ICM 1/35 scale PzKpfw II Ausf D

Manufacturer: ICM, 2600 Spring St., Redwood City, CA 94063, 650-365-7200, www.icm.com.u
Kit: No. 35231
Scale: 1/35
Price:$19.98
Comments: Injection-molded plastic, 327 parts, decals
Pros: Fine detail, good driver figure, opening hatches, interesting Panzer II variant, good individual-link tracks
Cons: Sinkholes in several parts, decals were translucent and wouldn't respond to setting solutions

Originally developed by Daimler-Benz as a high-speed version of the Panzer II, the Panzer IID was able to attain speeds up to 55kph on flat paved roads. However, its speed dropped drastically when the vehicle was required to go cross-country. The most noticeable differences between the IID and the other Panzer II versions were the use of four large road wheels on each side, mounted on a torsion bar suspension, and the IID's lack of return rollers.

Because the vehicle never really lived up to its expectations, only 43 were built before production was changed to a flamethrower tank based on the same chassis. Eventually the original 43 were converted to the Flammpanzer version. When the flamethrower battalions were reorganized as regular panzer units in 1943, the chassis were converted to anti-tank Marder IIDs mounting the 7.62cm PaK 36 gun in an open fighting compartment.

Molded in light gray plastic, ICM's kit features delicate and well-detailed moldings, with minimal flash and ejector-pin marks. The tracks are made up of individual injection-molded links, but ICM has molded the center teeth solid, while the actual vehicles had hollow guide teeth.

The small decal sheet has markings for three vehicles. While none of the photos I could find showed markings, the decals conform to the standard marking practices at the time of operation. All of the hull and turret hatches can be positioned either open or closed, but no interior is provided. A fine 13-piece commander figure is provided to fill the turret hatch.

Like most Eastern European armor kits, the hull is molded as several flat pieces. The hull fit well, with only a little filler needed where the front and rear plate met the bottom. One of my side pieces had the rear tab broken off in the box, but this was easy to repair and actually made it easier to install the hull top. These tabs are designed to snap into the top plate, and form part of the intricate rear fender brackets.

The suspension arms fit snugly to the hull and don't have distinct location devices (great if you want to show the suspension deflected over rough terrain). To get all of the road wheels level, I sat the hull on a wood spacer about 1" off the tabletop, installed the suspension arms, then dry-fitted a road wheel half to each arm, making sure they all touched the tabletop. Once the positions of the arms were set, I glued them in place.

All of the running gear was left off the model until the basic painting was finished. The hull top was added, and all of the details (except the tools) were attached to the hull. The notek light (part No. B19) had a definite sinkhole in its top which I filled with super glue and sanded smooth.

The turret went together easily, but had some sink holes on the forward sides. A platform is provided if you choose to pose the figure in the open turret hatch. The main turret hatches had some minor sinkholes, but these were difficult to fill and sand without destroying detail. The small hatches on the gun mantlet can be glued either open or closed.

I painted the vehicle using FSM author Tony Greenland's suggested mixture of 70-percent Tamiya dark gray (XF24) and 30-percent Tamiya flat blue (XF8). Even though there is no distinct tire rim molded on the road wheels, it was still easy to paint them using a circle template as a mask to protect the tires.

While the decals are nicely printed, they are translucent, and it was difficult to get them to conform to the irregular surface of the turret. Even Solvaset didn't soften them properly.
The track links are well molded and required only a little cleanup where the sprue attached to each link. The links fit snugly together. I built each side of track in four pieces so I could remove them and paint each piece separately. After building the tracks and using some links for the spare track rack, I had only about 10 links left.

Most of the tools are nicely molded, with the exception of the jack, which has large sinkholes on both sides. The turret fits tightly to the hull. My antenna (A4) broke when I removed it from the sprue, so I replaced it with a piece of fine steel guitar string. Although the kit provides ends for a tow cable, you have to scratchbuild the cable.

My completed model matches exactly the dimensions in Armored Fighting Vehicles of Germany by Arco Publishing. This is possibly the best armor piece yet by ICM. It took only about 18 hours to build, and it would be a good choice for someone who has never built individual-link tracks. The unusual track configuration looks interesting posed next to a Panzer II with the traditional leaf-spring suspension.