Kfz. 7/1 Tamiya 1/35

[TheNordus]

I wanted to order a Jagpanther and an aftermarket PE-set but when I logged into the store, it loaded up an old basket which had this kit in it, and I thought "what the hell, I'll pick it up too" since I've been meaning to get some halftracks into my life. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to make a build log out of this, but what the heck, might as well.



First of all here's the picture that kinda inspired me to build this one, although I won't be doing an exact replication of the crew. I like how there's plenty of tarps and stowage on the vehicle, and it's a winter vehicle which fits the figures tamiya provides.







Here's the place where this build started, with the Flakvierling gun, which I think is still made by tamiya and included in tanks like the Wirbelwind, an old Möbelwagen and obviously this kit. It's an old piece, I think this kit is from 1975 and there was plenty of clean-up and filling injection marks, but the fit wasn't too bad and while the sights are kinda basic, I like it. The barrels had to be drilled out, too. I didn't realize I had left so much sanding residue on the parts, I'll have to clean these up before painting.







Here's the lower hull. Not much to complain about for such an old kit, you could even easily repose the suspension if you wanted. I especially like the towing winch, although I'm not sure I applied the string to it correctly.



Here's the upper hull and the hood of the car, left separate so I'll have better access to the driver's compartment. Plenty of filling injection pin marks here too, and the fit isn't all that great, especially with the hood to the body. Kinda worried of how that'll turn out.





Here's some detail shots of the back. I'm not too worried about the driver's compartment because I might be covering it up like in my reference photo.
A word on the figures: I like Tamiya kits of open-topped vehicles and artillery pieces because they usually include at least some crew so you can pose the vehicle in action. The figures in this kit are molded in white plastic (which is new to me, I haven't seen much white plastic in military sets) because they are wearing thick winter uniforms. They seem to have pretty good detail, but as usual with Tamiya, the faces leave something to be desired. They're fine enough though and I'll definitely build them and add them to the gun. Might even make a little vignette or a diorama.

Thanks for looking, comments and feedback are always appreciated.