Thursday 24 November 2011

The German Panzer II: At least it has a Gun!

Moving on from the mighty Panzer I, you come to the second "training tank" the Germans had to go to war with. Presenting the 'nippy' Panzer II with its high rate of fire 2cm flak gun (seen below in its initial construction phase  neat little desert diorama house).


The Revell kit (really an old Matchbox one to the old fogies like me who remember it first time around) is still a joy to put together and although as old as me still fits flawlessly together almost assembling itself. The soft plastic tracks are also just the ticket to, no multi-part fiddle with single linked tracks and plastic cement to bother about (ahem, rant over).


Here's another one I did earlier with the intention of doing a DAK mixed Panzer company (see above). The necessity of the 1939/1940/1941 Panzer battalion project draws it back into a German Panzer Grey paint scheme (yes I know it is technically an Panzer Ausf F rather than C but I don't bother too much about things like that, it has the right number of wheels and gun). Besides when they landed in Libya the DAK tanks were still dark grey, even fighting their first battles attired as such, and were only bleached by the sun and painted sand yellow after a while of being in-theatre.


Also on the painting table a little repair job on an old Airfix 222 armoured car (that I converted to the HMG 221 version) as the back axle has snapped off. After all every Panzer battalion needs a little 'recon' assistance to draw the enemy AT fire before committing itself to battle.

3 comments:

Paul said...

I love the Panzer II, a real racer of a tank.

I must dig one out to construct. Agree about the model variant, they all look the same to me mate.

Regards Paul

Tim Gow said...

The Pz II looks like a real 'vonder veapon' after the 'special purpose tractor' (Pz I), and the Matchbox kit (I'm an old fogey too) is a gem. I recall building my first back in about 1976....

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Cheers lads, at least I'm not the only with a fascination about the early Panzers

There are some very nice (delicate) plastic kits going about but at ridiculous prices

More expensive than metals!