The Panzer II Luchs was an attempt to produce a light, armored recon tank.  It was a resaonably successful vehicle, although production was limited.  Actually, several similar tanks were produced, including the Panzer I D and Panzer II J.  Due to their cost and complexity, relatively few of these second generation recon tanks were ever built.  The Luchs served in limited numbers from mid-1944 onwards.

The ICM Panzer II Luchs is the second kit of this tank, and closely followed the Techmod release.  The kit is sharply cast in orange-tan plastic, with silver-grey track links.  A fairly nice commander figure in winter gear is provided for the turret hatch.  The kit instructions are clearly drawn, and fairly easy to follow.

The kit’s breakdown is typical for Eastern European models, in that you need to build the hull up from flat panels.  The ICM parts fit nicely, and the engineering is good.  This kit has considerably fewer parts and better engineering than the Techmod kit.  On the down side, the hull hatches are molded closed.  These opened inwards on the real tank, which is odd.  One of the kit’s two main errors concerns the front hull armor.  The real Luchs had an angeled armored panel joining the hull floor to the front armor.  The kit has the front armor extending down to the hull floor.  The result is the front is too large and boxy.  The spare tracks help hide this some, but it is not too hard to cut the kit front from the floor and rework the joint before assembly.  Some Luchs tanks had an applique panel of armor added to the front, too, although this still looks different than what the kit gives.

The wheels and tracks fit very nicely.  Aparently the drive sprocket may be a tooth short, as aftermarket tracks come with new sprockets since they don’t fit the kit sprockets well.  The kit track is well detailed, although the wheels are a bit simplified in that the inner paired wheels are molded as one thick wheel.  This is not particularly visible, though.

Some engine grill screens need to be added.  I made mine from nylon mesh and plastic strips.  P-e parts are available, too.  I replaced many of the kit tools with better Tamiya accessories.  The kit tool placement differs from the well known series of photos of a captured Luchs.  It also differs from the Techmod kit...  A star aerial also needs to be added, as none are provided.  Jaguar also sells a resin Luchs detail set.

The kit turret is the second weakness.  Basically, it is about 25% too short.  This makes the jerry can racks and turret number markings look funny.  I bought a MR Models resin correction turret for a second kit project.  Also, the 20mm gun is worthless, so I made a new barrel.  It was easy to make, or you can get a metal replacement barrel from Jordi Rubio, etc.  I replaced the molded kit jerry cans and racks with Academy cans in plastic strip racks.  Simple decals are included for several tanks.

The Luchs kit is sold by itself, or packaged with other ICM figure and cannon sets for a Normandy 1944 diorama or Dnieper River scene.  Basically, it is a reasonable, easy to build model, although general accuracy is a bit off.