Karton Wagon Pzkw 1A in 1/72

[cjwalas]

In my attempt to build models of the fighting vehicles from the African Campaign of WWII, I dug up this free kit of the Pzkw 1a from this Russian (I think) site.
KartonWagen - ?????? ???????? ??????? ???

The site offers a variety of versions of the Pzkw 1 as well as a Panther and a Russian truck (haven't looked at them yet.
I'd had a few of these kits sitting on my hard drive for a couple of years and decided now was the time to give one a try. I recolored one version to a desert sand-ish and resized the original 1/60 to 1/72.

The kits are on one page (some of the other versions are two pages) with no instructions or reference of any kind that I can see.

The main hull is four pieces; one large one that includes the top, bottom, sides and track guards, and then there are three separate pieces for the superstructure. The fit on all this is pretty good.

I was disappointed in the turret as it seems to be, er... a bit inaccurate in its basic form. The kit has lots of layering of hatches, viewports and the like.

I should mention that there is also an internal form made up of three pieces. I put it together out of curiosity but didn't use it, no need for it in 1/72.

The wheels as supplied are to be built quite thick, too thick for me. I built them out of a few layers of card and mounted them on sections of thick card.

I'm not really sure how accurate any of these models are, but they are better kits than I thought they would be. The fit on some of the pieces isn't good and some of the detail is a little cartoony, i.e., the mufflers, but overall, this was an enjoyable build and a welcome addition to the collection. I look forward to attempting a few of the others in the collection.


Chris

[ju52man]

so I see somebody built one. I found that site 2 years ago, and am sometime gonno built the Panther II, recolored to Panzergelb. But anyways, Great work and a very interesting subject.

[Don Boose]

Nice work, Chris. As you can imagine, I found this series of photos to be particularly interesting. I went through them holding my M3 superstructure together with the other hand, waiting for the glue to dry, and checking to see how you put this one together.

I look forward to more of these desert tracks, especially the British ones.

Don

[Uyraell]

The turret looks to be from a Pz1 F. A very few were built and field-tested in Russia. Several of those were reportedly captured. It would make sense if at some point, the Russians ended up with a Pz 1A chassis that had had a Pz1 F turret transplanted onto it as a field expediency. This might account for the discrepancy in your kit. The Pz1 F was an up-armoured prototype, intended for following-up on and exploiting a breakthrough made by the lighter Pz1 B's and C's. Hence, the Pz 1F turret was nearly twice as heavily armoured as that of a Pz 1A /1B. I very much enjoyed seeing this build of an unusual Pz1. Respectful Regards, Uyraell.

[Texman]

That turned out really well Chris. Even more so when I see it's size compared to that mutantly large hand in the picture!

[cjwalas]

Thanks, guys. Yes, those huge mutant hands do come in , well, handy. I really did enjoy this one. Some of these small models can be a bit frustrating, sometimes, and even though this isn't a perfect kit, it was fun.
Chris

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by Uyraell

The turret looks to be from a Pz1 F. A very few were built and field-tested in Russia. Several of those were reportedly captured. It would make sense if at some point, the Russians ended up with a Pz 1A chassis that had had a Pz1 F turret transplanted onto it as a field expediency. This might account for the discrepancy in your kit. The Pz1 F was an up-armoured prototype, intended for following-up on and exploiting a breakthrough made by the lighter Pz1 B's and C's. Hence, the Pz 1F turret was nearly twice as heavily armoured as that of a Pz 1A /1B. I very much enjoyed seeing this build of an unusual Pz1. Respectful Regards, Uyraell.

Not quite - the Pz 1F was intended as a heavily armoured infantry support tank. Not very successful since it was still only armed with machine guns. The suspension was different from the Pz 1A/B since it used overlapping roadwheels like a Tiger. There were about 30 build at the end of 1942 - small numbers of these tanks were issued to units in Russia and Yugoslavia. There is a captured Pz 1F at Kubinka, Moscow and a burned out example in Belgrade, (now) Serbia.

There is a build thread of the WAK Pz 1F at WAK Panzer 1F Build (resurrected)

Regards,

Charlie

[Uyraell]

Hello CharlieC.
I certainly do not debate the information in your post, above.
It ties in completely with the info I have from another forum, where the Pz1 family was extensively discussed.
The Pz1 F suspension eventually survives to reappear on the VK 1601/1801 (Basically, more heavily armoured developments with overlapping roadwheels as you mention) sub-family, which at one point received the name "Luchs" or "Lynx" for a brief period. At least one of those sub-family vehicles received a 20mm semi-automatic "cannon" as main armament, again as shown in images on the other forum I attend.

The info I offered above was an admittedly very short synopsis intended to suggest why the Pz1 kit in this thread had what seems to be an unusual turret.
I made no attempt to discuss the suspension or armament simply because I had focused on the turret featured here in my original post.

I apologise if I was in error posting as I did above.

Respectful Regards CharlieC, Uyraell.