Hours are lost in repairing the rear engine deck hatch for the Ausf A Sd.Kfz 223. This has had serious exposure to conflict and has sustained quite significant schrapnel damage. We have left the damage in the body of the door but have repaired the cracks from the impact. The hatch is now fully addressed and has been assembly fitted to the engine bay hatch area with its original rising butt hinges. We will be writing a piece on this very rare door and its fittings for next week’s Inside Track! All of the tabs missing inside the hull of the Sd.Kfz 223 have now been fully replaced. The now intact and reassembled hull will be removed from the workshop and placed into storage next week making space for the work to start on the reassembly of the 4 Serie Sd.Kfz 222 hull…
The Sd.Kfz 222 Ausf A engine deck hatch is in slightly worse condition where the hatch has been cracked in half. This has been rectified and now the 2 halves are together once more. We expect the Sd.Kfz 222 hull assembly to start this coming week.
The Sd.Kfz 261 armour is being gathered together for its own reassembly. The right hand side of the crew cabin containing the visor is being stripped to allow for the panel to be reintroduced to the rest of the hull panels during the reassembly welding. The intact visor assembly has been stripped and blasted and awaits red oxide priming. One key missing component – the bonnet has just been delivered and will be one one of the panels to be joined with the right hand side.
A recce was done this week to spec out the recovery of the Indian (New Zealand) Pattern Carrier. This is to note the size and weight of the 2 cars and their components for the transportation company to fit the transport of the cars to us here at the Weald Foundation.
