I was at the LHS this weekend, picking up some paint, and ran into a Tamiya kit of the Panzer Kampfwagen II. It’s the little tiny tank that comes with a few figs included. I like the styling of these tiny tanks, as well as the immensly historical value of this Blitzkrieg tank, so I decided to buy it. I was a little disappointed, as the kit has some detail (like an axe) that is moulded into the kit, something I definitely don’t like.
Anyone built this and have any references, comments, or anything else they’d like to say about it?
Check out my sig picture. It’s the Tamiya Pzkpw II F/G. I think that’s the one you’re talking about. This guy took about a year and a half and $170 to do (including reference material, paints, etc. I used Friul tracks and an Eduard pe set on it. I also carved the molded rim on the idlers down and put scratch built rims on them. I carved off the molded on storage bin on the right side, filled the resulting hole in the hull and the back of the box with styrene, and glued the box back on. Just gave a little seperation and definition to that part of the hull. It was my first attempt at detailing a kit. I really enjoyed doing it, had a lot of fun, and I think it came out pretty well for a first attempt.
If you go with am tracks, be warned that the kit drive sprockets have the wrong spacing on the teeth. I replaced mine with a set of Friul sprockets. You can also cut off the teeth under the tracks and glue little replacement points of plastic in between the links. (Not what I wanted to do!) FSM had an article on detailing this kit about 3 years ago. I used it as the basis for what I did. I’ll try and find the issue. I didn’t have much luck finding detailed reference material on it. I got several books that had a few pictures (both WWII era and museum pieces) in them, but nothing detailed. I couldn’t even find one that had a picture of where the engine sat in the hull, and being totally inexpierenced with tanks, didn’t want to hazard a guess. There is a link that was posted in the forum with lots of data on lots of tanks a while back. It had more info on the Panzer II than I’d found anywhere (including detailed shots of the engine compartment). I’ll see if I can find it and repost it in this thread.
Good luck. I’ll give you whatever help I can.
Found it. Here is the link for the article on the PzII:
http://afvinteriors.hobbyvista.com/pz2/pz2a.html
And here’s one for their main page in case you want to bookmark it:
http://afvinteriors.hobbyvista.com/
Hope this helps.
Here’s another that has technical data on a lot of tanks and line drawings on quite a few. (click on the line drawing of the individual tank in the right upper corner of the technical data sheet, if there is one, to see the drawings). Took me a while to figure that one out!! lol (No drawings of the II, though.)
This is a superb starter kit, but Alan makes a real nice PzKpfw II C that is also boxed by DML as a DAK variant (contains a DAK figure and water can racks).
Alan markets several variants of the PzKpfw II.
Yep, that’s the one Bill.
Thanks, both of you. I LOVE the look of these tiny tanks, can’t wait to get around to building it. Don’t know whether or not I’ll go with AM tracks, probably not, but there’s definitely a lot of work to be done with the upper hull.
Thanks again [:D]
The FSM issue that had the detailing article for the Pz II was December 2001. I’m not sure if it’s available for backorder or not.
Just checked. Looks like it is available.
I made one years ago when they were newly released. I used a Bandai PzKpfw II in 1/48 scale as a reference for its interior and scratch built that. It was a very fun build (back when most tools were molded in place and detail wasn’t at all what it is today) and I liked the kit very much. Thing is, I can’t remember what became of it!
Ron
Finished mine about 2 weeks ago… I liked the model…
yep, I remember, you posted these pics not too long ago, thanks!
Which paints did you use for the two-tone camo?
Great info from you guys on researching tanks! I built this little guy out of the Tamiya kit a few years ago and enjoyed it but it is basic. Thanks!
It’s one of Tamiya’s oldest kits and probably everyone who likes WW II armor has built one. It would be nice to see it updated someday.
I used the Tamiya Dark Yellow as the base coat, and Dark Green as the overlaying camo.
If you like small tanks, check out some of the RPM kits, theyre off the wall subjcts and full of detail and some of them come with PE stuff and the shovel and such are molded separate. the only thing i dont like is the tracks, they suck.
Good Suggestion Stipp. I looked at some of those RPM kits on Ebay…looks like neat stuff that I haven’t seen before in kits.
I built it OOB-what a suprise…without instructions, and I improvised decals-both were lost at the time…
Tamiya’s Panzer II was my second armour kit, and it sealed my fate forever. I would love to what Bill has done and detail one now. I remember that it went together really easy, had lots of vehicle options and looked great. It has sadly ceased to be a model tank as such, but exists today as a mutated experomentopanzer, on which I try every new technique on first. I would pick one up if I saw one in a flash.
Matt
It still has descent detail on the rest. Gotta love those older “little” tanks, lots of bolts,and angles to get some good drybrushing.
Yep, it definitely has some very nice detail moulded in. Even the single-side leaf suspension looks very nice. Some scribing between the ‘leaves’ should pop out the detail. It really does look like a beautiful little kit. Plus, it was only $15 CAD (just a tad over 10 US) so the price was great too.