...The Rape of Nanking.

This kit really needs to be modified to be able to build it as anythin' else like a DAK vehicle or the version that served in Norway. It seems that Dragon were a little betwixt and between with this kit. Anyway, it's all there on the PMMS site, in the full review of this kit.

What this version of a Pz.Kpfw. 1 will build into, is a very nice hard-edged camouflaged little number, 15 of which were given to the Chinese army in defence against the Japanese. It didn't do too well, all 15 were destroyed!

I have a set of Bison Decals on order, which are totally accurate and will serve this project very well! Here's a link on what i'm talkin' about: http://www.angelfire.com/pro/bison/35016.html

Hi Paul,
After your recently finished 222, I look forward to seeing what you do with this one. It will be interesting to see a German vehicle being used in a very different theater.

John

John, that's what I thought too. It makes for an interestin' build.

I have this onboard for the build. I think it will transfer over to the Dragon kit superbly, even though its for the Tristar kit! I haven't seen any etched sets out for the new Dragon kit yet, so this will have to do!

Some thoughts:

-Camouflage or not?

I have looked at these images in Photoshop, tweaking the contrast etc., and I cannot see any hard edged camo, it looks to be a single color. Also, I have read that they were delivered to the Chinese Nationalists in Schwarzgrau!
Now then, the question is whether the Nationalists repainted their Pz I's in Dark Green or left it in the Schwarzgrau colour they had been delivered in.

Whilst it's possible that the dust and dirt obscured the camo' on the hull, you can see that there is no indication of any hard edged camo' on the mantlet front whatsoever!

-Dark green or Schwarzgrau?

Did the Nationalist forces have time to repaint the Pz I's in the standard dark green color for Chinese tanks? The Pz I's were put into action with the 3rd Armored Battalion in Nanking from August to November 1937, but I do not have information on when they were received by the Nationalist forces.
In looking at the front of the mantlet and the undercut of the turret front, you can tell that the color is quite dark. These are areas where there will be less dust and dirt. If I had to speculate, I would lean towards a Schwarzgrau vehicle rather than a Dark Green one.

-Vehicle numbers!

Interesting to note that the vehicle numbers are of different sizes. Either the "1" is too big or the "3" is too small. The '1' could even be a dash and not a number at all. The "3" seems to be inverted - the top of the number is fatter than the bottom. Could this be a result in rushing the Panzers into action hence no time to repaint?
Also, why is this the only numbered vehicle in the column?

And yes, it looks like all the Chinese tankers ran away and abandoned the Panzers! Those are Japanese troops in the pictures!!







These pics show that some, if not all these tanks were captured and not destroyed, as what I had read in an aticle concernin' this war!

Information and pictures are courtesy of Lawrence Quah.

Interesting project, nice photos, thanks.

I've started to assemble the runnin' gear, but the rail has not been stuck down yet, i jus' wanted to see how it all looked mocked up together. To me this is one of the attractions of a Pz 1, it looks busy and beautiful!

I've checked out the Aber PE parts that are called out for the runnin' gear, and to my amazement Dragon have already moulded these parts into the pieces, and made the Aber set almost redundant in this area. Superb! Also, the moulded pieces are on a par with the PE! I cannot believe it!

Watch out for the barrel distortion in my pics!

I've put together some elements of the tub chassis, but the runnin' gear will have to be left off and painted independently, 'cos of the black wheel trim on the wheels. I'd sooner detail paint these in my hand rather than on the chassis!



The rear end has a lot of individual parts to maximise the detail.



The upper hull assembly is nearly finished, complete with all those clear parts for the visors! The sides, rear and front panels are all individual pieces complete with some nice, very thin weld seams. Even though the fit of parts are excellent, the final assembly still needed some liquid putty work, to make everythin' look uniform and part of each other. Bein' very careful around the weld seams when sandin'! To have a weld seam then a gap around the roof panel however thin, would not look good!



Clear parts for the visors have been assembled on and inside the turret!





Here is the inside of the hatch door on the turret. The levers are all moulded parts, I could have used the PE but I think these look much better, and when you compare a 1/35 scale figures hands next to 'em, they look right, whereas PE does not have the correct thicknesses. It's jus' my rationale, that's all!



Here is the superfine surface detail on the engine deck!

I've had a go at assemblin' the engine vent on the rear deck, and with some patience managed to fit the slatted parts to the finely toothed side strips. These are to replace the moulded in part on the engine deck hatch.

Rememberin' that this set is for the Tristar kit, it looks like these assembled parts will fit nicely! Oh god, it looks like some fine cuttin' and filin' is needed now!

A lot of things can go wrong, look at the width of the surroundin' plastic where the hinges are, i'm torn whether to go ahead and do it or not!

It took all of last night's evenin' jus' to get these clamps (in three parts), fittings and supports folded, assembled and cemented!

This kit really does need the PE treatment for the tools, but in some cases the plastic fittings will suffice, as with the extinguisher and spade in these two shots!

It's a small update, but i've got these braces fitted to the exhaust, prior to fittin' the exhaust guards. After annealin' 'em they really are pliable, fine-pointed tweezers ahoy!!

Here are the exhaust guards fitted. I really like the look of these Pz I's with these exhaust guards!

Its starting to look like a really nice build Paul, I look forward to seeing the next chapter.

John

Thanks John.

I've got this one all but fully built. I haven't assembled the front and rear track guards yet, 'cos I need room to assemble the track around the runnin' gear.

Bison decals in their line drawings of this tank show and mention the armament to be DP-28's. They are actually MG-13's fitted with a flash suppressor which is similar to the ones found on the DP-28 or 27. So I raided my russian Assault Infantry set by Tamiya and dug out the DP-27's and cut off the suppressors (there are two in the kit), and cemented them to the MG-13's. One of these guns in the set, I had actually painted already, but that didn't stop me!

The turret hatch will be left open to accommodate a figure, Japanese or Chinese - I don't know yet!

These tanks were actually abandoned at a river crossin' by the Chinese, a few tried to ford it! They tried an' died!

Looks like a nice little kit.

Dragon have put out this kit that has components for a 2 series and a 3 series rolled into one, and in my opinion that is not 'smart'! Nevertheless it is a nice kit to build, but you jus' need your references to hand in order to make sure your buildin' the right version you want!

For instance, I've checked some references and found that this version did not have the right rear vision block on the hull. So with care, I removed the vision block with a scalpel, then filled the aperture with some 1mm styrene sheet and liquid putty. I did not have much room for maneuver when sandin' 'cos of the delicate weld lines, but the liquid putty made things a whole lot easier. 'No weld seams were harmed durin' this process'!

This liquid putty (Mr Dissolved Putty) is absolutely awesome stuff to work with, its not porous and doesn't shrink once its applied. Also, by wet-sandin it, its so easy to cut back!

At last I have my MK track links! These are actually from the PzIB set, so I have jus' over 30 links to play around with.

Now these are what I call 'Magic', this is how they come attached to the sprue, but there is no jig supplied with these.

It is, I picked up one at the LHS for a whopping $14. I got some input on ML, but I'll most likely build it OOB.

I picked my one up for £13.50, it looks like I got mine much cheaper when you make the currency exchange!

Both track runs have now been completed! Cos' there is no jig with this set, I laid out some maskin' tape upside down and put down the entire run of 90 links, and then attached the pins.

I got 'em this mornin' in the post, started 'em and finished 'em this evenin'!

I'd change banks if I were you, £13.50=$26.74; $14.00=£7.07

I always get the exchange rate round the wrong way! Jesus, there I go again!!

This has now been primered with Tamiya's Fine Surface Primer, which I dig very much, it's a cool primer and its very thin!

The vision block that I filled has turned out real nice, my sandin' efforts have paid off, its ultra smooth in that area. That Mr. Dissolved Putty is the best!!

Exellent work! I'm really looking foward to seeing the end of this project! Keep up the good work!
Cheers and happy modelling!
Prato

OK, this is where I am with this now! I decided on the Schwarzgrau colour, after considerin' the references I had, referrin' to the fact that the Chinese Nationalists had limited resources and that a re-paint might have been out of the question!

It's been Future'd, decaled and now pin washed (includin' every bolthead detail), with a 50/50 mix of Burnt Umber and Payne's Grey. The blue backin' for the star decals is not a decal. For this I used my paper hole puncher, and hole-punched some maskin' tape which turned out to be the totally exact size hole I needed, genius!

Bison decals mentioned the circle to be another 40-50% larger than the star decal itself. This maybe a little under that, but what the hell it looks right and any bigger and the star would look lost on the blue backin', if ya' get me!

Another thing is that the camera jus' cannot reproduce this Blue correctly, and it is much darker than this. I mixed some X-4 Blue (80%) with some X-14 Sky Blue (20%) to get what I felt was the right shade, and thinned it and airbrushed it!

I've now applied the customary filters, I used Burnt Umber and Payne's Grey. You can see it's startin' to look a lot more grubbier, jus' what I want!

I can move on to the second stage now, and add some filters around the bolt details, to simulate some rust build-up! 'Blob and drag' is what I call this technique!

I've applied some more weatherin' effects, ie rust and the fadin' of some of the armour panels. The 'rust' effects were applied 'cos of the fact that the Chinese did not receive these PzI's in tip-top condition, due to the way they were shipped. I think this was mentioned already, earlier in the thread.

The oil colour I used for the 'rust' was Burnt Sienna, for me this is the only colour that looks 100% correct. All those brighter 'rust' colours jus' look too artificial and unrealistic for me. The exhaust shrouds were weathered with the same oil colour, but before it had time to dry I then applied Mig's Old Rust and Black Smoke pigments in splotches, so that when the oil paint dries the pigments will be fixed!

Next up, I used Mig's Panzer Grey Fading pigment to subtly fade and highlight the armour panels. Very very small amounts of it was used on the end of a brush and firmly scrubbed and blended in. This is why I like Tamiya flat colours, 'cos they have a good 'tooth' for pigments!









Next up i'll be weatherin' it with some dirt and dust!!