Panzer II Ausf C - Dragon - 1/35

[Nenad Ilijic]

Hello everyone,

 

After building allied armour most of this year, I'm back on the other side. This is my version of uparmoured Panzer II Ausf C, belonging to 8th company, II battalion, Panzer Regiment 8, 15t Panzer Division, as photographed during Operation Sonnenblume, sometimes during April or May 1941.

 

 

 

 

 

It's Dragon kit No. 6432. This kit is simply fantastic! There are just minor issues, the biggest one being that they forgot to include rear smoke grenade rack (actually they included the wrong one), so I had to use aftermarket version. Other than that it's just minor issues and it can be built very nicely straight from the box. Kit includes magic tracks, which are my favorite indy tracks. They are so easy to build. Oh, and of course, building instructions are a disaster, but that's quite common with Dragon kits of this period.

 

I used some AM parts: E.T. Models detailing set (which includes smoke grenade rack), AFV Club jerry cans, Aber aerial, Value Gear stowage, and Archer Fine Transfers decals. There was some scratch building involved, mainly to make jerrycan and spare track holders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500, and painted with Mission Models RAL 7021 as a base color and Gunze Mr Hobby Aqueous Hobby Color H402 as final RAL 8000 camouflage color (my favorite version of RAL 8000). Initial batch of 15 Panzer Division tanks were not field painted. They were painted in Italy before being shipped to North Africa, so they were painted quite neatly (compared to 21st Panzer Division tanks for example). Details are pained mostly with Gunze Metal Colors and Vallejo Model Color.

 

And here are some details:

 

 

 

 

Weathering is Mig's nature effects and pigments.

 

And here's the real thing:

 

 

There are some inaccuracies in my build. For example, inside of the turret company marking '8' should be white, rear tail light should be convoy light and not the early version that I used, there should be two segments of spare tracks in the front, etc. But, as always, you notice some of these stuff too late. I left first two road wheels and Notek light Dunkelgau. They do look darker on the photo, but this is just a guess I did this just to make some variety. Let's say its repaired battle damage

 

Hope you will like it and all the feedback is very welcome.

 

Cheers,

Nenad

[Longbow]

Very nice, Nenad !!

I love the dusty look of the weathering...

It fits the vehicle and location perfectly !!

 

Well done !!

[vytautas]

Hi, Nenad.
I totally agree, with what @Longbow said. 
As always, just perfect. I probably have not seen a better made and painted Pz.II.

 

A small but important note: aren't you tired of the fact that all your tanks are just perfect? Could you do something disgusting and especially bad, which would be scary even to watch? You would have surprised everyone, and all would have remembered it for a long long time... 

 

Vytautas

Edited July 16, 2021 by vytautas

[echen]

12 minutes ago, vytautas said:

I totally agree, with what @Longbow said. 
As always, just perfect. I probably have not seen a better made and painted Pz.II.

Thirded. Excellent work!

If only my efforts had such small inaccuracies.

[vytautas]

Hi again

Nenad, how did you make a tarpaulin?

 

Vytautas

[Model Mate]

lovely and dusty - great result, and it looks much bigger than I suspect it is - a sign of true realism.

[Toryu]

Just one word: brilliant! I can't praise your dedication to historic detail high enough. That's what makes your model even more valuable. Welcome to the club of authenticity freaks!

 

Cheers, Michael

 

[Stef N.]

That is a brilliant model Nenad. Paint, weathering and detailing are all top notch. Very well done.👍👏

[Autle]

Brilliant work Nenad, you've smashed it out of the park again. Just the right amount of weathering and dust for my liking and that isn't as easy as perhaps you've made it look. Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

[Carius]

Excellent build and finish Nenad.

 

Cheers

[Nenad Ilijic]

On 7/15/2021 at 11:58 PM, Longbow said:

Very nice, Nenad !!

I love the dusty look of the weathering...

It fits the vehicle and location perfectly !!

 

Well done !!

 

Thank you.

 

21 hours ago, vytautas said:

Hi, Nenad.
I totally agree, with what @Longbow said. 
As always, just perfect. I probably have not seen a better made and painted Pz.II.

 

A small but important note: aren't you tired of the fact that all your tanks are just perfect? Could you do something disgusting and especially bad, which would be scary even to watch? You would have surprised everyone, and all would have remembered it for a long long time... 

 

Vytautas

 

Thank you Vytautas for yopur kind words. 

I am currently building an aircraft as a side project. Great chance to make something especially bad, it's my third aircraft build ever 😆

 

21 hours ago, echen said:

Thirded. Excellent work!

If only my efforts had such small inaccuracies.

 

Thank you Echen.

 

19 hours ago, vytautas said:

Hi again

Nenad, how did you make a tarpaulin?

 

Vytautas

 

I didn't actually. It's part of Value Gear stowage. When scratching it, I am using Milliput, but I am quite sure that I would not be able to make it like this. I won't be able to make it this thin.

I love Value Gear btw, IMO they are making the best stowage items.

 

19 hours ago, Model Mate said:

lovely and dusty - great result, and it looks much bigger than I suspect it is - a sign of true realism.

 

Thank you.

 

19 hours ago, Toryu said:

Just one word: brilliant! I can't praise your dedication to historic detail high enough. That's what makes your model even more valuable. Welcome to the club of authenticity freaks!

 

Cheers, Michael

 

 

Thank you Michael. I love doing research about particular vehicle and figuring out all the details, background story, etc. Maybe it's even more fun to me than building a model

 

16 hours ago, Stef N. said:

That is a brilliant model Nenad. Paint, weathering and detailing are all top notch. Very well done.👍👏

 

Thank you Stef.

 

12 hours ago, Autle said:

Brilliant work Nenad, you've smashed it out of the park again. Just the right amount of weathering and dust for my liking and that isn't as easy as perhaps you've made it look. Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

 

Thank you Autle. Beside an aircraft that I am building as a side project, and learning how to build aircraft :, next will be a pair of Dragon Panzer III's, one from 15th and the other from 21st Panzer Division. But build will take quite some time, because I have to use kits that are not the best choice for these DAK tanks, so it will require some conversion work. I can't wait to start work on it though, I was preparing this build for quite a long time. There's a huge and priceless research thread on missing lynx about these early DAK Panzer IIIs that was an inspiration for this.

 

12 hours ago, Carius said:

Excellent build and finish Nenad.

 

Cheers

 

Thank you Carius.

[FrancisGL]

Hi Nenad, 

It looks very good with its dusty appearance, and also you are looking for information about the real model, which is a plus (I am not capable ... lol), and above all I like a lot of extra equipment such as canvases, very well finished.
Cheers and TC
Francis.👍

[GRK]

What a cracking model. The weathering looks spot on and agree with what others have said about the stowage- I’ll have to check if they make it in 1:48! 

[edjbartos]

That's a beautiful model Nenad, very nicely painted and weathered with lots of lovely details to look at, really excellent...👍

 

Ed

[IanC]

A very realistic and inspiring build indeed!

 

Absolutely first class.

 

Ian

[Bertie McBoatface]

I do like that dusty patina. It makes me want a shower and a cool lager in Alexandria. Lovely work, thanks for sharing.

[Nenad Ilijic]

On 7/17/2021 at 11:45 AM, FrancisGL said:

Hi Nenad, 

It looks very good with its dusty appearance, and also you are looking for information about the real model, which is a plus (I am not capable ... lol), and above all I like a lot of extra equipment such as canvases, very well finished.
Cheers and TC
Francis.👍

 

Thank you Francis.

 

On 7/18/2021 at 1:34 PM, GRK said:

What a cracking model. The weathering looks spot on and agree with what others have said about the stowage- I’ll have to check if they make it in 1:48! 

 

Thank you. Yeah, they have 1:48 as well. Choice is not as good as 1:35, but not bad either.

 

On 7/20/2021 at 1:33 PM, edjbartos said:

That's a beautiful model Nenad, very nicely painted and weathered with lots of lovely details to look at, really excellent...👍

 

Ed

 

Thank you Ed.

 

On 7/21/2021 at 7:29 AM, IanC said:

A very realistic and inspiring build indeed!

 

Absolutely first class.

 

Ian

 

Than you Ian.

 

On 7/21/2021 at 9:57 PM, Bertie Psmith said:

I do like that dusty patina. It makes me want a shower and a cool lager in Alexandria. Lovely work, thanks for sharing.

 

Thank you Bertie! Cool lager in Alexandria, now that is something 

 

Cheers,

Nenad

[vytautas]

I looked again - and nothing has changed - I still like it very much! 

 

Vytautas

[Bertie McBoatface]

9 minutes ago, Nenad Ilijic said:

Thank you Bertie! Cool lager in Alexandria, now that is something 

 

Cheers,

Nenad

 

 

Smashing old movie from 1958

[Longbow]

13 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

 

Smashing old movie from 1958

One of the best !!

[Nanond]

Wow! this is exactly how I like my Panzer II to look like. I had no inspiration to do the kit until I see yours. 
Superb, superbly done.

Nanond

[Roberto]

Lovely work, painting and weathering are really well done!

[nimrod484]

Great job. Like you, I enjoy the research part and drawing ideas from the armour photos. I like Valuegear, too but re tarps, It’s fairly straightforward and economical to make one using VMS Paper Shaper solution. Great photos. How do you do them? I mean, do you edit the background somehow? . I struggle with this side.

[Nenad Ilijic]

21 hours ago, nimrod484 said:

Great job. Like you, I enjoy the research part and drawing ideas from the armour photos. I like Valuegear, too but re tarps, It’s fairly straightforward and economical to make one using VMS Paper Shaper solution. Great photos. How do you do them? I mean, do you edit the background somehow? . I struggle with this side.

 

Wow, this paper shaper is so interesting. Does it really work as advertised? If yes, it is super useful than. I tried making tarps with miliput but I don't like that it is not easy to make them thin enough.

 

Regarding photos, I don't edit background. I'm just taking photos in the light box. I'm using two different vinyl backgrounds, white and black. Although models on black background do look more dramatic, I prefer white ones... I think that they look more natural and details look better. This is the light box I am using: Godox LST-80 and I am quite happy with it.

 

Other than that, I do only minimal editing in Adobe Lightroom... mostly fixing the white balance and exposure. I am really not an expert in photography and I am just following some useful tips I got from the fellow modeler from this forum @diablo rsv, using low shutter speeds (around 0.5sec), large F numbers such as F/11+, and ISO at 100. I am using Nikon D3500 DSLR Camera with it's default AF-P 18-55mm VR Lens.

 

Hope it's helpful.

 

Cheers,

Nenad

[nimrod484]

14 hours ago, Nenad Ilijic said:

 

Wow, this paper shaper is so interesting. Does it really work as advertised? If yes, it is super useful than. I tried making tarps with miliput but I don't like that it is not easy to make them thin enough.

 

Regarding photos, I don't edit background. I'm just taking photos in the light box. I'm using two different vinyl backgrounds, white and black. Although models on black background do look more dramatic, I prefer white ones... I think that they look more natural and details look better. This is the light box I am using: Godox LST-80 and I am quite happy with it.

 

Other than that, I do only minimal editing in Adobe Lightroom... mostly fixing the white balance and exposure. I am really not an expert in photography and I am just following some useful tips I got from the fellow modeler from this forum @diablo rsv, using low shutter speeds (around 0.5sec), large F numbers such as F/11+, and ISO at 100. I am using Nikon D3500 DSLR Camera with it's default AF-P 18-55mm VR Lens.

 

Hope it's helpful.

 

Cheers,

Nenad

Thanks for that info, Nenad. I’ll check out the box. Yes, that paper shaper works great. I will post another diorama in a week and you can see it being used at 1/48 scale on a vehicle. You can see 2 tarps created with it in this diorama.

Cheers,

Jeremy