¹⁄35

Paper Panzer Half-Track

Exterior and Turret Construction

With the interior finished, the main challenge was getting the hull floor, sides, and roof to all fit together properly. The fit of the floor with the hull sides is the tightest of all the joins and an area where problems are most likely to occur if not careful. Since the instrument panel bulkhead integrates as a former for the front of the compartment, it’s not possible to install the hull sides to the roof and then attach to the floor. To get around this, I installed the left side first to the floor insuring it sat flush and tight to the interior plate and then glued the roof to the left side as an open “C” arrangement. The right hull side was then installed, using the left side and roof to square everything up and get a good alignment. The whole thing was then secured with rubber bands with only some small adjustments with liquid glue required to the front areas to get the required joins.

Once set up, the nose armor plate and the exterior storage bins were fitted along with the front mudguards. The nose plate required some sanding and adjustment with liquid glue to get it to sit in the proper shape and alignment but nothing too major. I used the provided brass width indicators bent to shape using the jig molded on Sprue C and installed them with CA gel. Both storage box units had a slight gap at the cheek plates that required some putty to fill and correct. The muffler/exhaust was also assembled and installed since it’s not possible to do this with the fenders/boxes fitted and the fender tools were left off for detailing and installation post-painting.

The turret construction went very smooth. The assembly of the gun mount provides some very nice detail of the Hangelafette mount and PE items are provided for the ring and blade sights. My PE ring sight wasn’t completely formed so I borrowed the sight originally intended for use with the standard MG34 mount as a replacement. The kit includes a beautiful one-piece turned brass KwK 38 gun barrel with drilled out flash suppressor which is by far superior to the kit supplied styrene item. Some surgery was required to join it up with the styrene gun breech and recoil assembly, but nothing out of the ordinary for this type of thing. I also used the provided PE splinter shield guard in place of the styrene item bent to shape and secured with CA to the styrene gun mount.

The gun mount, when installed into the turret properly, can elevate freely although the interior of the turret ring needed to be sanded just slightly to allow the PE splinter shield to clear smoothly and not catch when fully depressed and then elevated. This made it possible to leave the gun removable for easier painting and detailing, something I took full advantage of. Both a slide-molded MG34 and MG42 with hollow muzzles are provided for the coaxial MG and I chose the MG42 as the more appropriate later war item. An ammo drum marked as “not for use” on the instructions was adjusted to fit the MG42 slot and pressed into service. Last but not least, the kit supplied PE grenade screens were bent and soldered together to provide a strong bond and installed in the open position to show off the interior detail. A test fit of the turret into the hull roof showed it to be very tight and the interior layout doesn’t allow for it to rotate freely, so there’s very little option other than straight ahead for the gun and turret alignment on the finished vehicle.

Tracks

The kit provides two sets of tracks, one “Magic” track that represents the later pattern of track and one standard on-the-sprue set of earlier “skeletal” type with lightening holes. I chose the Magic track set since this would’ve been a later war vehicle if it had been produced. Each link had 2 raised ejector marks that needed to be removed but this was well worth it since the runs can be assembled as workable tracks with a little care when gluing and assembling. Each link has a tight friction fit to the next link, almost a snap fit, and the rubber pad block “traps” the link, allowing it to hinge freely and remain workable. I assembled 2 runs of 54 links as directed by the instructions and discovered that this worked fine for the left side but the right side needed an extra link to fit properly. The track runs were painted with MM Non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal, dry brushed with Steel, then given a wash of Rust followed by a second wash of Burnt Umber. The track pads were then painted with regular enamel Gunmetal to simulate the rubber surfaces and the runs were ready to go.