German 2cm Flak38 Pzkpfw 38(t) Tristar 1/35

This time, I choose this Tristar’s 38 (t) 2 cm anti-aircraft tank. It was just a little bit assembled and left for years. I want to finish it.

Actually, the assemble was stopped here for more than 5 years. As soon as I started it, I felt troublesome because these parts were too small. However, it is not so hard as I explained in the later process. That’s difficult compared to Tamiya.

I think many people lose their motivation to assemble a complicated transmission. The assembly of the internal structure such as the engine and the transmission can hardly be seen when it is completed, so it is up to each individual to decide how to work. Since the parts are subdivided and it is hard to assemble, I think it will not affect if you skip all of them.

To some extent, I have assembled the inside. There are a lot of parts, so it gives a very precise feeling.
(2019/12/03)

It looks like this when I attach the armor plate on the front. If we don’t open the panel, we won’t be able to see the parts at all.

Now I’m building a Flak module. Moderate photo-etched parts are used.

All the armor plates have been glued.

38 (t) wheels were installed. I wonder if the real wheels are so hollow inside from the back. No way. It’s good for weight saving.
(2019/12/07)

There are three runners of connected tracks. Since it is a small tank, the length of the caterpillar is not so long and the parts are not so many. Even so, it’s hard to cut, glue and fine-tune. The assembly of the connected track is one of the highlights of the AFV model.

Even if there are some bad shapes, there are enough.

The connected tracks are very good. Come to think of it, these short tracks may look the same with the belt type. But I like this one better.

The assembly up to this point was quite difficult considering that the inside was partially skipped. I didn’t think that the machine gun was more difficult at this stage.
(2019/12/09)

The 20 mm anti-aircraft gun has been made in the past and is also on this blog. It feels more difficult than when I made it before. The shape of the subdivided part is not clear. I didn’t know the right way until I finished. In that sense, it’s better to assemble it all at once.

There are too many small parts.

When I finished assembling, there were some gaps and holes caused by sink marks. But it was easy to fix with putty.

This kit is very good. It is a complex polyhedron with a complicated part structure of the armor plate, but there is no difficult part to assemble. The overall parts are delicate and the precision of a small AFV is improved.

The cartridge collection net turned white when I used a large amount of the super-glue coagulator. Maybe without a recovery net, the cartridge would roll and get stuck in the gap, and the gun amount wouldn’t rotate. Considering that, it is an important item.
(2019/12/11)

There was a gap when I glued several rectangular panels. I used a light-curing putty to fill the gap.

I like the mold of the radio.

The traction wire is hard to attach to the AFV body, so I installed it in my own way.

I assembled several ammunition cases. Since the inside of the AFV is small, there is not much space for the layout.
(2019/12/13)

This is a figure I used when I assembled a 20 mm anti-aircraft machine gun.

As I wrote before, there were two runners of soldiers C, D, and E. There were no A and B. So why not try to attach this 38(t) anti-aircraft tank?

It’s an old kit, but the parts are many and small. When it comes to early Dragon Models figures, there were sometimes like rugby players that were slightly bigger than the 1/35 scale. The Tristar is relatively small, or rather normal, it’s the right size to fit the AFVs.

It is difficult to match the figure after the anti-aircraft machine gun is installed on the dolly. I forced it in.

I didn’t have a helmet because there wasn’t another pair of runners. And I used the extra parts of this kit for the 20 mm magazine.

I brought 3 helmets from the rest of the Dragon Models figure. Dragons can have a lot of extra parts and are useful in this kind of unexpected situation.
(2019/12/15)

Undercoat with black. It’s an open-top AFV with a lot of hidden areas, so I think it’s easier to blow it in a dark color.

I used a white surfacer.

This is the condition just before basic painting.

After painting the uniform, he looks more like a soldier.

This time, I used dark green for airplanes. It is a kind of dull color.
(2019/12/17)

Finally, the anti-aircraft vehicles of the German army were completed. It was an assembly manual that is hard to understand for Tristar. It is a derivative of a 38(t) tank and combined with the parts of a 20 mm machine-gun, so it must have become complicated. I see mistakes here and there. I guess these errors have not been fixed after being converted to Hobby Boss.

I chose camouflage paint as the 2nd Panzer Division at first. I noticed after putting the decal, but there was no division mark and only the number. I want some more visuals, so I put a division mark of the 12 Panzer Division on it. Well, the 12 Panzer Division probably had camouflaged paint.

I remember that the 12th Panzer Division was a mark like Y, and I think it’s strange, I thought the manual marking indication was wrong. It is not the 12th Panzer Division but the 12th SS Panzer Division. It’s the Hitlerjugend Division. There was a time when the famous Major General Kurt Meyer was the commander. In June 1944, they faced the allied forces in Normandy, and they also fought against the Soviet forces. Hitlerjugend Division’s bravery in Normandy was recognized by both sides, and this period was the most powerful.

141 of these 38(t) based antiaircraft tanks were completed between the end of 1943 and the beginning of 44. Most of them were sent to the Western Front. There were about 1000 bullets and it was operated by 4 crew members.

I was able to rotate the gun barrel before I did washing it, but it was fixed that I left it until it dried. I think it will break if you force it. That said, there was a risk like this if I did washing with a thinner.

The U-shaped frame on the upper part of the AFV is said to prevent the gun barrel from coming down too much to prevent accidental fire. Perhaps the shooter gets excited during a battle and shoots at soldiers and trucks around him.

I painted the ammunition case, but there is no place to lay it out.

It is a vehicle of the Armed SS, so I think I should make the figure insignias of the SS. Actually, it was made by a Wehrmacht soldier.

Pose from the viewpoint of the camera in the car without any meaning.

If it is operated in such a cramped condition, soldiers on both sides will be in danger of being flicked and caught when it turns.

Everyone is enthusiastic.

It was a strange-shaped anti-aircraft tank with a center of gravity quite behind. I enjoyed making it.
(2019/12/19)