SPA Modeler

Good thought. I looked at some Dragon Panzer fender PE for sale on eBay. I decided to get the kit because it was cheaper.

Not a separate piece: an overlay. Stamped metal sections welded to sides.

The fenders are stamped metal with the anti slip grid stamped in. The are bolted to that strip welded on to the hull sides.

R e d e m p t i o n

Carlos,

Thanks.

After botching the job of the fender—





Turret had prominent welds between top and bottom plates; kit had gaps. I filled those and I will add the weld beads after my putty job cures.

Those will be easy to add. You’re doing just fine.

As far as the fender goes. You can always hide the botching with stowage item(s)
(old school armor builder tricks to conceal errors- mud & stowage)

speedgraflex wrote:

Outstanding Bruce!

- Kari

Looking good! I like the added metal barrel

Big Gaps Bother Me and I Will Remove Em

First—thank you, Carlos for a great suggestion! That makes a lot of sense. I am going to use the second kit to fix my mistake. Live, learn, model on! I’m getting close on the box car project, so I will be able to devote more time to this one.

Kari and Clint—you’re the best. Thank you for following and encouraging me.

We are all familiar with the welding term “Stack or Stacking dimes,” but looks like many Panza II turrets had these big bad welded seams that were ground smooth. Almost all. Look at this one.



Any hoo I am doing a smoothed weld bead thinking even though this tank was built later than 1940 and in Poland (quality control?), this is not a stack of dimes weld bead. First, I rolled Milliput Silver Grey (all those years tobacco rolling came in handy) and gently pressed the appropriate length over each gap. I already back filled the gaps to facilitate this.



Now you will note right away that the beads are too beefy; out of scale. I did that to give myself room to shape the beads to the surfaces. And that is where I am before sanding:



I think for the moment I can live with this. Very much so.

Actually a Panzer II ausf. F is going to be 1941/42 production. That variant was designed and produced post Battle of France with combat lessons learned added- thicker frontal armor, revised TC hatch with surrounding periscopes, single front armor piece, etc.
The F saw action in the Balkans, North Africa, and the Eastern Front from spring 1941 onwards.

Oops I typoed—See above I wrote “later than 1940!” Thank you for correcting me regardless!!! And thank you for your detailed reply. According to the scheme and decals by Peddinghaus, this was a Ghost Division Command (Commander’s?) tank sent to Russia in 1941.