Bruce Adam

1/35 German PzKpfw.II Ausf.J (VK16.01) Hobby Boss Catalogue # 83803 Available from Creative Models for £24.99 HISTORY The VK 1601 whilst designated as a PzKpfw II was almost a completely new design from what we know as the PzKpfw II. The initial development of this vehicle started in late 1939, and was joint venture between MAN and Daimler Benz. The key features of this vehicle were the heavy armour (up to 80mm think on the front) and the overlapping road wheels that would be a familiar feature on the later Tiger, Panther, and Tiger 2 families. Primary armament was a 20mm cannon as well as a coaxial MG 34 machine gun. With an all up weight of 18 tonnes and power provided by a 150 hp Maybach engine, the top speed was a modest 31 kph, which seems far from ideal for a reconnaissance vehicle. Initial production was delayed and in the end only 22 vehicles were produced under the designation PzKpfw II Ausf J, and some of these reportedly saw action on the Eastern front, THE KIT Hobby Boss has to be congratulated for continuing to fill the gaps in WWII armoured vehicles and this is no exception. The VK1601 is an interesting vehicle, and is very reminiscent of a small scale Tiger 1 with wide tracks and thick armour. The kit comes in a sturdy two piece box with nice artwork of a VK 1601 ambling through eastern Europe. The kit itself is presented on 12 sprues plus a small photoetch fret, decals for a single vehicle, clear film for the periscopes, and a length of string for the tow cable. The total styrene parts count is 260 of which 74 are the link and length tracks, so this should be a reasonably quick build. SPRUE A (x2) This sprue comprises the suspension, drive, idler, and road wheels as well as the housings for the front mounted drive wheels. Moulding is very clean with zero flash. There are quite large "knock off nodes" on some of the smaller parts but there are zero sink marks as a result. The inner and outer road wheels feature very nice fluted rims as shown below. SPRUE B (x2) Sprue B is a small duplicate sprue made up of 4 of the 8 suspension arms, the prominent circular hatches on the side of the hull, as well as the periscopes, lights, u-bolts, and the end for the tow cable. The latter are slide moulded and just require the supplied string to be slid into the open ends. The lenses for the front lights are simply discs of tan plastic and should be replaced with aftermarket clear lenses such as MV or the like. SPRUE C The dominant feature of this sprue are the four fenders that seem far too large for such a small vehicle. As with the rest of this kit the moulding is very clean with zero flash. SPRUE D This sprue comprises all of the parts that make up the turret. The turret itself is split horizontally and features very subtle weld details on the plate joints. There are two different one-piece slide moulded barrels for the 20mm main gun. There are some excellent photos of an operational vehicle in http://planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6532 . These photos seem to suggest using the shorter barrel. The barrels in the kit are pretty nice and do not scream out for a metal replacement. SPRUE E This small sprue is made up of the jack and hold down clamps, jack block, tool box and a track removing lever. The woodgrain on the jack block is a bit heavy, but will be fine under a coat of paint. The ends of the block are perfectly smooth so you might consider roughing these up a bit. SPRUE F This comprises the remainder of the on vehicle tools. There are no hold-down clasps, but these could be easily raided from any number of aftermarket sets. UPPER AND LOWER HULLS As with many other Hobby Boss armour kits, the upper and lower hulls are moulded separately and are packed in separate plastic bags. As can be seen from the following photos the fit of these two parts straight out of the box is very good. Please note however, the join of these two parts at the front must be eliminated as it does not correspond with any joint in the actual armour. My advice would be to glue, fill, and sand these two parts early on in the assembly process, and certainly before gluing parts C14 and C13 in Step 2. SPRUE R (2x) These two sprues contain the large link and length tracks. Whilst moulded very cleanly there are some accuracy issues when I compare them to published photos of the actual vehicle. The first of these is the pins that secure one track to another. In Spielberger's Motorbuch Verlag book on the Panzer 1 and 2 families, these pins are quite visible on the picture on page 109. The tracks in the kit however, do not have any representation of these pins whatsoever. The second issue I have is with the pattern on the face of the tracks, they look different to the photos I have seen. Lastly the surrounds of the hollow guide horns do not look quite as fine as those shown in reference photos however, they are 1000% better than having solid guide horns. OVERALL ASSESSMENT Apart from the aforementioned concerns with the tracks this all looks very nice and should look excellent once built up. PHOTOETCH STRING AND CLEAR PARTS. There is a single small photoetch fret with 49 parts. These are all very cleanly etched with nice fold lines for the fender supports. The sheet itself is quite thick which I prefer especially for structural elements like the fender supports. There is also a length of string to represent the tow cable. This is fluffy and fat and no use whatsoever and should be replaced with some brass cable or decent "non-fluffy" string. Two of the three clear parts are used to provide the glass for the two large armoured visors in the front of the upper hull. DECALS The small white decal sheet provides a single marking option. The unit depicted is not mentioned in the marking and painting guide, but does match reference photos. I can only assume that the vehicle is part of the 12th Panzer Division as this is mentioned as the operational unit for this tank on the box. The decals themselves are thin and glossy and look to be very usable. Do not be concerned that the decal sheet is labelled 1/72 this is a simply a "typo". INSTRUCTIONS The instruction booklet provides the nine steps required to complete this model. The first page is a part map with numbers clearly visible. The assembly instructions are large and very clear. Finally there is a separate full colour page with a five view illustration of the final colour scheme and decal placement. With only five decals to apply, this will be a quick process. The paint references are for Gunze, Vallejo, Model Master, Tamiya, and Humbrol. Note if you want something a little more colourful, check the reference photos as there were certainly some camouflaged schemes as well as overall grey. Conclusion Despite the track issues I really like this model. The subject is an interesting vehicle that has a really unique look to it. The closest thing I can equate it to is a little Tiger 1. The moulding is excellent and it should be a quick build. Very highly recommended. Bruce A Our sincere thanks to Creative Models Ltd for the review sample used here. To purchase directly, click link. POSTSCRIPT Once consequence of a relatively poor start to the New Zealand summer is that I have been able to assemble the bulk of this interesting little tank. The following photos show the results. In order to simplify painting I have left off the tracks and outer road wheels as well as the machine gun and a couple of the pioneer tools. The fit of this kit is simply outstanding, with almost zero trimming and no filler. The road wheels require a bit of cleanup to get rid of the mould seam, but really that is it. This is right up there with the very best. What you see is around 10 hours work, for someone who not a fast modeller. My initial impressions of this as being a very nice little model were right on the money and this deserves to be a popular subject for armour modellers.

1/35 French FT-17 Light Tank (Cast Turret) Meng Catalogue # TS-008 Available from Hobby Link Japan for 5,760¥ Whilst Meng call this the FT-17 Tank, this vehicle is more accurately referred to as the French FT tank. Whilst not exactly a spectacular vehicle it does have some very prominent "claims to fame". It was the first production tank to feature the general layout that we are so familiar with today namely, main armament in a rotating turret, driver in the front hull, and rear mounted engine. With upwards of 3000 of these light tanks produced this was the first volume produced tank and ended up serving with 27 different nations. Initially produced late in the First World War, these reliable, versatile vehicles served right through to the Second World War, albeit not in anything like front-line roles. Personally I love these early AFVs. They have a certain "riveting" charm, and quirkness that is really appealing. With almost a penny-farthing like wheel arrangement, slender hull, and exterior track and wheels this is a real character. Given its light weight and large track area, I suspect soft ground was not an issue for these beauties. Meng's FT-17 comes packaged in a small but beautifully presented top-opening box. The box art is very nice with the lid having a nice matte finish that is reminiscent of Wingnut Wings. The sides of the lid have side profiles of two of four colour schemes as well as a cutaway side profile showing the comprehensive interior that is provided with the kit. Despite its diminutive size, Meng's FT-17 packs a lot of detail. The styrene components are provided on 10 tan sprues, all of which are individually wrapped apart from two that are duplicated. There is also a small photoetch fret, small decal sheet, a separate bag of individual track links, plus eight metal parts. The total parts count is 432, so this is not going to be a quick build, unless you decide to close up the lovely interior. SPRUE A The first sprue contains the hull sides, forward floor, turret base, pioneer tools and several hatches and covers. The hull sides each have three small pin marks on their inner face, but these are either covered with other parts or in positions that simply cannot be seen. As with all the other parts there is zero flash and the finest of mould seams. Moulding looks very nice and the sprue attachment points are small. This is looking very positive! The following two photos show the hull sides and the forward inner floor. SPRUE B This contains the base of the hull, the unhitching frame, some of the turret interior including the main gun breech, plus several of the hatches in the hull. The moulding on the latter is especially noteworthy as they have no marks whatsoever on them to spoil the cleanly moulded internal detail. They are obviously designed for either open or closed hatches without the need for the modeller to remove those annoying ejector pin marks. SPRUE C This sprue is primarily comprised of the long covers over the road wheel assemblies plus the accessory Hotchkiss machine gun (if it is not used as the armament). Nine of the parts are slide moulded and all the parts are very clean. The two outer panels for the road wheel assemblies feature the cast Renault oval plate. These are perfectly cast and legible under magnification. These have to be seen to be believed they are tiny! SPRUE D (2x) This sprue contains the two types of idler wheels (metal and wood), the rear drive wheels, plus mounting plates for the road wheels, and several other parts. The wooden idler wheels have the woodgrain moulded onto them and look fine. Once again both the idler and drive wheels are devoid of any ejector pin marks. SPRUE E (2x) These two sprues carry the road wheels, the return rollers, and the forward supports for the return roller frames. This whole sprue is produced via slide moulds which allows both the road wheels and return rollers to be accurately moulded as single parts despite being quite complex in shape. The attachment points for the parts on the sprues are cleverly placed on the rear raised ring of the wheels which makes cleanup both quick and simple. This is shown in the photo below. SPRUE F This sprue is primarily concerned with the very nicely detailed transmission and engine sub-assemblies. Once again everything is beautifully done right down to a separate part for the eight individual valve springs for the four cylinder side-valve motor. A little bit of wiring for the spark plug leads and the engine and transmission compartment will be complete. With close to sixty parts, this is one area that you do not want to cover up! Also included in this sprue are the ammunition racks for the 37mm main gun. Note there are different main gun and ammunition racks options depending upon which scheme you decide upon so be careful. SPRUE G This contains the machine gun ammunition racks, the individual rounds of 37mm ammunition for the turret ammunition rack plus some additional motor and transmission parts. There are ejector nodes on some of the smaller parts that will require some care to remove to avoid damaging the parts. However, nothing that a sharp blade could not handle. SPRUE J This contains most of the turret parts including the very clever one-piece turret. The sprue itself looks odd, with the small turret in the middle of what looks like a big empty space. This however, has been designed this way to allow the turret to be produced by slide moulds. The moulding is superb with clean rivets and even the casting marks for the casting foundry. There is a faint seam just below the top of the turret. This is the casting seam and should not be removed. The base of the turret is a separate piece and the join with the upper turret coincides with another casting seam. This is smart modelling. OVERALL ASSESSMENT Absolutely fantastic with clever engineering and exceptionally clean moulding. Zero flash, small attachment points to the sprues, and smart use of slide moulding as already mentioned. It is obvious that Meng understand what modellers want and don't want. Small features like having all the hatches that can be portrayed open being devoid of any ejector pin marks is testament to that. This is "State of the Art" in every sense. PHOTOETCH The small fret comprises 10 parts. Four are straps for the pioneer tools, one engine louver, a large sling that the gunner sits on in the turret, plus four identical parts that I cannot see any reference to in the instructions. That however, is not conclusive evidence that they are not there! TRACK LINKS The individual track links come in a separate bag and are ready to use apart from a very small extrusion mark on the outside face of each link. Some of these marks are raised and can easily be removed with 600 grade sandpaper, but some are sunken and will require filling and sanding. Looking at reference photos I cannot see this mark on any actual vehicle however, in saying that, the FT-17 at Bovington does display a similar positioned mark on some of its tracks. You could sort them and put the "worst" ones on the bottom. Please bear in mind there are only 32 links per side so despite being a small vehicle, the tracks are reasonably large and there are not many of them. Once this mark has been removed, the tracks simply click into each other and are both fully workable and robust. The track links themselves are slide moulded and the detail is simply stunning. The larger Takom FT-17 uses 3 parts per link, but Meng only uses a single part to achieve the same result. To my eye the thickness of the face of the track looks right. DECALS The small decal sheet is printed by Cartograph so the decals themselves are thin and sharp. The decals have a matt finish rather than the more typical gloss. Schemes are provided for four different vehicles: French 4th Platoon, 1st Company, 29th Tank Battalion, May 1940. French 1st Company, 2nd battalion, "Le Tigre" Regiment during WW1. Finnish 2nd Tank Company, February 1940. German Luftwaffe in France summer 1944. Full colour side profiles are provided for all the schemes with colour references only for Vallejo paints provided. Full side views as well as plan views of the multicolour schemes would have been helpful. All four schemes are interesting, but the WWI French and WW2 Finnish schemes are especially attractive. METAL PARTS There are eight additional metal parts comprising two large and two small springs for the suspension, two metal axles for the return rollers, and two cast white metal struts for the large suspension springs. The latter are perfectly cast. INSTRUCTIONS This takes the form of a 20 plus page booklet. There is a reasonably detailed history of the vehicle in English, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. Assembly itself is covered in 23 steps each being clear and well laid out. Finally there is a numbered sprue map followed by full colour side profiles of the four schemes. The colours are described in the four languages and whilst a tiny "colour chip" is provided the only paint references are for Vallejo. Conclusion Having already purchased Meng's big Tortoise tank, I was expecting the same quality with the FT-17. But this is not the case, the FT-17 is significantly better! It is absolutely stunning and close to modelling perfection. In my mind this is a competition winner straight out of the box. I cannot wait to see if it goes together as good as it looks. VERY highly recommended Bruce A Our sincere thanks to Hobby Link Japan for the review sample used here. To purchase directly, click THIS link.