Catalog Number: | 2194 | Manufacturer: | TAKOM |
Published: | Wednesday, January 22, 2025 | Retail Price: | 41.99 |
Scale: | 1:35 | Reviewed By: | Frank Froment |
Sd.Kfz. 250/3 Greif
Rommel’s Command Half Track
The first look review can be found by clicking here.
In Step 1 you begin building the lower hull. it is pretty straight forward. make sure you test fit the parts and they are all aligned correctly before you glue them down or you will have issues in the next step. Part 47 is a bit tricky, and you may need tweezers.
In step 2, if you aligned everything correctly Parts B7 will slide in easily. Just make sure you sand them well or they will snap (ask me how I know, lol). Step 3 went smoothly except Part B5 is actually B9. All the sprockets went together easily.
Step 4 has you putting the wheels and sprockets on. This step was easy.
Step 5 has you assembling the tracks. This went together pretty easily. Do not use a capillary action glue because it will not allow the tracks to be workable. If by some chance one of the pads gets attacked by the carpet monster, you have a few spares. I did not install the tracks in this step, instead I built them and set them aside to paint and weather later.
In step 6 you assemble the front axle. This was a pretty simple step.
In Step 7 you have 2 options for the tires. I chose the bottom option using the B sprue. If you use this option, Part B11 should be B10 and B10 should be B11. After assembling the wheels, I painted the lower hull, tracks, and wheels.
Please Note - these wheels are supposed to be canted, or
have positive camber, where the top of the wheel is further away from the
vertical axis of the vehicle. Not knowing why this was done, I researched it,
and found this on a performance car website of all places; (thanks to Chuck Aleshire for this information)
“Wheels are typically adjusted to have a positive camber for off-road uses, mainly because it
reduces steering effort and provides greater stability for movement in a
straight line. This makes it great for agricultural vehicles.”
In step 8 you begin assembling the transmission. This step was pretty straight forward- just double-check the fit on some of the parts.
In Step 9 you assemble the front dash of the halftrack. Nothing too complicated here. It was kind of weird putting the steering wheel upside down.
In step 10 you finish building the transmission and attaching it to the dash. There a few PE parts (TP16 &17) in this step that you will need to use a small round tool to shape. This step was easier than I thought it would be.
In step 11 you build the seats and attach them along with the dash to the chassis.
In steps 12 and 13 you build the engine. I will say it is a very detailed engine and looks nice when finished, the sad part is you will not see it unless you have the hatches open, which I did not.
Steps 14 & 15 have you assembling floor and seat for the rear. Part 38 was a little tricky to align but it did go in. Step 16 builds the sides of the Greif. The parts lined up perfectly but you need to tape the sides and let the glue dry. I let it dry overnight.
Steps 17, 18 and 19 have you assembling the radio. I won't kid you; this was tough. the parts are small and fragile. It took me a while to do this. I had to step away a few times so I would not get too frustrated with it. But in the end, it was completed and looked nice.
Next up were the fenders in steps 20 & 21. I did not put all the parts on the fenders because I was going to paint them and put them on after the whole halftrack was painted. Here is a photo with the interior painted Panzer Gray and the fenders painted a Camouflage Brown. Part C38 should be part C36. In step 22 you attach the fenders to the side, along with attaching the rear and the front plates.
Steps 23, 24 and 25 have you assembling the underside of the upper hull. This all went together well.
In step 26 you finish the upper hull with the screens, and the engine hatches. One note to keep in mind, they show R21 being attached in several places, but there weren't enough to go around so you will have to use R22 also.
In step 27 you finish the upper hull and attach it to the lower hull. This took me a while to do. I could not get the sides the line up perfectly. After a few test fit tries I just decided to go for it and applied the glue and attached the upper hull. I think it came out pretty good.
Step 27 also has you assembling Rommel's driver.
The antenna is attached and the gas cans, and MG are built in step 28. These went together easily..
In the final steps you build the backpacks and attach them to the antenna posts, attach the antenna and build Rommel's figure. After everything was painted, I put on the GREIF decals. I thought it would be a task to get them to fit correctly but it was very easy. After putting the decals on I added all the tools and equipment to the fenders. As you can see below everything looks pretty good.
The tarp fits nicely over the gas cans
Here is photo with the tools and stowage attached to the left fender.
Here is photo with the tools attached to the right fender.
This was a good kit to build, with a few challenges. There were a few spots in the instructions that were a little unclear, but by test fitting the part I was able to figure it out. The kit comes with two options for tires which I thought was nice, (I can use the other set on one of my other vehicles) some extra stowage gear, some nice PE parts that fit well and a beautiful engine. The build did test me at times, but in the end, I was happy I built it. The tracks did go together well and there wasn't much cleanup on them. Takom did a great job with this kit. Though I thought the radio set was a challenge, but a challenge is a good thing. The parts did fit together well, and locating where they went was pretty simple for the most part. A special thanks goes out to Chuck Aleshire for some pointers because he did a review on the Takom Sdk.Kfz 250/1 which is almost the same as this kit. Check it out by clicking here.
Highly Recommended
Thanks goes out to Takom for this review kit.
Reviewed by Frank Froment, Minuteman AMPS
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