fig. 1-1
Zvezda is a Russian toy manufacturing company based in Moscow, founded in 1990 before the collapse of the USSR. While many of its recent offerings, especially aircraft, are quite good, much of their older catalogue is of poor quality. This kit is one of the latter.
The German Command Tank is a 1990s rebox of an Italeri kit back in the late 1970s (which itself was a retooling of the Revell/Italeri Panzer IB from 1971). For its time, it has very good detail, and with a little love and effort, builds into a nice model. Obviously it has no interior detail. If you like vintage kits, you don’t feel like shelling out $50+ for a modern kit, or someone gives it to you as a gift, it’s a quick build; otherwise I wouldn’t bother.
As the Germans were developing their concept of mass armored warfare, they came to realize that they would need armored vehicles specifically devoted to command and control. The Sd.Kfz.256 Kleiner Panzerbefelswagon, or small armored command vehicle, was their first answer to the problem.
The Sd.Kfz.256 was based on the Panzer I tank (both A and B versions), initially simply removing the turret and having a small tower in its place, with subsequent versions building up a superstructure directly from the hull, and then adding a cupola above that. Inside, a number of radios, and a seat for a radio operator were added. For defense, a single machine gun was mounted.
The vehicle from the box is an up-armored, tropen (“tropical”) version of a Panzer I B command tank. It has details from both the series 2 and series 3 versions, so you need to make some changes. It’s easier to make it a series 3, than a series 2. The former only needs the elimination of the strengthening braces on the port and starboard sides of the superstructure. The latter would require filling in and rescribing of the signal port on the cupola hatch. It also has an MG34, rather than the typical MG13 (though some vehicles were fitted with the MG34).
The kit would be great for an Afrika Korps vehicle, or for Greece or the Southern USSR where tropen vehicles were used. The decals, however, are for a Polish campaign (a guess based on the solid Balkenkruez) and a vehicle in the 11th Panzer Division. As the kit is of an up-armored tank, which was done on the basis of the experiences in Poland showing the vehicle was too lightly armored, the 11th PD decals are the only viable ones if you’re building straight from the box with no aftermarket details (unless you want to scratchbuild a new forward wall for the superstructure).
The kit definitely suffers from its age. There’s plenty of flash, sinkholes, mold mismatches, ill-fitting pieces, etc, but the detail wasn’t bad. For instance, on the road wheels, they have the grease nipples visible, which is a little, unmentioned detail. The directions are absolutely horrible, and there’s no numbering on the sprues or any indication as to which sprue is which. That information is provided on the instructions.
There is also an error in this kit. That is the lack of a lifting hook on the superstructure. There’s also some screwhead detail missing on the top, but that can be ignored. In addition, there are some placement errors in the instructions, with the radio antenna rack being placed too far back and on the outside of the fender, when it should be closer to the hull, with the crowbar on the outside. Also, the instructions aren’t very with the placement of the headlight and the horn.
Lastly, the decals are showing their age. They are thin, but very sticky, a bad combination. If they touch themselves, that’s it, they’re stuck together. And once on the kit, they won’t move easily.
With some sanding, filing, scraping, putty, and a little bit of scratch building, though, it builds up into a halfway decent model.
For more information, check out the wikipedia page: SdKfz 265 Panzerbefehlswagen. I also highly recommend both Panzer Tracts on the subject, Panzerkampfwagen I, nos. 1-1 and 1-2, without which I couldn’t have done the build.
On to the build….
Part 1, review
Part 2, road wheels
Part 3, superstructure
Part 4, hull
Part 5, finishing up
armor fiend 