1/35 Tamiya Panzer II Ausf A/B/C

[alextheblue]

Yup, another Tamiya Panzer, but I opted for the French campaign Ausf A/B/C as I've read that it's a pretty decent kit, even by Tamiya's standards. Looking through the box there's all the things that you would expect from a Tamiya kit, good level of detail, no flash, good instructions etc., but there's also some PE and the tracks, whilst not being single links, they are molded in sections and they look like they will build up to make a decent shape shape with some sag.

So here's the obligatory box art.


And that lovely moment when you lift the lid and see all that plastic nestled in their little see-through bags!


To hull and back - boy this things diddy. Lovely little tank though.


The sprues out of their bags with the usual upper hull parts, wheels, tracks, tools etc.





Instruction sheet - nice and clear and broken down into manageable steps. Three different options for decals etc, but the basic colouring is the same for all three. I usually decide on nothing more than which decals I prefer the look of and I have been known to mix them! :




The photo etch that comes with the kit - not much, the exhaust cover I think, but welcome none the less.


And the decals - apologies for the bad lighting.


I noticed a few people had bought the PE sets for the other Tamiya Panzer II and after a search on the old interweb I found some from Voyager. They're basically just the fenders plus a couple of other bits, but it should add some good detail - if I can only stick them to the model and not to my hand!!




Can't wait to get started with this one. I actually took the plunge and joined the Whirlybirds GB and whilst I'm thoroughly enjoying building the Chinook, I've missed my armour. I know not everyone likes the Tamiya kits as they're not always as challenging as some of the others, but I love 'em. The fit is always good and most of them build themselves - which is always useful for someone like myself whose talent is somewhat limited!!

Thoroughly enjoying everyone's else Panzer II builds and can't believe how quick some of them are going - wait for me!!

Thanks for taking a peek at my meagre offerings and I should have the first update posted fairly quick!

[spruecutter]

Nice one Alex good to see another one of these in the build.

Good luck with the PE, it should help refine the edges a bit.

[longlance67]

Nice kit mate, a lot of etch that will really turn this kit into a little gem


looking forward to seeing this build up




Shane.

[alextheblue]

Nice one Alex good to see another one of these in the build.

Good luck with the PE, it should help refine the edges a bit.

Thanks Sprue. I was kinda releived when I saw that you had picked this model as well. Like I posted on your thread, I can just copy you now - best way of learning is to follow someone who is better!

[alextheblue]

Nice kit mate, a lot of etch that will really turn this kit into a little gem


looking forward to seeing this build up




Shane.

Thanks Shane. I do like the effect that PE gives, but like a lot of people, I always dread putting it on (and that's after I've unglued it from my hand!)

[alextheblue]

Had a bit of a dilemma last night - crack on with the Chinook or make a start with the Panzer. The sensible thing would be to crack on with the Chinook, but not wanting to divert from type I made a grab for the Tamiya box with the gusto of a pickpocket on Oxford street at Christmas!!

So the lid is off and so am I!! I know a lot of people find the Tamiya kits a bit on the easy side, but personally, after tackling a Dragon kit or two, it's nice to have something that you can be fairly confident will fall together without any big dramas. Whilst I've not built a huge amount of models, they have all been AFV's (with the exception of the Chinook) and about 70% of them have been Tamiya. Opening the instructions is like seeing an old friend again as the builds generally follow the same steps and are nice and clear. So onto the wheels, sprockets and idlers. Nice touch with the idler, in as much as it is in two parts, with the outer ring being quite thin - always hold my breath when cutting these off the sprue as I do have a tendency to be a bit "heavy handed" and have to piece together snapped parts on more than one occasion!


Wheels etc finished


Suspension arms all on and front and rear sections of lower hull fitted



And if anyone is wondering, that is an Ultimate sanding stick that it is sitting on. Very nice product, sit really well in the hand (and I'm not even on commission!!)

Now with the wheels, sprockets, idlers and return rollers fitted.


This is the first Panzer II that I've built and whilst the Panzer's III & IV are fairly small, I thought I would do a comparison shot against a Tiger I've currently got on the go.


This will be of no surprise to everyone who regularly builds WWII armour, but for anyone new to armour or to anyone taking a look that is more into flighty, floaty things, hope this gives you an idea of the scale of these things.

So that's about it build-wise for this little beastie, but one thing that I generally always do when building any tank etc., is to roughly fit the upper hull and turret on, just to give me an idea of the overall size and shape. Yes I know, I have the patience of Harold Shipman - none!!


She's a beauty.

Now, before I move on to the next stage, I have a bit of a dilemma that I'm hoping you will help me with. The instructions call for the tracks to be tackled next and I'm not sure how best to do this. Usually I paint the wheels and tracks off of the tank and then assemble everything once painted - on the basis that there is very little that actually needs to be glued. But with this one I'm not sure whether to assemble first and then paint.





Some nice detail with these tracks and I'm not sure the picture does it justice, but there is even some nice sagging - the only thing I like to see sag are my tracks!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peaky sneek at my progress and as always, all advice and comments are very much welcomed.

[generalgrog]

This looks like a nice kit.

Probably would have been my first choice if I knew about it.

Looking good so far.
GG

[Tiger131]

looking good so far its a little bugger...like them tracks and the sag looks quality

[Nige201980]

this looks a great kit mate looking forward to it coming together

[spruecutter]

Nice progress

Now, before I move on to the next stage, I have a bit of a dilemma that I'm hoping you will help me with. The instructions call for the tracks to be tackled next and I'm not sure how best to do this. Usually I paint the wheels and tracks off of the tank and then assemble everything once painted - on the basis that there is very little that actually needs to be glued. But with this one I'm not sure whether to assemble first and then paint.

A timely question, as I've just built the tracks on mine. They can be assembled and then removed for painting thanks to the poly caps on the wheels, sprockets and idlers.

[alextheblue]

[quote="spruecutter"A timely question, as I've just built the tracks on mine. They can be assembled and then removed for painting thanks to the poly caps on the wheels, sprockets and idlers.[/quote]

Thanks Sprue, I was hoping that would be the case when I saw all the wheels etc came with poly caps - however this still didn't prevent me form making one of my usual mistakes - failing to plan ahead and all that! All will be revealed!

[alextheblue]

Firstly, hope all of you that went to Telford over the weekend had an absolute blast and had fun meeting up. I was hoping to get there myself, but what with it being Remembrance Sunday as well as it would have been my Mum's 70th (unfortunately she passed away the end of last year), my plans took a different turn.

I thought that this would give me a good opportunity to crack on with the little Panzer, but it would prove to be one of those weekends whereby the modelling gods were working against me. Who am I kidding, I was working against myself -rushing to get bits done and generally failing to plan would once again prove to be my undoing.

Thanks again to Spruecutter for giving me the heads-up on the tracks, re painting etc., but as you will see a bit later on, this is one of those incidences where I seem determined to sabotage myself!

Anyways, I decided for a change of scene and turned my attention to the turret and first step is to assemble the guns - all quite straightforward.

Thje KWK30 light flak gun

And the MG34 machine gun



Quite a bit of drilling needs doing with this kit and normally I snap my way through quite a few of teeny drill bits, but this weekend I managed to get everything done with just one!



And this is where I hit my first hurdle. I bought the Voyager Model photo etch set for this kit, but now I've come to look at it in more detail before attaching it, I've realised that there is quite a lot of alterations need making to the photo etch itself. I had expected to make a lot of changes to the upper hull itself, such as filing/sanding off the fender details, plus removing some parts, but I hadn't envisioned having to cut and fit the PE. After much deliberation and a trial cut of one of the PE fenders, I decided to abandon the PE altogether. Whilst it's quite frustrating to admit your own shortcomings, I just don't have the proper tools, or more importantly the ability to be able to pull this off. I tried cutting the end part of one of the fenders that's not required and results were quite ugly. The PE was bending and folding along the edge and this was along a fairly short run, so I shudder to think what it would be like along the full length of the fender. If I had been building this kit for myself and not for this SIG, I probably would have pressed on and used it as a learning experience. I could also have used the other bits of PE and just left the fenders, but after much thought I decided to donate the whole lot to someone who can do this AM set more justice than me. PM me if you have this Panzer II, or are thinking of buying it and I'll pop the PE kit in the post for you (UK preferably and it will have to be first come first served etc.).

So with that, I decide to bring this update to a close and dry fit the turret etc (always cheers me up to see it like this and imagine it finished )

[alextheblue]

Those of you who are kindly taking the time to follow this thread will know that this weekend was a bit of a write-off and these next photos should be entitled "Spot the deliberate mistake!" - answers on a postcard!!





I got so carried away with building the turret etc, that I ploughed on with the upper hull without a second thought to the tracks!!
Yes, that's right - now I was faced with the task of assembling the tracks, with the fenders in place and well and truly in the way!!!!

I finally managed to get it done in a painstaking process of fitting some bits together on the wheels and fitting other bits off the tank altogether and hoping that they would line up properly I think I've just about got away with it - why do I insist on making things harder than they need to be!





I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and call it a day. I should really learn from this and make sure I plan ahead a bit better - as well as listening to advice from those that know far better than I do! Still thoroughly enjoying this build though and what's life without a challenge (even self imposed ones!). Next step is to get everything primed up and get the turret painted before putting it all together. I also noticed that there's a couple of tools that lay over each other, so I have fixed one to the fender but will paint the other one off the tank before attaching it - see, who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks!!

Thanks again for stopping by for a look and please advise, comment and criticize as you see fit!!

[alextheblue]

Thanks Hollywood - and yup, it's dry fitted - even I would have to fill those gaps!

Looking forward to you getting your Panzer II and seeing your entry!

[UKscalemodeller]

Looking nice, looks like a great kit.

[spruecutter]

It's looking good mate

[alextheblue]

It's looking good mate

Thanks Sprue and thanks again for the advice and pointers with this one!

[alextheblue]

Had a couple hours to spare over the weekend and I really wanted to press on with the Panzer II. In the past I have usually painted things like the tools and stowage off of the vehicle and then fixed them on, but have experienced the usual frustrations of removing paint in order to get a good adhesive surface and then have to fix these bits once their on. Now however, I try and paint these bits once they are attached, with the exception of the wheels and tracks. So, on with the tools.





The usual decent level of detail that you would expect from Tamiya, but I did have a small issue with one item - the track tensioner (I think that's what it is, but please correct me if I'm wrong). When removing it from the sprue it snapped clean in half and on closer inspection I noticed that it was attached in two places on the sprue, both on the same side of the part, which may have put extra tension on it. Don't get me wrong, the most likely explanation for it breaking is my clumsy heavy-handedness - no big deal though, just glue it back together once in place.


All put together and time for some primer - decided to stick with Vallejo black.




Decided to paint the guns and the interior as the hatch will be open.


Once dried on to the base coat and I decided to use Vallejo Air 054 dark blue grey




For the tracks I used a combination of burnt iron, red/brown and a light dry-brushing of iron to give it a metallic tinge. Later on I will give the tracks a rust wash, depending on the overall look that I want to achieve.




The wheels on the tank go round and round, round and round!!


Once the base coat has dried I decided to try and spray in some highlights. Not tried this before, so wasn't too sure what colours to use, so tried these - couldn't tell you the exact ration as I kept mixing them until it looked kinda right.





Still quite wet in these pictures, so going to see how it dries but overall I think it turned roughly how I had expected. Time to carefully put the tracks and wheels on and leave to thoroughly dry.






Thought I would at least attempt the figure this time - have seem some excellent figure painting here on the forum over the weeks and there's no denying that it really adds to a model. I don't expect too much from my feeble efforts, but thought I would at least have a go. Some seams need a quick sanding and fixed the arms on once in position, just to make sure he was leaning on the hatch covers correctly - and anyway, if it doesn't work out with the little fella, I can always say the cat ate him!!!!




Apologies, bit of a lengthy post this time, so thank you for keeping awake this long! As always, appreciate you checking in and I would love to get your advice, comments etc.

[Paul]

Great update Alex, that colour you mixed looks spot on, look forward to seeing how the figure turns out

[Nige201980]

Great update Alex she is looking good

[alextheblue]

Thanks Paul, Nige, really appreciate the comments.

[Joesdad]

This is all brilliant stuff Alex, a really great thread, it's almost making want to have a go at some armour.....well....almost. As a first (armour) kit would you recommend it mate?



Tim

[spruecutter]

Great stuff, you've made some rapid progress there mate.

[alextheblue]

This is all brilliant stuff Alex, a really great thread, it's almost making want to have a go at some armour.....well....almost. As a first (armour) kit would you recommend it mate?



Tim

Thanks Tim. Definitely give it a go, come on over to the dark side!

You can't really go wrong with any of the Tamiya armour kits. The quality is always good and there's never any big problems with the fit, most times they just fall together. This kit comes with some photo etch, but really only two pieces so nothing too trying. Plus the tracks are quite nice - not the individual links, but not the horrible "rubber band" ones either. The thing I like about building armour kits is that if anything goes wrong you can always hide it - battle damage!!

[alextheblue]

Great stuff, you've made some rapid progress there mate.

Thanks Sprue. Just trying to catch you up - in progress that is, you're miles ahead in terms of quality.

[longlance67]

very nice work indeed


great work



Shane.

[alextheblue]

very nice work indeed


great work



Shane.

Thanks Shane, appreciate the feedback

[alextheblue]

Just a small update, managed to get most of the tools etc painted and started painting in some of the details. I try and allow for a bit of artistic allowance here, as I appreciate that the metal objects, tools etc, would have been painted the same colour as the tank to avoid any reflections, but I prefer to try and paint them like tools and try for a bit of a compromise. Not to everyone's taste or preference, but it works for me!







As I said, only a small update and next stage is the decals.

Thanks for stopping by.

[Tiger131]

that colour looks superb real nice tones

[alextheblue]

that colour looks superb real nice tones

Thanks Tiger -kept adding white and a smidgen of blue until I thought it looked kinda right.

[alextheblue]

I feel like I'm on the home straight now with this one. Added the decals using Micro Set and Micro Sol. Used to use the Mig decal solution but much prefer the Microscale products. The three part decal on the side was tricky to line up but no real fuss.








That last decal on the rear of the turret has just gone on and is still a bit wet in the photo. Also managed to get some more details painted in.




Just another small update. Just need to give it a matte coat, maybe a light dirt wash, bit of weathering and some moe attention to the tracks and wheels and bingo! Finished! (Are they ever completely finished - I'll just touch that bit up! )

Thanks for taking a peek.

[Nige201980]

Great work Alex looks amazing mate

[alextheblue]

Great work Alex looks amazing mate

Thanks Nige - only my second one, but loving these GB's!

[alextheblue]

Yet another small update - that's it, I'm done for one day!

I ummed and ahhhed whether to do the figure that was included with this kit. Usually I don't bother with the figures and if I was to be honest it's because they scare the fricking life out of me!

Having seen loads and loads of excellent figures on ISM, I really wanted to give it a try. I had to keep reminding myself to take it slow and go step by step. Apologies for the in lack of accuracy in the colours used, but this is more an exercise in painting than historical replication. It's slow going, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

[Panzermeister36]

Nice work on the fig, they may be hard but they add a lot of realism. Keep up the good work!!!

[spruecutter]

Looks good Alex with all the details painted and the decals on. You've overtaken me now with this kit, that was quite rapid progress.

[alextheblue]

Thanks Panzermeister - still got a way to go with the figure, but really enjoying painting him up. Can't beleive I haven't tried one earlier!

Thanks Sprue - I'm working on the basis that what I lack in quality I can at least make up for in quantity!!!

[gosselin2112]

Nice work.

[alextheblue]

Nice work.

Thanks Gosselin.

[alextheblue]

Have got a bit caught up with the whole figure painting lark, but really enjoying it. My eyes aren't quite what they used to be, but I can't see I just guess! Being my first figure it's not great, but I'm learning heaps. Still got a lot to do, but getting there.




Need to get back to the tank itself, so I'm hoping to get it finished tomorrow. Some more details need painting and then some light weathering and bingo - finito!!

[Panzermeister36]

For a first figure you did really well. A lot better than my first attempt, and he was wearing a mask

Keep it up, it only takes practice! I made a vid' on YouTube, it might help ya out! Looking forward to see this baby all weathered up!

[Nige201980]

that looks great for a 1st figure mate

[alextheblue]

For a first figure you did really well. A lot better than my first attempt, and he was wearing a mask

Keep it up, it only takes practice! I made a vid' on YouTube, it might help ya out! Looking forward to see this baby all weathered up!

Thanks Panzermeister - checked out your vids on YouTube and there's some great stuff there!

[alextheblue]

that looks great for a 1st figure mate

Thanks Nige - I think if my first foray into figure painting were to be graded like a school report it would say, "if Alex wasn't so easily distracted his work would show signs of much improvement"!

[Coen]

I was just reading the last three posts Alex and for some reason I thought to go back a few pages to look at when you put the tracks on for the first time. I wanted to see how you handled the track sage... That's when I noticed I hadn't made a single comment on your build.
I've been reading it all along, as well as everyone else's... I just haven't been commenting. I couldn't figure out what that was.
Then I realised it was because when I read the posts for this SIG I'm using my itouch and it's a really big pain to use the keyboard on that silly little thing.
I never make comments using it. I cycle through the forum on a routine and I use different gizmo's all day to do it. When I get to this SIG I'm on the touch.

I want to just say that I've been reading and thoroughly enjoying your build, as well as all the other fellas.
I feel shame.

You should know... you did an amazing job on that commander. I love all that detail buddy. That's well done.
There are far to many great things that you've done to this build for me to comment on all of them.
It's just easier to say WOW... You're nailing this. You should think about a diorama and round out the Alex's Palette of New Things.

[wappynutter]

BOOM!!!....... Alex knocks it out the park....
Fanbloodytastic build and paint up matey....

From build to paint mixing, tracks to figure... You have done an outstanding job sir.
Many claps and bows...



And like Michael I too have just skipped back over your build and found I haven't commented before.. Could have sworn down I had but..................i have now!.
Sorry for not commenting earlier chap, but I have been watching you build this honest!!
Very well done again on work so far... Diorama please.......
Happy modelling..

[alextheblue]

Thanks Coen, really appreciate the feedback and I'm exactly the same - regularly check the forum on the old iPad and then struggle with the #*@*ing keypad and give up trying to post a comment!

I'm kinda happy at the way this one is turning out, but still making mistakes - all part of learning I guess. Originally I wasn't going to try the colour modulation technique as I felt it didn't always look real, but after seeing the results of some of the other guys on the build (Spruecutter did an excellent job of his), I was tempted to give it a go. Still don't think it looks especially realistic, but I really like the effect it gives - as UKscalemodeller has as his signature - representations, not replicas! (thanks Ian! )

I might just take you up on the dio thing, have something in mind. When I first joined the forum, it was your AFV dio's that first made me want to give it a go, they are just so awesome!

Will have to see how the time goes.

[alextheblue]

Thanks Andy, really appreciate the feedback - and I know what it's like with leaving comments, you get so caught up in following the progress you forget to post anything. I think that's the great thing about ISM though, you kinda know that everyone is supporting you whether you get any comments or not.

I am very tempted to do a dio and I do have something in mind!

[Paul]

Great work Alex, the figure turned out great too.

A dio would look nice alongside the panzer

[alextheblue]

Thanks Paul - still got a bit more to do to the little fella before he's done. Want to try and get some highlights to the clothing and to sort out those clubs that pass as hands - just waiting for me eyes to try and re-focus!!