The Sd. Kfz. 232 was put into production in the late1930s. Althogh Germany wasn't allowed to have any kinds of armoured vehicles in its weapons arsenal, Hitler ordered a new-kind of an armoured car to be put into production "for the police forces". The Sd. Kfz. 232 saw combat in Poland, France, Balkans, North Africa and on the early days of operation "Barbarossa" (invasion of Russia) The production was canceled in 1942 in favour of the new Sd. Kfz. 163. This was due to the limited space in the turret, caused by the 20mm AA-gun and the 2 crew members.

The Kit

The Sd. Kfz. 232 was on of the first Tamiya kits produced in the 70s. (I think they have reissued it since) The kit is moulded in dark-gary styrene with a lot of mould-parting lines, but a little flash is present, (at least in my sample). The construction is staright-forward, and I used no filler.

Use caution when assembling the suspension, especially the axle and shock-absorbers are easily put in the wrong place. Check the part-numbers and use caution when aligning the axles! I encountered no fit problems in the lower hull. You may wan to replace some of the moulded on details, like the pipe things moulded on the sides of the lower-hull.

Once you have assembled the lower hull the instructions suggsest that you put the upper-hull in place, that works, but don't put on the fenders yet due to the fit problem that you get if you don't put all the accesorries on the fenders before you glue them on. Use caution when assebling the bullet-proof plate on the front (if you use it, the early vehicles didn't carry it) before you glue it on you really should put on the tools that go behind it. I didn't and had problems getting them to fit on after! Use caution when assembling the vision-ports! They don't fit very well.

The turret is pretty basic, with the back-hatch and the commanders-hatch either open or closed. If you mount the provided commander-figure like I did you better listen to the instructions when it tells you to put the arm on after the figure has been assembled. The supports for the antennae are a bit too thick so you'll have to sand them to make them thinner (as probably most of you know). You may want to drill-out the 20mm main-gun as well as the MG34 barrel or replace the MG34 with a part from an other kit and substitute a Jordi Rubio barrel for the 20mm.

Painting and Markings

I painted my Sd. Kfz. 232 in the early-war German Drak-gray scheme. I used Tamiya Acrylics' Drak-gray for the paint-scheme. The model was weathered by dry-brushing with Humbrol enamels and by adding mud on the lower-hull and the wheels. The decals in my sample were printed off register so I had to substitute decals from different kits.

The kit comes with a lot of accressories including canteens, duffle-bags, helmets and bed-rolls. The only things I had to add on the kit were the stowage-hooks on the sides, duffel-bag straps and the straps that hold the canteens in place. Painting the figure was my first attempt painting the face on a figure and it turned out to look really good! I highly recommend this kit to anyone who likes German armour or any kind of armour and doesn't throw the kit out the window when assembling the suspension.

References

German armored cars Available via Squadron mail-order. Published in Polish.