IBG Pz.Pkfw. II Ausf. b | Armorama™

IBG announces a new Pz.Pkfw. II Ausf. b in 1/35 scale


This is partial text from the full article (usually with photos) at https://armorama.com/news/ibg-pz-pkfw--ii-ausf--b

Track sag is a tad overdone but that is easily fixed since the kit contains these awesome indy-links:

Pleased they`re indie tracks - as I thought IBG had moulded them
in “reverse” !

PLEASE. STOP. NOW. I can’t build kits at a tenth the rate awesome kits are being released.

Are the indy-links available separately as an upgrade?

C.

IBG produce three different versions of the prototype Pz II,
the ausf. a2, a1 and b (note lower case letters)
The a1 and a2 should (if I understood it correctly) use the same tracks as the Pz I,
BUT, IBG have given them Pz II tracks. The ausf b also has Pz II tracks (which I presume to be correct).
If I have managed to get all the facts lined up correctly I would need two sets of
Pz I tracks to fix the a1 and a2 which would give me two leftover Pz II tracks (the ones
that IBG put in those boxes).
Since there are two Pz II’s (by Tamiya) lurking in my stash I can find a good use
for the leftovers (lucky me)

Yeah, I have an old Tamiya PzII that I managed to destroy the rubber band kit tracks so it’s been sitting in the box for years. Hopefully IBG will package the tracks separately at some point.

C.

Ye Olde 35009?
That’s my two Pz II’s that should get new “shoes”

This shop in Poland seems to have a set of Bronco AB3513 Pz II tracks.

You are correct that the 1.Series (i.e. Ausf. a/1, a/2 and a/3) were equipped with Panzer I tracks. However, it is not as simple as just replacing the tracks. Because the tracks were narrower the road wheels and return rollers were also narrower. As well, the return rollers were also a larger diameter. And it is not just a matter of increasing the diameter of the kit return rollers - the real ones had a thinner rubber wheel and the hub was different.

However, all is not lost. By the 1939 Polish campaign most (if not all) of the a/1, a/2 and a/3 were upgraded with the “standard” Panzer II track, wider road wheels and wider/smaller diameter return rollers. Pictures of this are in Panzer Tracts. As well, pictures of Ausf a in Panzer Regiment 1 in the Polish campaign confirm this.

So IBG’s Ausf a/2 is not wrong, since the kit markings are all of Polish campaign vehicles. It does appear to include the wider road wheels and wider/smaller return rollers, along with the Panzer II track, so no issues.

From the artwork, it does appear that IBG’s forthcoming Ausf. a/1 will include the early return rollers and even the very early solid, rubber tired idlers that were on the first ten produced a/1, so perhaps it will also include the earlier, narrow road wheels and Pz I track, which is hard to tell from the aforementioned artwork.

1 Like