¹⁄35

Luchs SpPz 2

Nicely done and the weathering looks great! I'm surprised how much you can see a resemblance to the Sdkfz/234 series armored cars, especially the Puma. Thanks for posting!

Hello and thanks; The underside of the vehicle is very complicated. Should be vulnerable to mines. Must be hard to do reconnaissance without being detected first with this large vehicle that is also weakly armed. No wonder it was replaced by Fennek. Forgot to mention that the barrel is from Magic Models.

Hi John, First off, great build and weathering! This kit is lurking in my stash; especially that complicated suspension you talked about has not been very motivating, but the pictures of your build might provide an extra push - thanks for posting them. I disagree, though, about what you said about the real vehicle. The Luchs was hardly a failed design (that ‘honor‘ belongs to its predecessor, the Hotchkiss SPz Kurz) - it served in the Bundeswehr for 35 years (1975-2010) before the Fennek replaced it - that’s longer than the M60 in the U.S. Army or the gun tank Centurion in the British army. And while you may be right about its vulnerability to mines, remember that it was a design from a totally different era than our low-intensity conflict and IED-ridden one. It was designed to reconnoiter advancing Warsaw Pact armored formations (so mines wouldn’t have been an issue) and only if necessary directly engage enemy recon vehicles, like the BRDM-2, which it was very capable of destroying. Its engine also ran very quietly, so it was hard to audially detect. The Fennek is much more suited to present-day conflicts, but it was designed with that in mind. Jerry

A great looking model!!! What do you think of the Takom kit? I have built the Revell kit with Eduard photoetch and resin wheels and thought it was decent. Is the Takom kit worth the extra money? (ease of assembly, fit, detail, etc). I would appreciate your opinion.

Hello and thanks; As far as I can see from pictures the Takom kit is better than Revells with finer details. It also includes PE and clear plastic parts for the telescopes. If you want to further enhance the details there is the Voyager PE that is made for the Takom kit, I don´t know it will fit the Revell kit. Some of the PE parts from Voyager are of the same type as in the kit and, in my opinion, not better than those from Takom. As you can see from the filling the fit is not as perfect as a Tamiya kit but ok. I had some minor problem with the complicated underside, maybe I messed it up, but I had to lengthen a couple of steering bars one mm with plastic rod. The barrel is better than Revells, but the offering from Magic Models is better. Sincerely: John

Thank you for the thorough reply. I might be getting a Takom kit at the right price. IMHO Voyager sets have many overengineered parts but can provide some great additions to a kit (especially some of their fender sets are superb)