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!