Recently I got hold of First to Fight's issue #001. (reviewed by Todd MIchalak/TRM5150 here.

I got cracking, and with just a dozen parts, the clean-up and paint is the time consuming bit.

As the TKS with 20mm autocannon didn't have the external machine gun-mount, I didn't use that part.

There's no headlight on the sprue, reference photos show they were often missing (removed or knocked off), so I didn't bother scratch-building one.

Have a look and give me your honest feedback (the only way to learn. )




I'm not really happy with the way the exhaust came out, so I wonder if a dark wash might help. (Removing and repainting completely would be more work, and would possibly harm the details on the back-plate).

Incidentally, I found a photo that can be the starting point fora nice diorama with this kit and a fighter plane, as the Germans used surviving TKS as tractors throughout the war. (The picture is from 1944 in Germany and show a TKS without gun being used as a tug on an airfield, pulling a Bf109G-10)

Something that small has got to be tough to work with, but you did a pretty nice job of it.

Now, since you asked for it, the honest feedback.
1)The paint seems a bit thick in some areas. On this small of scale you might want to thin it down and build up the color in layers. It would help retain smaller details.
2)A dark wash would tone down the exhaust.
3)You have the spare wheel mounted upside down.
4)The tracks need some color to break up the all silver look. Also, you might want to use a small file and remove the mold line in the center of the tracks where it is obvious (around the idler and sprocket).
5)It may be hard to do on a model this small, but a true pin wash of the panel lines would be nice. You want the dark color in the lines to accentuate the panel, not on the surrounding areas.

Hope this helps, and I'll be happy to discuss any of these points further, if you'd like.

I'll remount the spare wheel, it was actually the instructions that was a bit unclear. The tracks look much less shiny in natural light, but I agree on the paint, problem is that with 3 colorlayers of camo it was hard as I had to do it freehand, masking something this small was beyond me.

I thingk a black wash on the exhaust and tracks will do wonders. Thanks for the feedback

Glad to give it. Hopefully some of it will actually help.

Fixed the spare wheel mount, and washed down the exhaust. (wast improvement) Also cleaned up some of the over-spill from the washes, and last but not least, realized that the wheels actually had a rubber ring that usually was not painted (contrary to the illustrations from FtF), so I fixed that with some dark grey.

Something that helped me when I was doing 1:72nd scale was to use very very thinned down paint when im doing cammo schemes, almost to the point of water, then you build up several layers, it helps keep the edges crisp because unless the paint is in a spot with multiple layers, it will just be trasparent, also I always made sure to tape off areas im gonna paint in black, since its such a nocitable color, any irregularities or over flow is pretty noticable, bood build though, tankettes are goofy little things, but still cool