Hi All,

I have just about finished the superstructure and after this update I will begin to start priming the tank before I start on the final construction phase the turret.

Before the construction images I think that it may be worth spending a few moments talking about what version of the Panzer 1a I am depicting.

Please note this is now edited due to a discussion that I will have with Rolf !

I am depicting my Panzer 1a as a tank which took part in the Invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941

My Panzer 1 underwent some modifications during its early service life such as a large wire cutter and brake light being added in late 1936. The most significant modification to the tank too place in late 1937 early 1938 when a field conversion was undertaken to add rear armour to the vehicle's air intake along with a NKAV smoke candle rack to the rear of the tank. The vehicle is also equiped with a Notek hooded headlight which was fitted after the Battle of France

I have reproduced two images below from Panzer Tracts to illustrate the late model Panzer 1:





And my latest pictures:







Thanks for looking

Steven

FANTASTIC job on the rear deck Steven!

I hope that you are going to leave all of the hatches open on your Pz I, you're work is way too good to hide.

Hi Steven,

I agree with Jeremy. it would be ashame to hide all that fine detail. if you choose to do the polish Pz will you do gray with redbrown camo or solid gray?
looking great man!

Gary

Thanks for the comments Von Hengest, Gary,

I am not planning to glue the superstructure to the tank and the Turret and Main Hatch will be fully operational, so that will show off the detail.

Gary I dont really like the red brown Panzer 1 camo, to be honest so it will probably be Panzer Gray

Thanks

Steven

Hello everyone,

Sorry that its been a few days since the last post but I wanted to show you some real progress.

The first picture shows the fully primed tank, and it does look quite good if I do say so myself. I used Tamyia metal primer.



I have begun work on the turret and it has been very complex to construct and solder.







There are one or two gaps which I shall fill with milliput when the soldering is complete

Final picture shows the turret on the tank.



Thanks for looking

Steven

Hello Steven,your work so far is breathtaking.
I have one question for you.
What do you think about Aber sets?
Are they better from eduard or voyager's ones?

Kind regards,Sven.

Thanks for the comments Sven,

To be honest I have only used Aber PO, although I have a Griffon Bonus Super Mega set or what ever they call it for the Grille waiting for my Panzer 1 to be completed.

I really like Aber and find their PO first rate.

Thanks

Steven

Hi All,

Another progress update on the turret. I have another exam in Mid July so hopefully this tank will be completed long before I have to stop work for revision.

As you saw in the last photo update the structural work on the turret is largely completed, so it's time to begin some more detailed work. I started off with the vision ports, there are four in the panzer 1 turret; almost as many as in the hull. You can definately tell this was intended as a training vehicle as the driver and commander would not be well served by so many vision slits in the tank.



The first picture is of a vision slit. The rear right to be precise.

The next few pictures illustrate the turret in its current build. I have added all the windows, thecommander's head rest and several switches and levers as well as another ammunition store. Say what you like about the panzer 1, but the Germans thoroughly packed her with ammunition!!!





I have gone away from the Aber instructions slightly and detached the front armour of the turret and soldered it to the turret. This was originally meant to be part of the roof super structure, but it just didn't make sense to me soldering it on with the rest of the roof because it would have been a lot more difficult to attach at that stage.







The last three photos are detailed shots of the interior of the turret.

Thanks for looking,

Steven

PS: I have begun using an Irada solderpro 120. It is greatly superior to the solderpro 70 which I was using previously.

Hi All,

A quick update on my progress,

I have been working on the turret roof, there are still some minor gaps between it and the turret but its getting there:





I would also like to introduce you to the business end of the Panzer 1, the short barrelled version of the 7.92mm MG 13. Back in the early years of ww2 this fearsome weapon struck fear into allied tankers...........well not really

The gun was a development of a Dreyse WW1 water cooled machine gun and entered service in the German Army in 1932. Made obsolete by the MG34 large numbers were sold to Portugal before the gun was withdrawn from service in 1938, although some did see service with the Volksturm in 1945 and of course in the Panzer 1



I have added the Dragon 25 round magazine because the ABER magazine was just awful

Thanks for looking

Steven, first let me say that you are doing a fantastic job on this project. Well done. Having said that there are a couple of detail issues I feel I need to bring up. First you said that you were representing one of the first 300 built Panzer IA (series 2 FYI). You even mention that these were the only ones that had the right rear vision port. Problem is your model doesn't have this vision port. Next are minor details but the Notek light was a post France feature. So that limits your Pz I to the Balkans, early Barbarossa and North Africa. On 2 series vehicles, only the first road wheel was the reinforced type all the others were unreinforced. Also the bogie spring on the first station was a different type on the 2 series vehicles. Now all of these things could have been changed/updated on the vehicle through the years but you cannot change the vision port and the notek. Those are definates. So it looks like you have a 3 or 4 series vehicle in the summer of 1940 to summer 1941 time frame. I see you have the Jentz PT book. It's all in there. Again you are doing a great job on this kit and the work you are doing with those ABER sets is fantastic. I have all those sets but have not put them to use as you have. Great Job.

Roy

Hi Rolf,

Thanks for the comments they are appreciated.

I have looked at the Panzer 1 book again and you are correct, the vision port is not present, I assumed incorrectly that the book was refering to the rear vision port but now I see that I should have studied the images more closely but that does not matter much now. I read the book when I started the project but that was in September 2010, many months and exams ago

Your comments about the date of the Panzer 1 are interesting, and I will take note. I was thinking about depicting a tank from the Battle of France, but a tank from the early stages of the Invasion of the Soviet Union is perfectly acceptable.

I have just purchased a Dragon Flakpanzer 1 and plan to buy Lionroar and ABER update kits and was thinking of creating some kind of diorama with them both.

I have edited my previous posts to highlight the change to the depiction of the tank with reference to the comments above

Thanks

Steven

PS you should really begin work on your Panzer 1, the ABER kit is a joy to build. I have just been watching a great documentary about the Panzer 1 and 2 link posted below, might just inspire you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avIJp1pr_dQ&feature=watch_response_rev

Hi All,

Quick update tonight since its very hot here in London 33c, apparently as hot as some desert areas

Anyway on with the build.

My focus over the last few days has been the turret roof and commanders hatch and I am pleased to say that it is almost there. There are a few more things that I need to tidy up on the turret before I build the guns and the commanders seat but I would say that the turret is about 95% completed









Soldering was not really a problem and the turret roof went on suprisingly easily

Thanks for looking

Steven

Hi All,

Work has been progressing on the Panzer 1 and I have almost completed the turret. The only major component being the commanders/gunners chair and some wiring. Then priming and painting. I have been thinking about a DAK scheme as well as the Russian Front option.





The first pictures show the turret with the Tristar vision ports superglued on. I chose to use them because they match the ones in the hull.





The next few pictures show the inside of the turret, I have added some ABER resin parts and all I have to do to finish off this section is add some wires to the rear vision ports





The next pics show the twin machine guns of the Panzer 1 inplace in the turret mountings. I have added the Dragon telescopic site to the kit because I thought the detail to be superior to the Tristar and ABER offerings. I have primed it and will paint it prior to it going into the turret.

Unfortunately I have to start to revise for my next exam (on the thrilling topic of Strategic Management), which is on the 19th July so the next update may be a little time, but I have not abandoned the project ! My next and final exam is in November so plenty of time to finish this off.

Thanks for looking

S

Hi All,

I have managed to prime the turret, but in my haste I forgot to do a few minor additions not in the Aber kit like grab handles in the turret, but no problem I will add them later.







The next images show the Commanders chair, it is a true multimedia kit being made from lead, brass and resin ! The Aber instructions tell you to use brass for the seat and backrest but that would have been way to hard, so I decided to use lead instead. The chain only took about three hours to make, it literally fell together.





Thanks for looking

Steven

Ps I am having a really hard time deciding between Russia and North Africa for this tank, what you you guys think?

God, imagine the difficulties. This is the real model.
Thanks again

Greetings
Blackwater

Hi Steven,

holycow! that is amazing work steven. the comanders chair is brilliant! this kind of work inspires and pushes me to improve my skills. as far as your camo choise, what theater of war do you favor...N-Africa or E-Europe? i like both for different reasons. im a Rommel fan, but the russian front with the huge tank battles and visious combat catches my imagination a bit more. thanks again for shareing.

Gary

Excellent WIP my friend!

Regards,
Rodolfo

Hi All,

Thanks for the comments Blackwater, Gary and Rodolfo. Nearly up to 30,000 views of this thread

I have been making more progress on the tank, my exam is on Tuesday but I have been managing to put in a few hours here and there. The build is almost completed and very soon I am going to have to decide how I am going to paint her.



The turret is now completed, although the primer is showing signs of wear and tear.



Getting the Guns installed proved to be really difficult and I was considering converting the Tristar components (I ruled out the Dragon components because they were about 2mm too small !)



I left one of the gun ports open. If the telescopic sight failed for what ever reason this section of the turret would have to be opened for the Commander to fire the machine guns as this is where the emergency bar site is located. going into combat in this death trap in 1941 would have been frightning, going into combat with the machine gun port open would have been just been sucidal.



This is a top view if the turret with the commanders hatch open



The last image is of the turret out of the tank. I will provide better images in the next update. getting clear images of the inside of the turret proved difficilt, I will have to try over the comming days, but I wanted to post my progress. The chair is painted and installed as you can see, the turret interior is white and the vision ports are painted black like the hull interior.

The build section of the project is almost 100% completed, just a few bolt heads to add here and there. So I have to decide on North Africa or Russia really soon ...............................

Thanks for Looking

Steven

Russia would be good, you could even have a diorama with a Panzer IA Munition carrier

Ah, I like the idea Pothead. But I have a problem. I have reviewed the instructions for the tristar and dragon kits and both kits have decals for Poland or France, but no Russia. Only Tristar has one DAK

I have a Dragon Panzer II Ausf c in my collection, could I borrow a set of decals do you think? Or should I use one from the Battle of France, would they have painted the tank since 1940?

I am a bit stuck

Hi all,

Quick update tonight, I have decided on a Russian Front paint scheme and have added some decals and a little paint.



I have depicted this tank as a member of the 14th Panzer Division, Panzer Group One, Army Group South.

As you can see I have provided some weathering, although the tank is not yet completed I thought I would show you some progress.

Full update to follow shortly

Thanks

Steven

Hi Steven,

Thanks for the sneak peek! Looking great. i love the color and weathering so far. im excited to see more!

Gary

Thanks for the comment Gary,

Another quick update tonight, work has been progressing and I have added one or two more parts to the tank including the shovel, spare wheel, and the exhaust covers.

The weathering is still a little rough in places so I will sort this out for the next and probably final update of this little Panzer 1a



Thanks for looking

Steven

Hi Everyone,

I am pleased to say that I have finished my Panzer 1. It's been a long old slog and taken nearly twelve months to finish.

I think for this final update, I will mainly let my pictures do the talking.









As you can see, I have added a bucket. I have no idea what they would have used the bucket for but they were seemingly popular amongst tank crewmen. I am depicting my Panzer 1 as a member of the fourteenth Panzer Division, approaching the end of 1941. So, this little girl would've seen some action!!











In the previous picture you can see that I have given the tank commander a pair of binoculars and a luger.



You can see in the last photo that I have provided the driver with an army steel helmet and an MP40. You can also see in this picture the Fu-2 radio. I know that many of you might be thinking that tank crewmen would not be assigned steel helmets or MP40s, but I figured that by late 1941 there would be plenty lying around!







The last two pictures illustrate the internal view of the tank without the hull superstructure. I have added two field ration tins, two water bottles, and a few extra magazines for the MP40.









I hope you like my Panzer 1 and have enjoyed this thread. Please let me know.

Thanks for looking,

Steven

PS: My next tank is going to be either a Flakpanzer 1 with lots of Lionroar and Aber PE, or a Panzer 2 Ausf B. And again I will do a build log of the model I decide to build.

Great model, Steven. I also have Flakpanzer I with Lionroar PE upgrade in plans