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Modeller Build Logs
Alan Pz.II J |
| By Leo Lee | | Started: | May 6, 2004 | | Updated: | May 12, 2004 |
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I am always fascinated by small tanks. May be it is a sub-conscious thing rooted from my childhood, because I was doing lots of AFV in 1/72 or 1/76 scale back then. I built any Airfix and Hasegawa I could afford. So when I switched to 1/35 as an adult, I buy many small vehicles. Among them Pz. II variants are something I always want to do. Tamiya Pz. II F/G was my first 1/35 AFV, when I was 14 or 15.
I already have a couple Alan kits in my closet, recently I got the excellence Tasca Luch, and again, a Tamiya Pz. II F/G, which I will do some detailing. The Tasca Luch is so good that I can’t wait to start building it. Save the small parts, it is basically finished now. While I was working on the Luch, I thought why not work on another Pz. II variant at the same time? So it is the topic of this blog, a project that takes up most of my building time, and slowed down the progress of the Luch. |
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| Chapter 3 - Upper Hull - Part 1 | May 12, 2004 |
After I fixed the lower hull, I dry-fitted the upper hull panel. The fit seemed quite good, but I recognized some problems very quickly.
Fig.1. The front splash guard was molded in reverse! And there was no weld seams of any kind! The front armour was something like 4mm higher than the hull top, where it should be level.
The splash guard was cut from the hull top using a razor saw, and glued back in reverse which should be the right direction. To cut 4mm from the front armour was no big deal, but it was hollow, and doing so resulted in a hollowed top. So a plastic card was glued to cover it.
Of course, weld seams were added to the edges of the hull top, as well as around the splash guard. Not to mention a lot of putty work.
The result is shown in Figs. 2, 3A, and 3B.
The hull top on the real vehicles was actually divided into 2 big plates.The front one was welded, while the rear part was bolted. The Alan hull top is a one piece thing, without any joint between the two plates. To similate this effect, I cut the hull top into two. Fig. 4 shows the front part glued. |
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