A Mule's Tale - Tamiya 1:35 Scale Panzer II Ausf F (not G) (#35009)

[pr154]

My return to scale modelling has been characterised by the risk of ruination of a few cheap 1:72 and 1:76 scale kits - While they’ve been great for getting the hang of fundamentals like proper decal application, washes and airbrushing, I feel I’m now at a stage where I can’t afford the time to lovingly build a model to completion for the sake of unlocking an extra skill point - And many skill points are available!

What I need… is a “Paint Mule”… A tragic chunk of plastic who will never be finished, only completed to a point of serving a purpose and then stripped back to do it all again

I started off looking at these resin texture pads from Taro Model Maker. They seemed like a perfect fit since they’re not a kit, therefore there’s no motivation or temptation to complete. Unfortunately their $14 resin practise pad came with a $31 postage charge to Australia.

After a bit more Googling I went to King Kit’s “Salvage Yard” which comprises incomplete or faulty second-hand kits - And there we found it… Tamiya’s 1:35 Panzer II Ausf F/G

It arrived from Britain to Australia yesterday! The hull was partially assembled but the kit was otherwise in good condition, with all parts, decal sheets and instructions included. I have no complaints about the second-hand condition of the kit, but a first-hand owner attempting a faithful reproduction of this WWII workhorse might have struggled with the savage degree of mould misalignment and injection errors. It’s probably what put this kit on the second-hand market in the first place…

Fortunately, I’m not trying to make a work of art, rather I’m trying to ensure my future works of art don’t become unintentional experiments in surrealism. If anything a couple of moulding goofs will make me less attached to the model for ultimate completion and display as we find more indignities of experimentation to inflict upon it…

An amusing quirk of buying a second-hand kit, we have a possible trace of former owner or their beloved family pet has been glued in…

This is also a kit in a new scale for me, so I like to compare with what I’m used to. To assist in clamping the upper and lower hulls, I’ve employed the very 1:48 scale Panther whose decisions on weathering technique will ultimately be informed by this kit.

I feel like a bit of a (insert apt description disallowed by forum) for doing it, but this is a kit which I expect to suffer the indignity of being a constant works in progress. Follow us through what might well become an interminable cycle of painting, testing, stripping and repainting…

Contents:
Construction - Hull Mating, Turret & Front / Rear Details
Construction - Stripper-Proof Filler
Construction - That’ll do, Pig… Mule…
Construction - Fixing this kit’s greatest sin… The Lower Fender Gap

[Toimi_Tom]

This post pleases me.

How about those DAK infantry?

[pr154]

They were a most welcome inclusion! I might attempt a little vignette with them in isolation later down the track, as I don’t have any other DAK projects planned.

I have Tamiya’s 1:35 M10 IIc Achilles in the stash, which is an open topped tank destroyer with an exposed crew. At the very least the DAK infantry will make fine practise runs, if only to keep my figures from looking like the Meme Marine…

But having done a little wargaming miniature painting in the past I’d like to hope my figure-painting game hasn’t slipped that hard in the intervening years

[pr154]

Construction - Hull Mating, Turret & Front / Rear Details

I wasn’t planning on doing a detailed log of the build here, since Tamiya kits are generally pretty simple and we’re really kist trying to get this kit built, based, camouflaged and ready for its first weathering trials so we can move on with our main project - As it’s progressed though, I’ve found a few cautionary tales and deviations from the original vehicle which other modellers building the kit would do well to be aware of.

It must be reiterated that misclose between the two injection mould halves has been a persistent issue with this kit, resulting in much sanding, filing and carving to restore some illiusion of homogenaiety to the parts. We were way beyond tolerance for factory casting lines.

Mating the Upper & Lower Hull

I’m pretty big on trying to mate upper and lower hulls as early as possible, as I’ve been burned by previous kits that have advanced the installation of certain details for graphical convenience on the instructions but led to critical miscloses later in the build. Once the drive hubs (#10 and #11) are installed I would recommend installing the front tow hooks (yellow), followed by landing the upper hull, and then closing off with the rear plate (#14). Apply pressure with a half-painted Panther Ausf G, a feat achieved thanks to its cast aluminium lower hull

Rear Assembly

This kit was made with a tooling from the early 70’s, and the newer tooling of Tamiya’s Panzer II Ausf A/BC shows just how far technology has come. Although moulded solid, even the kit’s own decal instructions acknowledge the perforated muffler cover

With reference to historical photos from a captured example (which now sits at the National Armor and Cavalry Collection at Ft. Benning, GA), a more detail-obsessed hobbyist would probably

• Pick up the Eduard PE set for this kit, which includes the perforated screen
• Drill out the exhaust pipe (unfortunately moulded solid)
• Replace Part #12 with a stiff wire as there should be daylight between it and the hull

Front Lower Hull Assembly

Some ugly mould marks in the spare track carrier prompted some even uglier application of abrasives. Further cleanup and putty work is required. If I wanted to have a semi-serious crack at a faithful replication, adding those bolts in the track carrier and tow hooks couldn’t hurt…

Turret Assembly

Moulding errors resulted in bubbling inclusions on the upper turret part where the upper and lower turret pieces meet. These needed to be filed back to enable proper fit, but the turret upper, lower and gun mount otherwise went together without incident beyond those darned mould lines

Turret Stowage Basket

Some examples of Panzer II had a stowage bin mounted at the rear of the turret, and Tamiya gives the option to include it. This doesn’t appear to be a common addition, but such an example was captured by US forces in Tunisia in 1943 which was hosted at Aberdeen Proving Ground until 1989 and then various museums since. It appears to have been used extensively as a reference by kit manufacturers, leading many kit builders to believe the stowage bin to be standard issue when this wasn’t really the case…

The turret stowage bin has a notch revealing this hook at the rear of the turret, likely associated with how the stowage bin was mounted. Installing this hook first will help you align the rest of the stowage bin, should you choose to represent it on your model
(Edit: For clarity this stowage hook is common for Panzer II, not just those isolated examples with the stowage bin. The notch in the stowage bin is indicative of the hook being used to mount the bin)

Bear in mind there are no moulded locating guides for the turret stowage bin, so care must be taken to ensure that you don’t mount it too low or you will prevent the turret from rotating. Reference photos from the example at Fort Benning (at the time of writing, anyway) will provide some guidance

I’ll keep chipping away at this anyway - The #1000 grit sanding pen and I have a bit of work to do - Unfortunately cleaning mould lines and mould miscloses can become rather like treating pimples when your first pass of carving and sanding is a little too aggressive…

[T26E4]

The turret basket was only on a single unit in Tunisia: PzAbt 190. (5thSSPD Wiking also had a similar version on its recon Pz IIs). It was coincidence that one was captured and survived – you’re correct that Tamiya incorrectly assumed it to be a wider use. It wasn’t.

If accuracy is a goal, you should omit it. None of the decal options are for Pz Abt 190. The hook on the rear turret wall had nothing to do with the added bin. It was on every Pz II.

BTW: Tamiya erred when calling this a Pz II ausf F/G. The ausf G is a completely different vehicle (see below). The model can only be built as an ausf F, despite what the instructions say.

[pr154]

Agreed on all counts Super Pershing! Unfortunately much of my research for the writing took place after assembly, which was guided by an alternative view of reality in the instructions They do lead the uninformed modeler to think the difference between Ausf F and G is the stowage bin.. On that note, I’d best retitle the post!

Knowing the prevalence of the stowage bin amongst real-world examples or not, this probably wouldn’t have altered my decision to install it in this case. The fact is it creates more surface area and angles with which to test theories on painting and weathering, which was the primary purpose of this build. If I was to attempt this subject as a build to completion/display, I’d probably hunt down a more modern kit that’s more representative out of the box

[stikpusher]

Regarding the rear turret stowage bin, the vast majority of Panzer IIs did not have them. The example at Benning was captured in North Africa and was one of the few to have such a feature… along with the stowage box on the left rear fender. Tamiya based their kit upon that vehicle.

The captured example…. Units in Africa also occasionally added the right side fender stowage box to the left rear fender.

Standard Panzer II left side fender

[pr154]

Great photos - Thankyou for contributing! May the discussions around the stowage bin be a cautionary tale for modelers concerned with a faithful representation of Panzer II!

[pr154]

Question for the brain’s trust - Utter disrespect of paint mules aside, is there any point to filling the gaps between panels, when in all likelihood I will be stripping the model at a point in the future?

Given a choice between having gaps and not having gaps, I’d rather not have gaps. But more importantly I’d rather not waste time applying putty now if a stripper is just going to eat it later

[MaleModeler7]

This looks great so far - I love that kit, have built it numerous times. Yours is looking like it’ll be a lot more detailed than the original!

[Toimi_Tom]

I guess it sounds like it depends on what kind of filler and stripper you plan to use. Sprue goo or styrene strips should fare just fine with anything that’s safe for the rest of the kit, certainly. Beyond that I suppose it’s a risk.

For stripping models I usually use isopropyl alcohol, but I work mainly in acrylics, so it’s pretty easy.

[pr154]

Thanks mate - Something that turns into polystyrene when it hardens sounds like the way to go! I don’t use any lacquer or enamel varnishes, and paint in alcohol-based acrylics. For reasons, my preferred putty is the Deluxe Perfect Plastic Putty but it probably enjoys IPA as a solvent even less than I enjoy IPA as a craft beer…

[pr154]

Construction - Stripper-Proof Filler

Small update today following some solid advice from @Toimi_Tom

Being a Paint Mule, it’s realistic to expect that this model will go through several rounds of painting and stripping in its lifetime. Paint stripper is not known for its gentle properties and is likely to destroy any efforts to fill gaps using putty.

To this end, the large gaps in the face of the turret at welded plate connections have been remedied by shaving sprue into thin strips, shoving them into the gaps and then applying Tamiya Extra Thin cement. Once the cement had softened the plastic, a No 11 Excel blade whose tip was snapped off in a previous error of judgement was then used to press the plastic into the gaps and into a shape somewhat resembling welding beads - This finish is supported by the genuine article at Fort Benning…

[pr154]

Construction: That’ll do, Pig… Mule…

Calling assembly of Panzer II Ausf F “done for now”

Although I regret doing so in my last build, I’ve pushed ahead and installed all tools and external equipment. I figure if the kit is going to be painted / stripped / painted / stripped then whether I install them now or leave them for another step will make no difference for the next strip/paint cycle. The smart move probably would’ve been to use neodymium magnets for easy disengagement and re-engagement, but my smartest ideas always come with hindsight…

We’ve deliberately skipped assembly of a number of other features of the kit:

• Wheels and Track: It’s a bit late for my current build, but I’m electing to leave off all undercarriage components so that I can practise undercarriage mud/weathering for a future build. Also there are massive gaps under the mudguards that daylight into the hull cavity for which I’m reserving the option to fix in the future unencumbered by the suspension
• Commander and DAK Infantry: These were a pleasing inclusion in the kit and I look forward to practising on them in support of future builds, maybe even doing a proper little vignette with them. Alas, they are not important for the task at hand. We have gone with an open cupola on this build however, giving ourselves the flexibility to add the commander for a future Mule Assignment.

A repair was also carried out over the lower frontal plate to fill in a nasty mould line. Panzer II’s lower frontal plate sits forward of the deck behind, which was a detail captured in Tamiya’s mould but they had left it up to the modeler to ensure that the joint between upper and lower hull parts was completely concealed.

Again, rather than use putty that would dissolve the second I stripped the model, thin shavings of sprue were glued down with Tamiya Extra-Thin Cement and allowed to melt into the gaps. The resultant blobs were then completely sanded back to reveal the appearance of solid plate.

The ends of the gun barrels were drilled out with a pin vise, with a proportionally larger diameter used for the 2,0cm cannon than the 7,92mm coaxial machine gun.

The kit had a nasty habit of allowing the sprue connections to phase into the spigots that you’d use to fit the tools, headlights etc. into pre-moulded holes in the hull. I caught it in most instances and kept the side-cutters sufficiently short of the part, but cut through them on the jack. The spigots were rebuilt with some polystyrene rod, and appear to be holding the jack adequately.

A bit of an issue with the kit was a moulding error resulting in an incomplete cross-section at the base of the spigot for the rear left idler. It’s snapped off during handling, but I still have what’s left of the spigot rolling around in the box. That’ll likely be a repair for another time if I need a working undercarriage to test a theory on a future build…

Overall, this went together about as well as you’d expect of a modern Tamiya kit, but it’s a product of its time. You’re getting levels of detail typical of a modern 1:72 scale Airfix kit while having to paint 3x as much surface area. There are more representative 1:35 scale Panzer II kits out there for a few extra dollars, including a newer Battle of France example by Tamiya.

Experienced modellers who are up for the challenge of detailng this kit can access a tailored PE set from Eduard, but it’s basically putting lipstick on a pig… or a mule in this case

Although upskirting is generally considered socially unacceptable, and IPMS judges are less likely to crane their necks into your undercarriage, Tamiya sculptors in the 1970’s appear to have taken that for granted. Upskirting this kit out-of-the-box does not reveal a pretty sight, and a lot of work for the pedantic modeller to fix. This isn’t important to the task at hand, but might be a task for another build. This has factored into my decision to leave off the track and wheels for our Paint Mule’s first assignment.

On our next episode, we’ll prime and speed-paint the three-colour camouflage to match our Tamiya 1:48 scale Panther Ausf G (Late) so we can do what we came here to do. Unfortunately my FLHS didn’t have the Tamiya Oxide Red Surface Primer I wanted to try, so we’re waiting on mail order… Fortunately there’s another WIP that’s been seeking my attention for a good 10 months, and this’ll be a perfect opportunity to get it done!

[Mageckman]

When I built my Pz 2 a year or so ago, I filled those “up skirt” holes with thin sheet styrene. I used a for sale sign for the styrene. It was a bit thin but it worked. It was a pain getting it all cut to the right sizes and getting it to stay where it was supposed to. It does look a lot better if you look up there though. I was going to put mine in a diorama and it was going to be tilted somewhat, so I didn’t want anyone to be able to see that it was hollow up under there.

[pr154]

Good idea! Come to think of it, I might actually have some styrene sheet in my wargaming bitz box… I saw from @ricardoscouts build log of this kit, he’d also used styrene sheet to fill the space. The battle I’ll have is convincing the styrene sheet to sit flush without any requirement for putty filler, but it’s one worth having under the circumstances

[Mageckman]

I had issues getting it to lay flush and glue into place. If I were to do it again, I would use a thicker sheet plastic than I did, or completely fill the space by layering the sheets in. You can only cement the patch on two, maybe three sides.

[pr154]

Yeah I’m thinking I’ll glue in a series of squarish sprue offcuts so there’s something for the styrene to rest against and at least get it glued in place. That way I can progressively file it down to fit.

I’m managing expectations that I’ll still have to bandage it with more styrene in the same way I did the lower frontal plate, but who knows… Maybe I’ll surprise myself and the sheet fits

[Toimi_Tom]

@pr154 I must admit I feel a little sad you are skipping the running gear and tracks, as that is a bit of tedium and frustration that I had to suffer through, and some company, even retroactively, would have been nice!

As for the bottoms-up problem, if you can find some really thin styrene sheet (here our brand is Evergreen, available at any hobby shop in a wide range of thicknesses), you could just panel the whole area. The fenders are already wayyy too thick for the scale, so another few thousandths should be no big deal, yeah?

[mrb865]

I love what you are doing with the “mule.” I should acquire some mules of my own.