German Panzer Grenadiers Soldiers

I bought this kit months ago and put it in storage as I'm waiting for a house to be built. Was going through the storage and found this so decided to build it. Saw a picture of these soldiers on a box top riding a panzer 3. Well I had a panzer 3 and figured I would put them together and voila. Only gave a 4 star as had to do a little work on them to get them to sit right. I have photos of 2 problems and what I did to fix them. Those points aside this is an easy kit to put together and recommend it to anyone. Hopefully you won't come across the problems I did and if so hope my suggestions help. One other thing, without modifying the figures this kit will only fit smaller tanks. Tried them on a panther and couldn't get them to sit right.

All though this would rate as one of Tamiya's Classic Kits. It is still a most enjoyable one to build. BUT word of caution to the novice builder. DO NOT DO WHAT I DID!! I have been building models most of my life (about 45 years. And I was lulled into not paying close attention, and I broke rule number one..I did not test fit the parts first off. I proceeded to attached the arms, painted the figure and painted and attached the accessories, ie helmets, bread-bags, canteens, etc. you get the idea. Assembly is very straight forward. There is the usual mold lines along the legs and arms, so that needs some attention. I would strongly recommend using the add on decal kits if you can find them Tamiya makes them so does Verlinden most of the vintage figure kits particularly the German ones the little helmet decals are off register. So if you want to put on helmet decal ok fine if you chose not to use them that is ok as well, towards the end, they stopped using the national colors and Heer Eagle on helmets. Now the problem i caused for my self was this after all of this work, the arms on the prone NCO were not in the right position to accept the MP-40 so that caused a lot of problems that could not be fixed easily. So just a word to the neophyte builder don't break rule 1!!! Test fit your parts. The rest of the kit went together without a problem, since I build one figure at at time. Sorry I got long winded. I have/will be replacing this kit next month and that should be the ticket.

This is an old Tamiya kit so the quality, especially in the faces are aged. Instructions are easy to follow and the kit is easy to build. Kit comes with various waterside decals for helmet insignia. They look great and can be used on a tank or separately. There is a page included on separate scenery items they can be used with. Highly recommend this kit