Hi guys.
My first post on this vBench. I am quite happy to be here along with such a bunch of great modellers.
Anyway here's my latest project.
A Panzer II Ausf B from D.A.K., in fact the regiment doctor's tank with the code "RA".Here it is :
It is a tank from the 5° Leichte Panzer Division, seen during the first weeks of the war in Lybia. In fact it was lost on April 14, 1941 and captured by the Brits.
I first bought the Dragon kit and then I saw my "RA" was in fact an Ausf B so I needed to buy the Tamiya kit, not only because of the smoke grenade launcher that was missing in the Dragon kit, but alos because I needed the optionnal vision blocks armour, typical of an Ausf B, that were in the Tamiya box.
According to T Jentz this is the only visible difference betwenn an Ausf B and an Ausf C. We've got to trust him, don't we ?
Beeing from the Panzer Regiment 5, formerly of the 3rd Panzer Division, this babe has a few typical features that needed to be reproduced.
As a matter of fact, every Pz II from Pz Rgt 5 was modified with an extra armour plate on the gun mantlet. Please note that only tanks from this Regiment were modified this way, in no case the Pz II from the pz Rgt 8 (15° Pz Div) were modified this way.
It also had the smoke grenade launcher on the rear that some of you may have heard of.
It was also painted dunkelgrau when it arrived in Tripoli and then only hastily painted with thin patches of Gelbbraun and this is what's exciting me. Not sure I'll be able to reproduce that I must say.
Here are the first pics of the model. It is already an Ausf B as you can see from the grey Tamiya vision blocks armour. The Ausf C also has four bolts around its vision blocks that need to be sanded. I still have to work on the added armor as it doesn't really look as it should, beeing a single piece of metal on the real tanks and it lacks the drilled hole for the gunsight.
All comments and advice most welcome.
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