With all the excitement over the SdKfz 251's by DID and RTT I figured I would restart an old project from about two years ago. When FOA originally announced the 251 kit I started to make the frame antenna for it but dropped the project when the reviews of the kit came in. Here are pictures of the original prototype frame I had made. I have used the brackets from my 250 frame antenna kit to mount the 251 frame on, they are very similar, however I do have to make the correct versions for it. There appears to be several different frame antennas for the 251, some were just the outside frame without any cross sections as on the 250. Other types have the cross sections and come in different shapes and some were fitted with the same frame antenna as on the SdKfz 232.
Most of the outside frame only antennas appear to be fitted to Luftwaffe vehicles, this may have something to do with ground to air communications. Most cross section frame antennas appear to be on command vehicles.
This prototype frame antenna may not be the final version, I am undecided which style of the cross section frame antenna to make. Your input here might help, I will also consider offering it without the cross sections if enough of you want it.
References pictures of the real antennas follow the prototype pictures.
Here is a square frame antenna fitted to and Ausf A Luftwaffe Ground to Air communication vehicle. Antenna looks similar to those fitted to early SdKfz 222
This is a field made frame antenna fitted to a Ausf B
Here is a unique square frame antenna fitted to a Luftwaffe modified Ausf C with drop sides for mounting Flak 38's as can be seen in other vehicles behind it.
This picture shows the frame antenna without the cross sections, I think this is an Ausf A, but cannot tell for sure as the equipment could be hiding the side vision slits. Could be a Ausf B as it looks like the front MG34 has the armor plate shield.
This is a Ausf B command vehicle with one type of the cross sectioned frame antenna. Note the sharp curve of the front end of the antenna. Also note the telescoping mast for the Sternantenna D on both vehicles in the picture. I started work on one of these some time ago, it is on hold at the moment. Hoping to make one that will work to some degree.
Here is a Aust A command vehicle, frame antenna appears to be thinner than others and the side to side cross bar has sharper angles.
This is also a Ausf A command vehicle with the frame antenna my prototype is based on, note the curves in the cross bars are not so acute as on the others. This vehicle has gun shields on both front and rear MG34's not normally seen on an Ausf A. But as it is a General's vehicle I guess he could get what he wanted. The pennant is a for a division command vehicle. The General is Generalleutnant Werner Kempf, commander of the 6. Panzer Division.
This is 251/7 Ausf C combat engineers vehicle, the bridge parts are missing and a SD 232 frame antenna is mounted on the bridge platforms. This is the only picture I have found of a frame antenna fitted to a Ausf C
Here is a Ausf D with a SD 232 frame antenna mounted, it appears the normal front end of the antenna is facing the rear. Caption with this picture states a very rare photo as only a small number of the late SPW version were fitted with frame antennas.
This is pure speculation, but maybe the reason for not seeing the frame antenna fitted to an Aust C or D is that these were usually on command vehicles that rarely made it to the front line and as a result most of them survived and did not need to be replaced.
Hope this was helpful to some of you.
For those that are interested, many of my SdKfz 250 tools and accessories can be used on the 251. Some require different fittings, these will be made over the next few months along with a lot of new parts.
Regards
Mike