Leichter Panzerspähwagen Sd.Kfz.222 rebuild

[mark lawson]

I have decided to start work on the 20mm gun mount and want to improve the standard parts as the gun is the main feature in the Panzerspähwagen so a little detail will help.

A few months back I bought the resin gun mount for the Panzerspähwagen from http://www.eastcoastarmory.com/222.htm my intention was to use as much of the kit as I could along with the gun from a Dragon 2cm Flak38, before I ordered the kit I knew I would probably have to make new parts from brass to give strength to the gun mount.

John from East Coast Armory is sympathetic in regards to postage and quite a helpful chap I only ordered the top half of the kit knowing that this would be a gamble if it actually would fit in the Armortek turm, when the kit arrived everything was neatly packed into separate bags.

Work on the gun mount begins, the 20mm Flak 38 is from Dragon.

[mark lawson]

I also enlarged the turret opening by some 10mm or 20mm overall this should allow a figure or two to be installed in the turret and also give a better appearance, I simply made the opening larger and silver soldered a new turret ring in place this is a fraction of the weight of the original turret ring which should take some stress of the turret motor.

I also added the antenna bracket for the Stab antenna.


First impression of the resin gun mount this sits some 10mm too height but is possible to reduce this to the correct height, I decided early on that the resin uprights would need to be changed to brass to give the structure some strength witch the resin parts would not offer, next job is the replace the resin parts with brass this will give the central structure strength which the gun mount will need.

[mark lawson]

Work on the gun mount continues, a lot of cutting and machining then a lot of silver soldering has taken place over the laws few weeks to what I have now, I have started work on the front mount and will update the thread once I have turret rotation completed.

[simon_manning]

superb project, thanks for posting, i sort of know what goes into these soldering builds, "tricky" regards simon manning.

[Robert E Morey]

Mark
Fantastic work on the gun mount. I love working with brass. Beautifully done.

Curious - was the original turret diameter undersized? Perhaps this old news - but it does look awfully cramped in the 222 turrets without modifying them.

Great work.
Bob

[mark lawson]

Its been more than 1 year since I updated or worked on the Sd.Kfz.222, recently its been annoying me that its not yet completed so back on the workbench and another look at the main gun mount which has proven to be difficult for a few reasons, the 222 is a little under scale and the East Coast Armory gun mount is a little overscale but work will carry on.

Once I replaced the turret front with slightly taller front, I also removed the large turret ring and added a thin sheet steel ring which will give more space in the turret, the inspection hatch was added to the rear and the vision ports in the side of the turret were filled as on the later series 5 Ausf B version of the 222 the vision ports were removed as shown in these period pictures.



The Littlefield 222 had these vision ports had a welded plate covering where the vision ports were

Before I painted the turret I added some filler to give the base of the turret a sharp edge as opposed to the radiused edge caused by folding the turret I have yet to add weld lines.

[mark lawson]

A quick update on the 2cm gun mount that I have been modifying to fit, I now have the MG mount and gunsight brackets in place, I now have to modify the spent round catch, I could do with some 10 round magazines as opposed to the standard 20 round magazines.

[mark lawson]

It has been far too long since I done any work on the 222, recently I decided to start again and dust off the build. Of the modifications I wanted opening drivers visors was high on the list so masters of the hinges were made and sent to my caster, last week I received some test samples from my caster and then set about installing in them, with the rain guards installed it became obvious that they required lifting a little to allow the visors to open these are a little too low on the Armortek thus needed lifting regardless, I also added the tarpaulin tie downs.
I just need to add a few weld lines then I can say that the Panzeraufbau is ready for painting but before that I need to complete the gun mount and turret.
The hinges will be added to my range of parts once the current situation is over, if you have interest in these hinges please send me a PM or email werkstatt.five@gmail.com

[mark lawson]

Work of the 222 has continued and now the gun mount is complete, I have also added a 10 round magazine to the gun as opposed to the larger 20 round mags seen on the flak38

[mark lawson]

I have also made the MG ammo box used on the 222 as they didn’t use the normal gurtsack as used on Panzer, the 222 variant is allowed to swivel as the gun is elevated.

[mark lawson]

I have painted the panzeraufbau inside in elfenbein ready for the drivers visors and hinges to be added, first these were painted in dunkelgelb along with the outside of the panzeraufbau, I now have the ability to open the visors individually or all together this adds more detail to the model and gives it more depth, one completed I will have a driver in place.





And from the inside with the visors open and closed

[Steve Norris]

Not far to go now Mark.
This will be the best Armortek 222 by a long way when completed and also a rare Armortek vehicle.
Looking forward to seeing it completed
Regards
Steve

[mark lawson]

For some time I have wanted to allocate the Sd.Kfz.222 to a Heer division used in Normandy, I was looking at Panzer Lehr 130 who had a number of Sd.Kfz.222 in early 1944 and later in 1944 during “Wacht am Rhein” I know Panzer Lehr and other divisions were allocated Sd.Kfz.234/2 the question is did Panzer Lehr hand in their Sd.Kfz.222 or did they keep them and use them as extra vehicles.

Picture shows a Panzer Lehr Sd.Kfz.222 in early 1944



Heer Sd.Kfz.222 pictured in Normandy unknown unit


It’s not known who this Sd.Kfz.222 belongs to, camouflage is the net pattern.

Other Sd.Kfz.222


Brand New late 5 series Ausf B Sd.Kfz.222


During some unrelated research I found what I was looking for it seem s that Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 2/ 2.Panzer Division retained a number in their Sd.Kfz.222.
1.schwere Panzer Spähwagen Kompanie was equipped with Sd.Kfz.234/2 in all 5 Zug though the Kompanie Führer retained an Sd.Kfz.222 possibly numbered 101 or 102, interestingly each of the 5 Zug Führer was allocated an Sd.Kfz.232 as opposed to an Sd.Kfz.234/2
2.Panzer Spähwagen Kompanie 1.Zug was equipped with x4 Sd.Kfz.222, the Zug Führer 211 and a troop of x3 Sd.Kfz.222 numbered 212, 213, 214, the rest of the Zug used Sd.Kfz.250/1 and Sd.Kfz.250/9 along with x2 Sd.Kfz.250/3 for the Kompanie Führer.
Unfortunately there are no known pictures of Sd.Kfz.222 of the Aufklärungs-Abteilung during Normandy so its difficult to establish what camouflage the vehicles would have had, giving the nature of the Aufklärungs-Abteilung pictures would be frowned on.

December 1943 2.Panzer Division was withdrawn from Russia to France for refitting the Aufklärungs-Abteilung stayed behind and joined the rest of the Division in France during January 1944 this gave the division several months for training servicing of vehicles and collecting new vehicles to bring the division up to full strength.

[mark lawson]

It’s been some time since I wrote any progress updates on the Sd.Kfz.222.
With the gun mount now completed I thought I would show a few pictures.

[mark lawson]

One of the parts I didn’t like was the original hand grenade screens, the original Armortek part being too tall and too short so with this in mind I set about the simple task so I thought of making new lower and longer screens which was a lot harder and took a lot longer than I first anticipated I also used more accurate woven mesh.
This is a nice side shot of a late Sd.Kfz.222 Ausf B 5 series showing the lower screen.





I have always wondered where the 2cm magazines were stowed in a 222, even the Ryton book showing the Littlefield 222 only shows the stowage location of the MG rounds, so I used a little artistic licence to make a stowage rack and mount it in the turret.