Tamiya 1/35 Pz.Kpfw II Aus. F/G

[Bill.B]

Hi all, having had good feedback on my first AFV in well over 30 years from you kind people, I've decided to up my game and try a DAK project. Again I've used a cheap oldie from Tamiya in the form of the diminutive Pz.Kpfw II (Ausf. G) to experiment on so if the whole process goes south I won't be losing too much! Personally I believe it's harder to do a convincing weathering job on a desert vehicle rather than one used in the European theatre, but I'm sure there are some of you that may disagree with that theory. Anyway, the photo shows progress so far and as with my Panther I've opted to use Aber barrels and a smattering of Eduard PE.  I'm not trying to create a masterpiece (I wish I could!), but a little extra detailing can make a big difference on a basic kit like the early Tamiya mouldings. Modifications I'm doing are as follows: Various items of PE added, a scale Aber aerial in the upright position (I've cleaned out the plastic moulded aerial in the stowage trough), Aber main gun barrel and auxiliary machine gun, 4 Jerry cans will be lashed down on the rear deck, some steel helmets will be stowed externally, a sandbag or two will be stowed on the upper turret and glacis area, and a wooden ammo box is mounted on the starboard side which will have another Jerry can stowed behind it. Having looked at numerous wartime videos and photos of various German tanks it seems that extra equipment was stowed in a variety of places and that in the heat of battle anything goes. This seems especially so with the stowage of spare track pins which were stuffed into engine intake grills and filling the centre of spare wheels.

 Finally, I'm still deciding what (if any) diorama to create with this tank, but whatever it is will be without any personnel present as I'm carp at painting them! 

 

 

[clive_t]

Excellent! Watching with interest, Bill!

[Ozzy]

Nice start Bill.

[Bill.B]

Having beat myself up over where the various accessories were going to be placed, I decided to take some pointers off internet images of real DAK vehicles. I fashioned a strap out of some spare PE to hold down some water and petrol jerry cans (I discovered that crews would improvise and weld up their own brackets and stowage hangers for all manner of equipment), and I've added an ammo box on the starboard side with another jerry can wedged behind it with a steel helmet tucked in there too. Just for good luck I've also dropped a single sandbag on the rear deck. I'm not particularly happy with the exhaust's rust effect (it's over done IMO) so that'll get reworked as will the colour of the wooden boxes. Apologies for the low res pic.

 

 

 

 

 The tracks are now fitted and primed, but these caused another dilemma. Having referred to some wartime photos they showed that the Pz.Kpfw II's & III's sometimes had taught tracks, even when stationary, and others had a definite sag (maybe the idlers were deliberately over tensioned slightly?). Personally I like to see a bit of track sag, but I couldn't get the Tamiya tracks to stay in place, even with an industrial adhesive, so I decided to go 'taught'. As a result the next project will definitely have aftermarket individual tracks (Minicraft perhaps?).  

 

 

A Pz.Kpfw. III at rest with fairly taught tracks. 

 

 

 

 

[Bullbasket]

That's progressing nicely Bill. If you want tracks that sag naturally, go for Fruilmodel. Not cheap but up there with the best. And believe me, they are not that difficult to assemble.

 

John.