Review: Zvezda Panzer II

As regular readers will know, I have been working on a DAK tank force for FOW V4 MW. I have so far painted up a commander, 2ic, a platoon of Panzer III short 75s, 8-rads and some Panzer IVs. I ground to a halt after my order for some Panzer IIs and Panzer IIIs was delayed. The good news is that these last 2 units have arrived and I can start work on them. So, without further ado, here is a review of the Panzer IIs.

History:
In 1934, the Panzer II was designed and entered production when delays to the proposed Panzer III and IV became known. The Panzer II was equipped with a single 20mm auto cannon and a coaxial machine gun. Far from a temporary measure, the Panzer II was the must numerous vehicle during the invasion of France. It also served in Poland, the desert and the eastern front.

By 1942, the vehicle was obsolete. New Panzer IIIs and IVs were the main stay of the German forces. The Panzer II chassis were re purposed for new designs like the Marder II. Likewise, in typical German recycling fashion, the Panzer II turrets were used for gun turrets in defensive positions.

Review:
Being that I only wanted three Panzer IIs for my starting force, I went with Zvezda who sell individual models. Each box only contains a single tank.

To say this is a simple model is an understatement. There are only 5 pieces! The turret, the hull bottom, the hull top, the left track and the right track. My assembly only took a minute or two. There wasn't much in the way of cleanup and the pieces all went together well. The longest part of the process was trimming the moulding attachments from the pieces.

The model is well cast and there is a reasonable level of detail. Like all Zvezda kits, there have been come compromises made and some of the detail is very boxy. However what is modelled is clean and crisp.

Conversions:
Like all Zvezda kits, there is no flexibility. No stowage, no open hatches, no commanders. This is well known and not really an issue. I chose to add a commander and model an open hatch. I used a spare plastic soldier commander who I removed the circular base from. I then trimmed down some spare hatches from the spares box to create the 2 halves of the open hatch.

Finally, not happy with the simple clean model, I used some spare PSC stowage and added spare track, spare road wheels, crates and jerry cans. I think this will tie the models in with the rest of the army.

I hope you enjoyed this review.