MiniArt Models

1/35 Leichter Pz.Kpfw. Mk.1 202(e) Captured Dingo with Crew

Kit Number: 35082

Reviewed by  Jim Stratton, IPMS# 20703

MSRP: $55.50 Review Sample from Dragon Models USA: www.dragonmodelsusa.com The Kit The kit is molded in light gray styrene and the molding is mostly flash free. Detail is crisp and MiniArt has made good use of the slide molding technique to give definition to the molded parts. The vehicles bulkheads are all relatively thin. The tires are hard styrene and the slide molding technique has produced a beautiful tread pattern with virtually no seams to clean up. The inner hub fits very good and once glued there is no detectable seam line to clean up. The instruction sheet is a six page affair that seems extremely busy. There are forty-three steps of construction, the first nineteen of which deal with the interior and all its minute details. The instruction sheet needs to be studied carefully before construction begins and again studied carefully during construction. There is a full color 2-sided painting guide included for color reference. Side one has three position color views with markings for two captured vehicles. Side two has the DAK figures with their respective part numbers and colors indicated. For both sides the blue squares are the color numbers and for the vehicle illustrations the yellow circles are the decal numbers. The paint chart has the six most popular hobby paints listed.

Decals The small decal sheet has markings for two captured vehicles. One used in the Crimea in 1942 and the other used in Libya in the spring of 1941. There are no decals included for the figures. One problem discovered is the numbers for the decals on the second vehicle (Libya, Spring 1941) are incorrect. It is necessary to follow the illustrations themselves for the correct decals as the illustrations numbers are all incorrect. Construction Because this is a build review I will point out the problems I encountered during the construction of the model. Hopefully this will help you bypass the same problems during your build. The build starts with the construction of the hull belly pan/chassis. This is a multi-part assembly with a front and rear plate. The rear plate part Cd2 is the new piece in the Mk.I configuration. At this time I jumped ahead to step 14 and 15 and constructed the drive axles, then on to step 20 and 21, where I applied all the various parts to the chassis frame. I did this in order to give the delicate parts of the suspension plenty of drying time. However, this later proved to be a big mistake as I inadvertently broke most of the delicate parts off during the subsequent construction of the model. The axles were not the problem but the small linkages for the steering arms were snapped off while adding the crew compartment to the chassis. I suggest waiting until after the crew compartment is added. There is plenty of room to add the links after the compartment is glued to the chassis. The instruction sheet shows them being added to the chassis in step 20. I would wait until step 28 where you add the steering arms, which is after the crew compartment is added. The suspension parts are all very delicate and this phase of the build took me over three hours to clean up and assemble all the parts. After the chassis is completed I moved on to the crew compartment. This was relatively simple, or so I thought. Construction of the crew compartment starts with bending and gluing on the PE track for the compartment cover. This is where some minor problems started. The problem I had was an interpretation in the bends of the PE. I studied the drawings and then the PE part and I just couldn't figure out the fold pattern. I bent the first part PE22 without any problems. When looking at the drawing of part PE24, I just couldn't figure out the bend. There was no way I could get the part to look like the part on the instruction drawing looked using the pre-scribed bend lines. Then I just happened to look at the instruction from a different angle and there it jumped out at me. Due to an optical illusion I had interpreted the bends all wrong. Part PE24 is really bent into a U-channel. Then I noticed that part PE22 was bent backwards. I had to carefully re-bend it to the correct configuration. I have scanned the appropriate area of the instruction sheet and then outlined the edges in red hoping it would clear up the bend of the pieces better. So the way I figure it, part PE24 is glued to the side bulkheads on both sides. Then at the end of the build, the sliding section of the roof part Ca1 will be glued to the top of part PE22 and PE23. If done correctly this should allow the sliding roof to actually slide. There are molded lines on the outside of the superstructure that need to be removed for the Mk.I. These are clearly pointed out on the instruction sheet and posed no problem in their removal. The left side superstructure bulkhead gets more details added in addition to the sliding roof track. There are three storage shelves to the lower bulkhead as well as 4 PE clips added above the entrance door. Also note that there is a spare barrel for the Bren gun. Depending whether or not you use the Bren gun in the construction later will determine if this is added or not. The instructions give the option of using the Bren gun or replacing that with an MG34. If you decide not to use the Bren gun, the locating slots for the part will have to be filled. Care is needed during the construction of the gas tank as the two halves fit together either way, however, the top will not fit properly if the sides are glued incorrectly. I actually glued them together wrong and had to break them apart and re-glue them in the correct orientation. The construction of the floor and all its details is straight forward with only one issue I discovered. The inset shows how to bend the PE quadrant for the hand brake lever. A simple 90 degree bend with two small bolt heads added for detail. The arrow on the inset box seems to imply that the part is then placed on the floor with the bolt heads facing towards the center of the vehicle. This is wrong, as I found out later. The bolt heads should face outboard. This can be seen in the subsequent interior assembly drawings. Also use care when handling the finished floor after all the detail pieces are added. The brake and shift levers are susceptible to breakage. Construction moved on to the driver's seat. There are two parts for the support of the seat back (parts A15 & A16). These pieces glue into two small holes on the floor (part A30). I had to enlarge the holes slightly to get a better fit of the parts. Before gluing these parts to the floor, part A5, a storage box is glued between the uprights. Once the supports are in place, the seat back is glued to the top of the supports. This is a butt joint and I was a little leery of this, however, it went into place with no problems. The seat cushion and its scissor legs went together without a hitch. The only problem being in cleaning up these tiny parts with my club sized fingers. Construction continues with the gas tank and seat cushion being added to the floor, along with a couple of storage boxes, the battery with another storage box on top of it. The observer's seat has a laced back and cushion pad. The detail of the stitches is crisp and again the parts are small and delicate and need care in cleaning up. All the locating slots fit perfectly and the construction was simple. I did not glue the finished seat to the floor as I want it separated for painting. It will be added later through the open top after the interior is painted and weathered. After adding the front toe pan (part A48), foot pedals and steering column, Part A19 the seat adjustment lever is butt glued to the center of the scissor legs under the driver's seat. There is a small nib at this location and I ended up shaving this nib off to get a better glue joint between these two parts. Construction of the interior floor is completed with the addition of a couple more storage boxes and the steering wheel rim. I wanted to pre-paint the interior before assembly. It was at this time I did decide to add the visor covers on the compartment front, sides and rear bulkheads. Following the instructions these should be added later in the construction, but each visor has a small PE lever to be glued on it. I thought it would be easier to glue these levers on while the parts were separated rather than after the sides are glued together and trying to glue through the open crew compartment top. Especially the rear bulkhead and its steep angle, considering the storage shelves located at the rear of the compartment. I chose to open the two front visors and close the rest. Of course care will need to be used during the rest of the construction, lest these are broken off with rough handling. The position of the small PE levers to the covers and bulkheads can be seen clearly on the parts. There are small tabs to glue the PE part to. You also get two sets of levers, for either the closed visors or the open visors. I also added the crew compartment door at this time. I am really glad that I chose to put these levers in place before putting the crew compartment together. Even with the sides open I had one devil of a time getting these PE levers into place correctly. One of the problems is the PE is extremely thin and flexible. Once one side was glued in place the other had to be maneuvered into place and glued to its tab. This sounds a lot easier than it really was. I finally got the levers into place but they were bent out of shape. Trying to straighten the bent part resulted in one of the tiny glue joints failing and the whole process started again. When I build my next Dingo (and I will) I will use the PE parts as a template to bend wire into shape. Then you could drill a hole and glue the wire into place. That would make the final adjustment much easier. Also the round profile of the wire would look better than the flat PE profile. Construction continues with the lower front wall of the crew compartment (part A51). PE parts PE9A and PE9B are added to the outside of the front plate. This is the mount for the Bren gun. Inside part A51 is the Bren gun magazine rack (part A9) with photo etch part PE7 added to the front before gluing to the tabs provided on the inside of part A51. Moving on to the front upper wall the instrument cluster is added along with a PE grab handle and another as yet unexplained part (A18). I used some extra instrument decals to detail the faces of the instruments. These were left over from a Dragon 251 half-track. I used a Waldron punch to get them to the correct diameter and added them to the instruments for a little extra touch of interior detail. They are visible through the open top and adds a little color to the instrument panel. It would have been nice if MiniArt had included instrument faces on the decal sheet. Before finishing the crew compartment two armored covers for the Bren gun slot are added. I now painted the interior components a Desert Yellow and completed the detail painting. My photo references indicated that the seats were leather So the driver's and observers seats were base painted in acrylic brown leather and then painted with Burnt Umber to give a real nice leather look. The lacing was dry brushed with a hemp color for contrast. The fire extinguisher was painted brass. And the steering wheel rim painted black. Now comes time to close up the crew compartment. Following the sequence in the instruction sheet, I added the left side to the floor, followed by the right side. Then the rear bulkhead was added. During the gluing of this piece I was having a small fit problem at the left seam. During the adjustment of the piece I inadvertently let it slip upwards slightly. This was not apparent at the time but proved troublesome later in the construction. Once the front and rear bulkheads were added the completed crew compartment was glued to the chassis. Here the model finally starts to take shape. The instruction sheet on my review example had a real resolution problem here. This is only on the lower drawing of the chassis and does not pose any problems other than the weird effect on the eyes. Now the two engine compartment sides (Parts Cd3 and Cd4) were glued to the chassis and rear of the crew compartment. These are two new pieces to back date the vehicle to Mk.I configuration and the assembly was straight forward with no problems encountered. Again, as I was building the captured Dingo, I did not add the Enfield rifle to the top of the rear crew compartment bulkhead. I omitted this rifle as I figured in a captured vehicle the new crew would probably remove it. Once the crew compartment is added to the chassis the vehicles four steering arms are added here. Construction of the spring towers is next. Small PE parts are added to the outer sides of the spring towers. The springs are sided (parts B6 for the right side and B5 for the left) and care should be used when building the parts to prevent any fit issues. I tried different methods of assembly of the spring towers. I was afraid that adding the PE parts first would pose a problem and the opportunity to break them off during addition to the vehicle was a definite problem. So I started by gluing the spring and tower to the vehicle first then adding the PE parts followed by adding the small plastic part to the PE. This turned out to have its own issues and is not the way to go. Next I added the PE parts to the towers and then glued it to the vehicle. This was slightly easier than the first method, but it was still a problem getting the small plastic piece to the PE part. So finally, I followed the kit instructions and built the spring towers completely before gluing to the vehicle and this turned out to be the best method after all. Once all the spring towers are in place the fenders were added along with their detail pieces. I needed to open the slots a little to get the tab on the fender to fit, but once that was done the fenders went on without any fit issues at all. I did not add the wheels as I always paint and add them separately. Construction of the vehicle is completed with the addition of the two folding roof sections. Here the detail of the kit falls a little short. The folding front section of the roof has a wire handle and two locks. These are molded on the part. With all the minute detail engineered in this kit, it seems odd that MiniArt chose to mold these details on the piece instead of giving you parts to glue on. But that is just a small gripe about the kit and not really an issue. Figures The kit includes three figures dressed in DAK uniforms. Two are posed to be standing inside the vehicle and one standing outside of the vehicle. The figures were nice but my sample had some minor flash around the faces, heads and hands. The molded detail is more than adequate for an injection molded figure. The torsos have good pocket detail with the medallions and belt buckles clearly visible and just needing a good paint job. However, I really don't see how you could fit two figures standing in the vehicle. There is not a lot of room with all the fragile details inside and it would get crowed easily. These figures would look good with any desert vehicle. Painting and weathering: I really like the vehicle depicted on the box art. The well used look with several small paint chips really gave the vehicle some character. So I thought I would try adding the paint chips using the sea salt method of painting. I started by base coating the vehicle with a dark green. I used Tamiya XF-61 Dark Green and added about 10% Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow. Allowed to dry well over 24 hours, I brushed on some distilled water and added course sea salt and allowed that to dry. Once that was dry I air brushed the vehicle with Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow. After this dried the sea salt was removed revealing the paint chips. The vehicle was then over sprayed with an overcoat of Metalizer Sealer and the decals were added. The wheels were finished the same as the vehicle and the tires were finished with a black pastel. The vehicle was sprayed overall with a dusting of Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth and then XF-57 Buff, finally washed with Burnt Umber oils and subsequently dry brushed. After that, the model was over coated with a clear flat to complete the assembly. Suggestions: As I stated above, I had a small fit problem when I inadvertently allowed the rear bulkhead to slip upwards about 1mm. This posed a problem when I added the engine compartment cover (Part Cd1). The rear bulkhead has a small ledge molded on it to fit the forward edge of the cover. With the bulkhead up about 1mm, when the cover was placed on the model, there was a small gap between the engine compartment sides and cover. I thought about sanding off the ledge. That would allow the cover to drop down slightly and close the gap, however, because of the angle of the rear bulkhead this would cause the cover to fit slightly rearward and the latches on the sides would not fit. To prevent this, I suggest, gluing one side of the crew compartment to the floor first. Then glue the rear bulkhead to that side making sure the angles fit correctly. Let that set up awhile and then add the other side to the floor and rear bulkhead sealing the rear of the vehicle. That should ensure that the parts fit correctly. Also, because of the thin PE parts being so flimsy I would strongly suggest that the armored visor levers be made from thin wire. Recommendations This was a great little kit. And I do mean little. When placed next to a King Tiger the entire vehicle is smaller than the Tiger's turret. The model is engineered very well and the only fit problems I had were of my own doing. It is light years ahead of the old Tamiya classic with a lot of very delicate details that are crisply molded. I highly recommend this kit and it deserves to be built. However, with the amount of small detail parts and PE that is included it may not appeal to newer inexperienced modelers but is well within the ability of anyone with intermediate experience. If care is used during the construction you will end up with a really neat little soft skin to display in your collection. I would like to thank Dragon Models USA for the kit and IPMS for letting me write this review.