Got a new (almost) finished model for you. This time, it’s Tamiya’s 1/35 scale Panzer II F/G. This was perhaps the easiest time I have had with a 1/35 model to date. Perhaps that is a testament to the quality of Tamiya, or just that my own skills have grown over the couple of years which I have done this hobby. I think it is a bit of both.

Considering this kit originated in 1971, the fact it still stands up today is one indicator of the quality. As you can see from the box art, the main emphasis of this kit is the Afrika Korps. It comes with five figures in Afrika Korps uniform. Now, the figures aren’t the best – but they do the job. The tank itself is very good. While I have not completed any other Panzer IIs to compare, the detailing and general fit of the all the pieces was excellent. I don’t think I had to fill a single hole. One thing I will say is that the rubber tracks (as seems to be the case with many older kits) were far too tight. This led to the drivewheels being immediately bent inwards slightly from the strain. Perhaps I could have avoided this if I actually glued the wheels, but one of the upsides of this model is that it is designed to be “playable” – that is, the wheels can move without having to be glued down.

From the underneath, the track looks a bit wonky, but it is barely noticeable from above and the side, so this issue is relatively minor. I suppose it also falls under the general downsides of rubber tracks – many opt to replace them with high quality aftermarket parts which indeed is a valid choice.

For £10, this kit is great. It is highly suitable for beginners because of the kit’s relatively simple construction. As you can see,the little box is practically jam-packed.

Here are the contents of the kit, free from the box. You can also see the decal sheet. Included are markings for 15th and 21st Panzer Division (Afrika Korps), as well as 18th Panzer (Operation Barbarossa) and 6th Panzer (Battle of France). So there is a wide array of theatres covered for such a compacted decal sheet.

I personally decided to go for 15th Panzer. That was for two main reasons: First, I wanted to do a desert tank (something I have barely covered in my model-making career). Second, the unit markings for 15th Panzer were the most agreeable to the paint-job of the tank.

My initial plans for the kit were to make it part of a diorama including my SAS jeep. The jeep would be next to a seemingly abandoned Panzer II, that is just sitting there relatively unscathed. I wanted to have the hatches open, as if the crew had ditched the vehicle in a hurry.

While this image is of what I believe to be a Panzer II C, the way the little viewports on the side of the tank were open was something I wanted to emulate with my model. Of course, the kit was not designed with this function in mind, so I would have to do some work to get it how I wanted.

So once my preliminary research was complete, I got to work building the model. As I said previously, it went together without a hitch. Soon, perhaps sooner than I expected, the tank had taken shape.

I used superglue on the tracks (a much cleaner way than heating them), and put my new liquid plastic cement to the test on the rest of the model. You can see it in the background in the image – it is revell’s offering.

To put it simply, I never realised the use of having thinner cement and a special applicator. With it, you can precisely glue what you need to. A problem I have had oftentimes with cement is that it goes -everywhere- ruining surfaces and paintjobs. With liquid cement (I have heard Tamiya’s is also very good) this problem goes away. Granted it is thin, so it will run out quicker. It is also priced roughly the same as the thicker cement.

At this point, all that was required was to add accessories and then paint (by now I had already painted the wheels and, with a spare bit of the desert colour, some of the hatches as well. The reason I only painted specific hatches was on the off-chance that I was not able to recreate that exact shade, then it would not look uneven across the whole model.

One thing I made sure to do was drill out the gun-barrels. I did this rather crudely with the tip of my narrowest hobby knife blade, first applying pressure to create a groove to act as the starter point, then twirling it like a drill until a good enough sized hole had formed. I did this for both the KwK30 and the MG34.

The process that got me to the particular shade of desert yellow was one involving some luck. I had read the colour referred to as “Khaki brown” – to my confusion, looking the colour up online yielded a green colour – like regular khaki. I still had some Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow, which I combined in a roughly 50:50 ratio with Tamiya XF-49 Khaki to create what I think is a very nice shade of desert yellow.

I used this image as a decal reference. It would essentially be how I would set mine up on the model. That would come, however, after it was painted.

Here is a sort of teaser image for the final product. The poor lighting makes it somewhat obscure, however you will more than likely be able to see a few of my other models lurking the background. Some have had posts for them. Some have not (they will soon™).

Without further ado, allow me to show the model in its current state.

In previous models, I was always aware of my innate tendency to smother the model with weathering. When I was painting, I would not really take much care, thinking that “I will just cover up mistakes with weathering later”. That is not a good thought process. A model should in theory be able to stand on its own without any weathering at all.

In this instance, I was extremely minimal. I still need to shade the wheels and paint the rim of the spare wheel. Other than that, I am extremely pleased with how the colours have come out. You may be wondering where the ‘open viewport’ I mentioned from before is?

Well, look no further.

The viewport went up fairly easily. I just had to cut it away from the other piece of armour. Believing the underside was visible, I tried to add some detailing to it from my spares box. Alas, as you can see, that was not necessary. I do regret not having both sides open, though. Having overestimated the size of the viewports, I thought they might interfere with the accessories on the side. Safe to say, they have not.

As I said already, I used the Tanks-Encyclopedia image of the 15th Panzer division Panzer II (which for some reason was listed as 11th Panzer instead. I used a mish-mash of decals from my “decal bag” (spare ones accumulated from other kits) and those from the kit itself. I thought the green Afrika Korps logo would add a bit more colour to the tank.

Finally, here’s the rear. I am considering adding a few more rusty shades to the engine and vents. One of the plussides of this kit is the modelled grilles (that you can actually see through). I suppose we will have to see what happens.

Anyway, that concludes this post in my Tamiya Panzer II. Hope you enjoyed it. Leave a comment if you have any feedback, or even if you want to mercilessly lambast it with criticism. I don’t really mind either way.

Previous project: P-51B Mustang