SPA Modeler

This is Tamiya’s 1/35 scale Classic 1970s vintage kit of the German light armored car. This issue of the kit included photo etch grenade screens for the turret and a metal barrel for the 20mm main gun. I modified my kit to be an early phase 2nd batch vehicle with no armored cover over the radiator slats, but still having the additional plates over the hubs. I also left off some brackets on the front fenders, added another shovel, and moved the jack, all based upon some photos that I found. I did the car as when the 5th Light Division (which later became the 21st Panzer Division) first arrived in Libya as the beginnings of the Deutsches Afrika Korps in February 1941. The vehicles arrived in Dark Gray, and still wore their old 3rd Panzer Division markings, as the nucleus of the 5th Light was taken from 3rd Panzer. Once in Africa, the crews quickly made up a mud slurry to apply to the external surfaces of their vehicles to better blend with the local terrain, until appropriate camouflage paint was developed and issued to the troops.... anyways, here is the finished vehicle and little base... I still need to paint up a figure or two for the crew.

















Thanks for looking, comments and critiques are welcome...

She really looks the part Stick, so are you going to save the crew for another kit?

Thank you kind sirs!

Floki wrote:She really looks the part Stick, so are you going to save the crew for another kit?

No, a vehicle needs a crew. I will put at least one with this. I’ll be working on them next. Once completed to my satisfaction, I’ll add them and get some more photos.

speedgraflex wrote:BRAVO! Fantastic! Beautiful photography, too!

Thank you Bruce. I’m working on my photo efforts. Presentation is a huge thing.

It look fantastic Stik !

So good!

I almost would want to clean and whipe off that sandy dust from it, so real it looks.


- Kari

That looks superb Carlos – I think you’ve nailed the look of that vehicle completely, and I really like you’ve done something different with finish rather than just the normal desert colors. I also like the modifications you’ve made to the stowage – that really works.
An all around great bit of work sir!

The only critiques I could make is that your rear cross seems a tad lopsided (might just be me & apologies if that sound pedantic) and I don’t know if you’re going to mount it on that base permanently – but if so it would be great to see some tyre tracks to really make the car blend into the base (which is awesome by the way).

Cheers!

KSaarni wrote:It look fantastic Stik !

So good!

I almost would want to clean and whipe off that sandy dust from it, so real it looks.


- Kari

Thank you Kari. The Tamiya weathering medium that I used just nailed the look. It does indeed make you want to clean it after it’s all done.... but no!,,

portman wrote:That looks superb Carlos – I think you’ve nailed the look of that vehicle completely, and I really like you’ve done something different with finish rather than just the normal desert colors. I also like the modifications you’ve made to the stowage – that really works.
An all around great bit of work sir!

The only critiques I could make is that your rear cross seems a tad lopsided (might just be me & apologies if that sound pedantic) and I don’t know if you’re going to mount it on that base permanently – but if so it would be great to see some tyre tracks to really make the car blend into the base (which is awesome by the way).

Cheers!

Thank you Stuart. Yeah, I did notice that the rear cross was off by just a tad... after it had all snuggled down with Solvaset and I could not do a damn thing about it... Ah well. Next time.

I won’t be mounting it permanently on the base, but I’ll see what I can do with the base to fine tune it. The basic material is a sand version of the stuff for model railroads and such, so there is not much that I can do with it as far as the impressions into the surface to truly replicate tire tracks. But the base will evolve a bit more. I need to blend in the rocks some...

Thank you my friend!

Nice Stick - really like the dirt wash. I made a mess of this kit a few years ago when I was attempting a couple armor builds. Hence, I stick to winged things