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Changing it up - Tamiya Panzer II

Skinny_Mike

Well-known member
Howdy fellow students! Well I have kind of given up of the Panzer IV build for this special lesson. Truth is I lost a week or two on it and I didn’t want to rush to get it done. It’s a great kit, but it needs some care and patience so as to not screw it up. Besides, the lessons learned here will be easily transferrable.

So I decided on another kit. This time I went with the Tamiya Panzer II F/G. This is a cheap kit ($12 at Amazon) that should go together relatively quickly. But of course, me being me, I had to get some aftermarket to go with it! In the end, not everything here is going to be used. I also plan a few scratched details to enhance the build.

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First step was getting the rear plate assembled. Easy enough. I chose to leave the exhaust off so it can be painted and weathered seperatly.

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I did notice the terrible looking molded in pin for the trailer hitch. I figured this would be an easy fix, so I scraped out the molded pin, drilled out the top and bottom then made a new pin from some bent brass rod. Pretty easy enhancement and it adds quite a bit I think.

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I decided against using the final drive housings as they didn’t fit quite right, and one of the drive wheels was warped, so I stayed with the kit parts. Once everything on the front side was assembled cured, I added some weld beads to the front plate using epoxy putty. This took a few tries and in the end I suspect they are a little big, but they do look pretty good in my opinion.

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Next up I assembled all of the wheels and since we are doing a desert tank, I beat up the rubber on the road wheels using my knife blade. I tried to be random and beat up some more then others. Should help add some personality in the end.

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Next up is the turret. The kit turret is made up od a molded top with a bottom plate. The commander’s cupola molded on. I planned to use the Panzer Art cupola so I had to remove the molded on parts. The kit has some weld beads on the front and rear plates, but is missing a number of other weld beads that were pretty obvious in my reference photos. I ended up using Archer weld beads for the turret plates and some epoxy putty for the welds on the front plates. I also added some Eduard photo etch to the turret and the stowage box.

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The 2cm barrel is from RB productions and comes in two pieces, the turned aluminum barrel and the brass muzzle break. I also have the RB productions MG34 barrel for the coax MG. The gun is just dry fitted for now.

Well there we are. I hope to have the top of the hull completed this weekend and should be able to catch up next weekend.

Thanks for looking
Mike
 
Hi Mike,

You’ve done a lot to this antique and it all looks very good. I like the new cupola I think it was designed for the newer Tamiya Pz IIs as they both have the split hatch turrets and only the round type went to Africa. The barrels and welds are a great improvement.The biggest downer of this kit was probably the tracks they are horrible but most aftermarket ones cost three times or more than the kit. I think the best answer is to find someone willing to give up there magic tracks or the older Dragon Pz II Imperial series ones with single link plastic tracks , or the newer Tamiya Pz II tracks I believe they are link n length much better than these.Im sure there are many guys out there that have replaced these other tracks with something better and would probably trade or sell them at a modest price, anything would be an improvement , some of these other tracks might not fit the sprocket , that is why PanzerArt originally made those new sprockets that you got. One other thing that is Poor on this are the tools, Tamiya has a small box set of Pz IV tank tools that would help a lot. One other point I have is that rear turret box there were a few of these very few with this but not sure any actually in Africa the few pics Ihave seen look to be in either Sicily , Italy or like France.you have done a great job so far and keep on going and have fun.

Brian
 
B) :popcorn This was my first Tamiya model when i was in grade 4(1973). I saved up for ages to get it and was so excited when i built it......yours is looking way better than mine ever did. ;) :laugh:

Ian.
 
B) :popcorn This was my first Tamiya model when i was in grade 4(1973). I saved up for ages to get it and was so excited when i built it......yours is looking way better than mine ever did. ;) :laugh:

Ian.

While not my first, it may have been my second Tamiya Kit. My First was the SAS Jeep. I purchased it at the Squadron shop, yes the brick and mortar store, they had on the Main Line in Philadelphia. I too saved up to buy it! I think I may still have it at my father's house somewhere!
 
Not my first military kit but very early prob my first Tamiya Kit I grew up on the Monogram kits with the Shep Paine inserts I think I had everyone of them there were like twenty prob. My first Tamiya was the Pz III then the III then the 232.

Brian
 
Hi Mike,

You’ve done a lot to this antique and it all looks very good. I like the new cupola I think it was designed for the newer Tamiya Pz IIs as they both have the split hatch turrets and only the round type went to Africa. The barrels and welds are a great improvement.The biggest downer of this kit was probably the tracks they are horrible but most aftermarket ones cost three times or more than the kit. I think the best answer is to find someone willing to give up there magic tracks or the older Dragon Pz II Imperial series ones with single link plastic tracks , or the newer Tamiya Pz II tracks I believe they are link n length much better than these.Im sure there are many guys out there that have replaced these other tracks with something better and would probably trade or sell them at a modest price, anything would be an improvement , some of these other tracks might not fit the sprocket , that is why PanzerArt originally made those new sprockets that you got. One other thing that is Poor on this are the tools, Tamiya has a small box set of Pz IV tank tools that would help a lot. One other point I have is that rear turret box there were a few of these very few with this but not sure any actually in Africa the few pics Ihave seen look to be in either Sicily , Italy or like France.you have done a great job so far and keep on going and have fun.

Brian

Thanks for the insight Brian. So for the tracks, I actually bought the Fruils. They were not my first choice but the Modelkasten that are seem to be out of stock at all of my usual retail outlets. And yeah no kidding about the cost. So far the kit was $12. I had to actually buy a second one because of a screw up on my part, so call it $25 in plastic. With the tracks, photo etch and the resin I am actually going to use, I'm up around $90 to $100! crazy for such a little kit! Interestingly enough, the Fruils don't fit the kit drive sprockets and they don't fit the Panzer Art drive sprockets either! Not quite sure yet about the path forward there.

I also recognized the tools as an issue and pulled one of the Panzer IV tool sets out of the spares box last night. Plan to use that and will forgo all the photo-etch tool brackets.

I was debating about the tool box, but went and added it for reasons that will become clear at the end. It goes along with my reasoning for picking this kit in the first place.

Thanks for looking in and thanks again for the advice and insights! Please keep them coming!

Mike
 
Hi Mike

Wow that’s a lot of money on this kit . The tracks as John said cut the teeth off carefully saving the teeth and glue them in the track slots for them so you don’t have empty track slots from a frontal view and glue the track around the sprocket. Pz IIs have like Four diff Sprockets out there. The old Tamiya you have are a bit large that kit as a lot of old Tamiya is close to 1/32 scale so the Sprocket is a tad large. The newer Tamiya C kits have the Proper 26 tooth sprockets and are nice the Panzer Art sprockets I believe are copies of these. The old Dragon Pz II is a bit larger as the Tamiya but not as large, the new Dragon Smart kits are a wrong 25 tooth sprocket , I believe they fixed this later not sure , so PanzerArt sprocket were designed to replace these to the correct 26 I believe. So with many diff kit sprockets it’s a tuff deal on getting tracks that fit correctly I think Perth tells about this in the kit reviews. What I did was bought MKs for my newer Tamiya and saved the length and link set from it for this old kit but because this kit is larger I found it a bit too short so ruined that. Also MK made an old non workable squesse together set for the old Tamiya if there findable and they are cheaper than the workable set. I believe PanzerArt made that cupola for the newer Tamiya as they are both Split hatches and only the updated round hatches went to Africa. So Panzer Art is depending there sales on the mistakes or updates for these kits of course , I know that game as I worked for TWS annd TMD making these types of updates for years. Well good luck on the Sprockets and keep going the IV tool set will be a big improvement. Waiting to see your stowage box secret , keep going it looks good and have fun.

Brian
 
Friuls sometimes come with corrected sprockets.

Hey, don't worry about two kits, generally takes me two to get one out of it.
 
Thanks for the encouragement guys! Actually found a set of MK tracks on eBay for a reasonable cost. These come with a cast metal sprocket that seems to be identical to the kit sprocket. I’m planning to see if they fit better then go with them if they do.

Progress is being made, just not as quick as I want.

Be back soon!
Mike
 
Thanks for the encouragement guys! Actually found a set of MK tracks on eBay for a reasonable cost. These come with a cast metal sprocket that seems to be identical to the kit sprocket. I’m planning to see if they fit better then go with them if they do.

Progress is being made, just not as quick as I want.

Be back soon!
Mike

:v
 
Hi guys – back with an update. I ran into a little snag while working the photoetch. Unfortunately a few too many of the little parts went flying off into oblivion and I was forced to buy a second set for this kit so I could finish up. Then I had my fun getting the workbench sorted out and well, here we are.

Alight – so first off, I filled all the holes and punch marks in the bottom of the fenders. Nothing special here, just some plastic sheet and putty. I did this before I attached the upper and lower hulls and it turned out much simpler to do it now then once it was all together.

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After that I put the hull together and went to town getting the top side together. I didn’t take any pictures during the process, but here is the end result.

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The photoetch is from Eduard, and I added the shovel, Notek light, convoy light and horn from the Tamiya Panzer IV detail set. I’ll also be using the jack from that set, but it will get added after painting. I also added a couple of missing welds along the front driver’s armor plate and I scratched the spare track rack on the front glacis plate from some plastic stock and resin bolts. I also added a little plastic on the rear stowage box, to make it look like a box with a cover instead of a square lump of plastic.

As I mentioned before, I found a set of the Modelkasten tracks on Ebay, so I picked them up and assembled them. These were the snap together kind so other then cleaning them up, assembly went pretty quickly. This set also included a set of drive sprockets cast in white metal. The drive teeth actually fit the tracks so I am going to use this set. Here is everything collected and ready for primer.

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Assembly is pretty much complete at this point and I am going to primer the beast tonight. Hopefully I will catch up to class in a few days!

Thanks for looking
Mike
 
Its always great to see them old tamiya kits shine. It looks like you added the doodads that were needed without overdoing it... :good:

:v
 
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