Thursday 19 March 2020

15mm KleinepanzerBefehlswagen

While sorting to my 15mm interwar figures, I came across a very ancient SDD 15mm casting of the command version of the the Panzer 1. I think I must have bought this back in the late 90s when SDD were doing vehicles to complement the Peter Pig figure range, and I dimly recall buying it from their stand at Triples in the Octagon Centre. I've got a few other SDD castings, including some staff cars, a couple of Sdkfz 234/1s and an Sdkfz 251/1. Sadly my old SDD 25 pdrs and Quads were sold in a fit of madness along with the rest of my 15mm western desert stuff. What was I thinking!

Anyway, I thought this old warhorse could do with a bit of TLC. You can tell it s an old model as the photo is so grainy.


It was in a rather dubious paint scheme. I'd originally done it when I was fairly new to acrylics and 15mm vehicles in general. I thought it would be fun to do it in the interwar/early war panzergrey and rotbraun disruptive scheme so I slapped on some red brown over the faded panzer grey. I also added a radio antenna to makes it command role more obvious (0.5mm brass).


It is a fairly blobby casting, as was typical of a lot of early 15mm stuff. In fact it looks like it has a cast hull instead of the welded armoured box fixed to the chassis. It has got some engraved detail though.


I was going to put some command platoon decals on it (II01 sort of thing) but the hatches were so raised it was impossible. In the end I just managed to get a balkan cross on the back of the turret. I then gave the running gear a good going over in mud, and did a light tan drybrush overall to blend in the new disruptive colour.


The dust highlight obscured some of the detail so I went around the hatch edges etc with a micon lining pen. You can see how rough the track castings are compared to more modern offerings in metal or plastic.


I think it is a nice little model despite all my moaning about the casting, in fact it isn't just 'little', it is tiny. Tinypanzerbefehlwagen? Here it is posing with a WW1 Russian infantryman to show just how small it really is. Why is my command panzer 1 in the same box as a WW1 Russian infantryman? All will be revealed in due course....

Meanwhile, my little tank will no doubt appear commanding a horde of Pz IIs or Pz 38ts or similar at some point. They were retired from panzer battalions in 1942/43 but hung around as armoured command vehicles, ammo carriers and ambulances until the end of the war. 


8 comments:

  1. Nice to see a Panzer I on the table, look forward to an early war action. I have just got a couple of 38t’s and a Panzer II (Zvezda), so my interest is peeked.

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    1. I have quite significant holdings of Panzer I and Panzer II. Perhaps I'll put on a parade at some point!

      My Panzer Is have mainly fought in Spain so far.

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  2. I have quite a few SDD models in the lead pile. Just heard on Dave Manley's blog that the former proprietor has recently passed away. AFAIK the person who took SDD over never released any models, which is a shame as they did some unique stuff (Marmon Herrington armoured cars for one).
    Neil

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    1. Yes. I managed to pick up a number of SDD vehicles for the Spanish Civil War. They certainly did some interesting stuff.

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  3. You can’t go wrong with a tiny tank! So much easier than a Tiger to park....

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    1. Yes, I reckon you could park a Pz I on the rear deck of a Tiger.

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  4. Nice- makesa wonderful command tank... as long as it goes nowhere near the front it should last.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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    1. Ooh, I don't know. It was designed to be bullet proof, I'm sure that will do.

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