SEA OF SAND - SDKFZ.222 | Scale War Machines - Model Making Videos, Articles & Archive Films

For his atmospheric desert diorama, Doug Frame chose ICM’s Sdkfz. 222 in 1:48th Scale (Ref: 48191).

Only problem was, it required a fair bit of remedial work.

The basic kit comes in dark grey plastic. Details are soft but fairly flash-free. The overall kit dry assembled well enough & fit was good, although care must be taken as no locating points or pins are present.

Basic hull construction went fairly quickly & was trouble-free, the overall shape of the complex hull looked fine but the front visors & all the rain channels were replaced. The visors came from a Tamiya Sdkfz. 251, while Evergreen plastic was used for the channels.

A small-etched brass set is included in the kit, featuring the rear deck & grenade screens, however this is thick brass mesh & would be better replaced. Nevertheless, it was retained for this build.

Some missing weld seams were added from plastic rod softened with liquid glue, then notched with a scalpel blade.

To sharpen the details, the Notek light was replaced with a Tamiya item with a home-made mount. Width indicators were scratch-built using brass tubes & PVA glue balls, covered in superglue.

A sweet wrapper that had a close weave effect like canvas covered the spare wheel as the kit one is too plain & smooth.

The main problem with the kit turret is that it has a solid turret ring & is very thick on the sloped edges. To fix this, the lower turret base was cut away & the sides thinned as much as possible. A new piece of plastic card was then added to the base of the turret. A few extra interior boxes were added to the turret ring but nothing too detailed as once the screens were on, nothing much would be seen.

Looking at wartime pictures of the Sdfz. 222 in service, they often had lots of stowage items added to them for their long recon roles. A Black Dog accessory set was chosen to complete this look along with a Hauler etch sand channel set.

For painting, automotive primer was followed by several light base coats of Tamiya Desert Yellow XF59. Then, highlights were added with Tamiya Buff XF57 & Flesh XF15. Fading was done with the airbrush again using successive coats of misted on light buffs & browns. Final weathering was done with good old fashioned drybrushing – a bit of a rarity these days.

A few grease & oil runs, drips & muck finished the painting.

The figure was a Gasoline item, cleaned up & painted using Vallejo acrylics & added to the Sdfz. 222.

For the base, a piece of foam board was covered in plaster & while still wet, stones were added using cat litter. Near drying time, tyre tracks were created by rolling a set of spare wheels over the plaster. When dry, fine sand & grit was secured using more PVA glue. An old paintbrush provided the dry vegetation. Plus Model’s brass barbed wire was painted a suitable rusty colour & added to the base of a home-made sign.

Painting was done with the airbrush & various washes, followed by a few Mig powders dusted in certain areas.

A nameplate from Name-It was purchased to complete the scene. Enjoy!