History Brief:

The GermanWehrmacht and Luftwaffe grew into a powerful military machine during the last half of the1930s under Nazi control. They were very well equipped with all the latest and greatest weapons the world had ever seen. When the early weapons and training were tested in Spain confidence grew and then they seemed unstoppable blitzing through Europe at will.

As the war progressed so did the inventory of halftracksthe Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe operated, listing several types and sizes of halftracks each with a specific purpose. Our subject the Sd.Kfz.10 was one of the lighter types. Initially conceived as a utility tow for small towed guns, several different specialist vehicles were based on this halftrack design including Sd.Kfz.10/5, its rear hull was refitted with a purpose-built anti-aircraft platform carrying a 2cm FlaK38 platform. Around 14,000 Sd.Kfz.10 halftracks were built from 1938-45.

Introduced in the latter half of 1944, the Mk. XVIe variant of Supermarine’s legendary design was optimized for low-altitude operations, featuring a Packard-built Merlin 266 powerplant, clipped wings, teardrop canopy, packing a pair each of 20mm cannon and 12.7mm machine guns, and toting either a pair of 250-lb bombs or a single 500-pounder. The Mk. XVI was the last Merlin-powered Spitfire variant to roll off the assembly line, and saw service with the RAF and a number of other nations into the 1950’s.

I was just getting to the paint job on my review of the Zvezda Mi-24V. I had already painted the sand color when the postman delivered a package which saved me hours of work and possibly saved my sanity also. The Eduard mask set is a really great time and labor saving addition to the project.

If you look at the mask layout, it becomes evident that there are only a couple of straight lines anywhere on the mask. The Hind’s canopies have a number of compound curves and squiggles, and masking these, even with Tamiya tape cut into ½ mm slices would be a difficult job.

The masks went on very nicely. I used tape instead of the liquid mask Eduard suggests, but the masks followed every curve in the canopy lines nicely. A quick shot with the airbrush, and the canopy was painted.

The wheel masks were also quite good, although I had to make a small cut in the main wheel outer mask as the Hind’s wheel is not perfectly flat.