This is the reveal post for the Dragon 1/35 Sd.Kfz.265 Kleiner Pz.Bef.Wg.1 Initial Production Panzer 1 Command Tank. At the bottom of the page is the full video build for this tank.

This is an unusual release for Dragon and gives us a chance to model the version of command tank that was supplied to the nationalists as part of the German Tank Corps. I have built this kit out of the box and it gives a good representation of the tank however if you were trying to accurately replicate the four that were sent to Spain then the ball mounted machine gun should be removed and replaced with a recessed machine gun mount seen in the reference picture below.



It is also worth mentioning that almost all examples of the Panzer 1 in Spain have the front fenders removed.

This was a very enjoyable build and I would highly recommend this kit, I plan to revisit this kit with a more ‘Super Detailed’ build at a later date to try and modify another one of these kits to better represent the Spanish examples.

Champ;

VERY COOL!

It's a neat subject done in an interesting period... The "Kleiner" which went to Spain did, as you noted, lack the "ball mount" - and may have gone to Spain with a blanking plate bolted over that portal. The original trials vehicles actually had a celluloid or similar "plastic" window mounted there - as the MG-34 was in short supply and not yet available for installation, and the ball-mount was still under final development.

I would guess that the Spanish removed the blanking plate and replaced it with some ad-hoc inside pintel-mount and whatever gun was available (as seen in your posted pic), along with some sort of "weather seal" - maybe a flap of leather or canvas?

I would note that you may have "missed" by painting the roof hatch covers green inside... The German convention was to use the interior "elfinbein" off-white .... right up until Poland taught them that white hatch-interiors provided fine targets for the other side! After which point, hatch interiors were painted the external base color.

All-up, looks quite neat and interesting paint-job! I've had this little doobie in my stash for a bit and still plan on doing it up as a first-gen trials vehicle. Way to go!

Cheers! Bob

very nice job.