History

The Treaty of Versailles forbade Hungary to possess or to develop armored vehicles after the First World War. Only in the ‘30s did the rearmament start in earnest, later than in most European countries. Some unsuccessful experiments led to the realization that a completely independent domestic tank research and development program would be prohibitively expensive. After some evaluation the government bought the license of the Swedish Landswerk AB L-60 in 1939, and started to manufacture a modified version under the name of 38.M Toldi I, or Toldi A20. (Miklos Toldi was a legendary nobleman and warrior in the 14th century.) The main modification was in the armament: the main gun was changed to the Hungarian-produced 2cm Solothurn anti-tank rifle, and an 8mm Gebauer machine gun. The first order was for 80 vehicles, produced by both the MAVAG and GANZ companies. In 1940 the Toldi received new, stronger torsion springs, and was renamed to Toldi II. 110 such vehicles were ordered. The first combat experience in Yugoslavia during the ’41 campaign highlighted how inadequate the main armament was, so 80 of the Toldi II variants were rebuilt with a 4cm gun, and had their frontal and turret armor increased to 35 mm. Even with these improvements the tank was hopelessly outclassed on the Eastern front by the T-34 and the KV-1, but due to its speed and good radio equipment it was put to good use as a reconnaissance vehicle.

Contents

Since the two models (Toldi I & II) are very similar, it made sense to review the two kits in one.

What you get is a sturdy box with the parts packaged in three plastic bags, cushioned with some packing peanuts, and a very basic instruction sheet. The artwork is really nice, though a bit inaccurate in the case of Toldi II: the frontal armor depicted is identical to the Toldi I. It was, in fact, slightly different, which is correctly reproduced in the actual kit.

The instructions are a weak point of the kit: some basic steps are shown, but the locations of many parts have to be figured out using external references. The instructions are the same for both kit (they are for the Toldi I version), but since the difference is really not that big, it’s not a problem as far as the two versions go.

Both kits come with about 45 resin parts and a small PE fret. Although you get a toolbox for both versions, it should only be used with the Toldi II variant (at least according to the sources I have). There are minor differences in the frontal hull detail (most examples of Toldi II had increased frontal armor), but these are molded on, so you don’t have to worry about them. The different gun is of course, quite self-explanatory. I found a curious feature on the Toldi I turret: even though it uses a circular antenna, it also has the mount for the whip-type antenna. First I thought it was left on by mistake since the two kits use almost the same turret; but then I took a second look at the scale drawings in Magyar Steel, and I found the mount there as well. There’s a small PE fret included, which is quite thick and hard to handle. The detail on the road wheels is a bit soft. The tracks are supplied as one, preformed piece, and have nice, crisp detail, with a fair amount of flash. The kit supplies two kinds of PE lampguards: sheet metal and a wire frame. The wire frame was mostly used on the Toldi I, while the sheet metal was on the Toldi II, but as a third option one can just leave them off completely. Most of the archive photos show the tanks without them anyway, or without lamps, for that matter. (Probably a result of the missing lampguards…)

One of the prominent features of these early tanks was the rivets. The rivets on these kits are quite nice, though a bit oversized (in this scale they should give a good definition once pained).

I ordered the Bison Decals set for Hungarian tanks, which has a very comprehensive range of markings for all sort of vehicles that were in service in the Hungarian Armed Forces.

The build

I built both kits parallel, because the relatively few parts make for a quick build. Only the turret has a huge plug that needs to be removed; the rest of the resin parts were designed to be easily cleaned up. The fit is generally good, although the locator pins on the sides of the hull do not align with the holes of the side panels, which carry the suspension. It’s best simply to cut them off, and align the parts by eye. The lower hull and the road wheels go on without a problem. (There’s a fair amount of cleaning involved with the wheels.) The tracks were a bit difficult for me to handle, but with a bit of foresight most of the problems can be avoided easily. Great care needs to be taken when removing them from the casting blocks, as they are quite delicate, and snap easily. The real pain came when I tried to install them with the idlers already glued into place. In retrospect it’s better to glue only the inside half of road wheels onto place, add the track, and then add the idler, the return rollers, and only then the outside half of the road wheels. I could have avoided a whole lot of suffering had I realized this in time… this is when foresight comes into play.

I glued the grille for the engine in place (a bit of a hassle, but was easier after I trimmed the locators on the PE parts). The big aerial for the Toldi I version was installed with the help of some green stuff. A word of warning: since the 2cm gun for the Toldi I is extremely delicate and fragile, only install it as the last step. I didn’t, so I had to use a replacement barrel. (A 2cm flak barrel from a ModellTrans kit –not exactly the same, but close enough in this scale.) After this the turret was put into place, the small bits attached (equipment and whatnot), and the tanks were ready for painting. The Toldi I was finished in the early-war three tone camo, while the Toldi II received an overall green paintjob -by that time people realized they’d need to blend in, so the flamboyant colors went out of fashion.

Some light brown filters helped to tone down the colors a bit (although it’s still quite high to my taste in the Toldi I.)

Pigments were applied dry, and fixed with some matte varnish to simulate dust/mud. As usual I used a pencil on the edges to give some metallic shine to the vehicles, and I was done.