Tomcat's Tamiya 1/35 Panzer II A-C

[Tomcat64]

With the Sci Fi build starting to get frustrating I decided to go stash diving for some light relief and emerged with this


Being a Tamiya kit it's effectively the modelling equivalent of a hug in a box!

As it's mainly for light relief I won't put a full build thread together for this one but just dived straight in

The first instructions generated a pile of wheels




Over the page and we start on adding the running gear


And it just falls together like always


Most of the return rollers will be left off until later


Link & Length tracks were a little bit fiddly


But here they are in place and removeable for painting - I've also added some weight into the hull so it sits down properly


Onto the upper hull... all of the required holes were 1mm


This is where it was left last weekend


Having got this far I managed to knock over the TET bottle... luckily it didn't hit the kit or anything more important but I decided that was my cue to retire to the TV with a beer or two

Thanks for looking

[Stokesy44]

Nice start on the little kitty

[Kevthemodeller]

These go together really nicely, looking forward to watching this one

[digger303]

Can't go wrong with a Tamiya kit you'll be smiling all the way to the finish.

[aur0ra145]

Is this a retooled/new sprue added for this kit? I seem to remember them coming with the rubber band tracks. Looks like a fun project!

[Tomcat64]

Nice start on the little kitty

These go together really nicely, looking forward to watching this one

Can't go wrong with a Tamiya kit you'll be smiling all the way to the finish.

Thanks chaps

Is this a retooled/new sprue added for this kit? I seem to remember them coming with the rubber band tracks. Looks like a fun project!

This kit is from 2008

The original Tamiya Panzer II ausf F/G was released in 1971 (the one with the Arika Korps figures) which is probably the one you're thinking of?

[Tomcat64]

Ok - I could have sworn I'd posted at least one more update to this one since August, but apparently not...

Well... I took photos and the trick now is to try & remember what they were about

The hull was more or less finished off except for the pioneer tools & exhaust system that will be painted up separately


Next up was the turret


Which again came together as you'd expect from a Tamiya kit


Painting commenced on the interior




And this is how it looked stacked up at this point


Down the back a dry fit of the exhaust & shroud


Since then I've primed in Ultimate black, based in Vallejo Anthracite grey and added some tonal variation with another lighter shade of grey that I've now forgotten... This week, the tyres were masked and painted in NATO black


And that's where it is now... I'll start painting up the remaining parts including tracks, pioneer tools & exhaust system next

Now that this is the only project on the bench it'll hopefully get finished up soon

Thanks for checking back in

[Stokesy44]

Nice paint job and I love the metal exhaust shroud. Not your usual Tamiya?

[DRUMS01]

The way your building this kit, it looks like it will be a wonderful model to add wear and tear.

Keep up the great work!

[digger303]

Going well and as Stokesy says the metal shroud is a nice up date.

[Tomcat64]

Nice paint job and I love the metal exhaust shroud. Not your usual Tamiya?

Going well and as Stokesy says the metal shroud is a nice up date.

Thanks chaps - I just checked the recent Pz1 release and that has a similar shroud included so it looks like it's becoming part of the Tamiya approach to life

The way your building this kit, it looks like it will be a wonderful model to add wear and tear.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks Ben - I'm going to keep weathering to a minimum on this one but will need some strategically placed mud to hide a bit of a snafu

[Tomcat64]

Soooooo last weekend got off to a flying start with our boiler packing up on Friday - got it bodged back to life but need a new one ££££

Anyway we'd warmed up enough by Sunday to have a good session in the den... next up for this one was the tracks; these were primed in black followed by a base coat of black/brown and a drybrush of gun-metal. I managed to work out which way they go from the link direction... plus there's an extra single link to fit in on one side


This is how the first side went back on - it was a little fiddly & I've ended up with a small gap down the back end that'll need some strategic mud


The other side went on really neatly - again fiddly but I'd learnt the lessons from side one


As you can glimpse from the previous photos the pioneer tools were painted up & added; one gotcha here is that one of the crow-bars has to fit under the antenna trough so I had to prise the trough off and reset it as there's not enough space to slide the bar in. I think I got caught out with this before... Oh and the exhaust muffler was treated with rust tones & added - I did take a photo but it's completely out of focus


The guns were painted in gun-metal followed by a heavy black wash and the turret was popped on for a quick look


There's a couple more bits to do, then the decals & commander

Thanks as always for looking

[Tomcat64]

Shockingly I've managed to get a couple of evenings at the bench this week so here's a quick update...

First - probably the least interesting picture you'll see today; the antenna only comes as a stub so I added a bit of brass wire and painted that up before installing in the hole on the left side of the superstructure


Down the back end the exhaust shroud & smoke dischargers were added - I keep thinking I need to more with the dischargers paint/detail wise but not sure what... this pic also shows the track gap on the left hand side that needs covering in CA & mud to disguise


The it was time to throw some decals at the thing... 8 in total. It was a bit of a faff to sort out the three that make up the cross on the left side around the antenna trough but the decals performed perfectly and stood up well to a bit of pushing around


Attention then turned to the commander figure - this isn't the best I've seen from Tamiya recently with plenty of mould seams to sort out


But he went together fine - there's probably a bit more clean up needed after he's primed


And here he is perched on top


So looks like a bit of figure painting for this weekend along with a bit of weathering and I think it'll be done

Thanks as always for looking

[digger303]

All round good looking kit. Apart from Tamiya going a bit cheap and used a older figure for this release.

[Stokesy44]

Cracking little kit, nice work Sir

[Tomcat64]

All round good looking kit. Apart from Tamiya going a bit cheap and used a older figure for this release.

Cracking little kit, nice work Sir

Thanks chaps - I did think the figure looked a bit familiar and checked if he was the same one included with my venerable PzIII but there are slight differences

[Tomcat64]

Anyway - just a quick update from this weekend as I've painted the figure up, here he is sitting up top. There's probably a bit of fettling still to do as I'm not sure I've got the piping on his uniform correct yet... need to go & check a couple of sources


I didn't get the weathering done as I sidetracked myself with a bit of pottering about so that's still to take care of - oh and down the back end the track section around the idler popped out so needed regluing

Thanks for looking

[aur0ra145]

Anyway - just a quick update from this weekend as I've painted the figure up, here he is sitting up top. There's probably a bit of fettling still to do as I'm not sure I've got the piping on his uniform correct yet... need to go & check a couple of sources


I didn't get the weathering done as I sidetracked myself with a bit of pottering about so that's still to take care of - oh and down the back end the track section around the idler popped out so needed regluing

Thanks for looking

Panzers dudes were pink piping?

Really great work on the muffler rust. It's looks fantastic. Also, really good photography for all these posts. Bravo!

[Tomcat64]

Panzers dudes were pink piping?

Really great work on the muffler rust. It's looks fantastic. Also, really good photography for all these posts. Bravo!

Cheers mate - yup Panzer crews had rose pink piping; from memory if you lookup waffenfarbe on Wiki it'll give you a list of the colours used by the various service arms

[Tomcat64]

Since recently coming out of hibernation I managed to throw some dusty weathering at this and can now call it done

[Quax]

nice job, these Tamiya kits are always go to's when time or mojo are issues! great job with the decals too, they have a real painted on look.

Paul

[digger303]

Figure is really nicely done particularly the flesh tones as a stand out for me.
The tank is well done too of course.

[Stokesy44]

Ooh, love that early war grey. Cracking little kit.

[Kevthemodeller]

Ooh, love that early war grey. Cracking little kit.

What he said, lovely build mate

[Tomcat64]

Cheers guys - much appreciated

I have a feeling my next build will also be an early war Tamiya kit for a bit of light relief

[Stokesy44]

Cheers guys - much appreciated

I have a feeling my next build will also be an early war Tamiya kit for a bit of light relief

A Tamiya armor build is like an old fireside armchair. Its comfy, its warm, everything feels familiar, even the color and smell are nice. All you've got to do is sit down without falling over!

[Tomcat64]

Cheers guys - much appreciated

I have a feeling my next build will also be an early war Tamiya kit for a bit of light relief

A Tamiya armor build is like an old fireside armchair. Its comfy, its warm, everything feels familiar, even the color and smell are nice. All you've got to do is sit down without falling over!

The way this year is going the falling over when trying to sit in a comfy armchair is getting more likely!!!