The only reference photo of Panzer II Ausf. C with mine roller in North African theatre. There was no tactical number could be seen on turrent and both sides of upper structure, but it seemed there was a sign of palm tree on the left side of vision port.
The Pz. II C from headquarter of regiment. The capital R painted on turret implied this vehicle was directly affiliated to regimental headquarter. However, I did not know whether this Pz II C was from 15 or 21 Pz. Div.. In my point of view, I thought this Pz. II C was very likely to be a vehicle of 15 Pz. Div. because of the jerrycan case on the left rear fender (Most of Pz. II from 15 Pz. Div. chose to place their jerrycans on left rear fender).
A Pz. II C from 21 Pz. Div., both the palm tree and divisional insignia were painted on the vehicle's front plate. It seemed that the armor on manlet was upgraded.
Most of products of Panzer II Ausf. C manufactured by Dragon are very similar to each other. At least based on my research and comparison, the Dragon 6812, 6432 and 6752 were almost the same except some equipments are different, such as the mine-roller or antenna.
Most of equipments were painted and settled (S-hook, metal scissors and crowbar). Maybe I should add some bags, blankets, storage bins or other accessories on the back deck of Panzer II, but it all depends on my current budgets……
Some spare tracks will be linked and set in the very front of deck. My initial schedule is to complete this project no later than mid of October, so I hope I could finish the construction of mine roller in the next two weeks. The mine roller part is a little bit challenging as all components are PEs.
The two brackets of mine roller were fully folded and brushed; the PE parts gave me a chance to reflect the realistic of model, but they drove me crazy especially when I cut, folded and glued them (Another reason was that the Dragon’s instruction manual was unclear, again. It just showed the basic blueprint of framework, all the details were omitted). I enjoy the finished product of PEs, but suffer from the construction process
I will airbrush the metal framework one more time before I print the top coat on them. It is a little bit tough to brush acrylic paints on the metal surface
According to the reference photo, there was no tactical NO. or insignia could be found this Panzer II, so I just make an assumption that the Panzer II was one of members from 8th Rgt. of 15th Pz. Div.
Adrian Forest For teeny-tiny too-small-for-tweezers photo-etch, I recommend a wax pencil. Might still be impossible, but maybe slightly less impossible? 🙂
22 August 2021, 21:33
J D Adrian, thanks for your recommendation and I will have a try later.
26 August 2021, 09:32
Album info
Conversion of Dragon 6812 and my final product will be Dragon 6752.
The benefits of Dragon 6812 is the box not only contains the original sprue of 6812, but also includes all parts of Dragon 6752 (mine roller panzer II in North Africa), it indicates that there is a possibility for me to convert the 6812 into 6752.
However, some drawbacks of Dragon kits are also significant. Firstly, the Dragon SK is not relatively but extremely expensive comparing to some other brands. It costs me 268 Chinese Yen (Over 50 Canadian dollars) to buy this kit and the prices of panzer II for Tamiya, Academy or some other brands are all below 150 Chinese Yen. The second problem is that most Dragon smart kits are not smart at all, their instruction manual booklets are not foolish but very foolish, a lot of typos and mistakes can be easily found and they never try to correct them. Lastly, some plastic or PE parts from Dragon kits are super super tiny and it is extremely complex for us to do constructions. Sometimes I can not even hold them by using the smallest tweezer, so how should I glue those tiny parts!!! Are you f*cking kitting me, Dragon???
Adrian Forest
