels and interior parts off and paint them independently, before fitting (wheels fitted just for show in the image below):

Rear bench seats and main interior parts:

Driver from the Plastic Soldier Company German Stowage & Tank Commanders set, it's close-enough to fit, especially when the upper body and drivers vision blocks are added:

Building the upper hull and adding mudguards:

Painted with Vallejo dunkelgelb surface primer and wheels added. Tyres painted in Vallejo NATO grey:

It is difficult to find figures of the right size to work alongside the model - especially if you want to actually fit them inside.

From left to right, these figures are all marketed as 1/72 scale:

• Plastic Soldier Company - Late War British
• Caesar - Panzer Grenadiers (Normandy)
• Caesar - German Infantry Marching
• Caesar - German Tank Riders (Camo)
• HaT - German Tank Riders & Crew

These are all more or less the same overall height - within 1-2mm of each other, with the seated HaT figure being a few mm less than the others on average:

HaT German Tank Rider, sitting on rear bench:

Caesar German Tank Rider (camo), sitting on rear bench:

Same figures on/next to the 1/72 Dragon Panzer IV - all of them look close enough for use on/next to the Panzer:

Comparison of the Sd.Kfz 251/1 to the Panzer IV:

These are specifically sculpted to use in an Sd.Kfz 251 or similar:

They're a lot better, probably still a touch on the large size (if I had to guess, 1/76 would fit about perfectly):

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