Pzkpfw. I Ausf. A, Orlik, 1:25

Hi to all.

I decided to get back to my project to build 6 main german Panzers of WWII, from I to IV. Already completed II from Halinski and III from GPM and waited for decent Pzkpfw I.

I have Ausf. F from WAK, but this modification was not mainstream and only a few were produced. Ausf. A were some simple and old models.

But Orlik published 2014 issue with new design and full interior and that what i decided to build.

Pzkpfw I was first tank in new line of armored warfare concept. They were super light and had only machine guns, but suited well for supporting infantry.

You can read all the info about the real tank here

This model by Orlik is well designed and has a full interior and interesting detailed suspension. So this a soft landing after Sherman.

Tank is tiny

About the book - some parts printed double sided and it's a plus! Designer gave details for supporting structure to build tank dome with right angles and also alignment rack for suspension angles.

Model detailed on a decent level, not Sherman but ok (told you i will always compare now :))

Tracks will be made from book. I checked laser cut kit, but it is simple and not worth to add.

Will use same tools as before.

Still have my watercolor paints for any shade, but also ordered Tamiya Acrylic XF-59 Desert Yellow paint for exterior.

Started unusually by the numbers and instruction and not with tracks.

They are simple, just three parts for each link, so i don't think i will stuck on them in later stage.

So first of all power frame of hull.

If you want that interior and exterior skin will align perfectly, you need to

assemble frame very carefully and accurately. And this starts from gluing it on right cardboard 0.5 and cutting it exactly by lines.

Some parts need to be cut with angle.

First joint parts K1 and K2 and then by the order.

I skipped part K6, because its curvature popped out from frame curve at front and i decided to glue it later with interior skin.

Naturally next came interior skin.

Aligned perfectly by lines, so no mistake in frame assembling.

Only issue was with parts K6 - it was wrong shape and didn't attached

properly at front. I adjusted it and aligned inner skin part 6 accordingly and then glued to frame

Quote from Krach Bumm

Hello Snake

Was machst du mit den Zeigestab???

Hello Krach.

This pointer is good for curving tubes with different diameters, due to telescopic structure of it.

Thanks Zaphod

After little vacation, back to the work.

Firewall and some panels.

Firewall consists of wall itself and intermediate gear case

Glued in place. Didn't attach handles on doors for easy assembling.

Will put them in next step

Decided to picture on blue background, because on this one you true color doesn't distorted

I see that by now there are some little issues here and there, so i will start error report list from now on

Errors:

part 12 wrong side, left must be right and right must be left

part 27 to short, or gluing spot is to long

Tension bars. Two in main hull and one in engine compartment
I bent long small diameter tubes with a help of wet paint brush.
Just go over the detail with it and bent on suitable road. This way it has
less cracks.
Just to mention - designer gives the option to make this bars from wire

Though i assembled power structure right and inner skin inserted exactly, for my surprise two of three bars where too short
Pay attention that engine compartment bar lies on a side. It is not clear from drawings

Errors:
Part 37 to short. Extended it with additional 0.5 mm patch on part 36
Part 40-41 is to short. Extended it with additional 0.5 mm patch on part 39
Parts 36, 39 seem like must be glued on 1 mm cardboard and not 0.5 as signed. Edge strip is wider that the part.

Starting to fill engine compartment.

Fuel tanks, air filter tubes' rings and engine mounts

I didn't glue engine mounts in place. The reason is that there isn't any drawing that's show how to glue them. So i will wait for assembled engine to figure it out. I have a guess, though

Errors:

None

Started to assemble engine - air-cooled 4-cylinder Krupp M305.

I think something similar was in Krupp Protze track.

Engine block

Air fan and oil pan

Assembled together

Errors:

Part 57 to short. This is an axel on which the fan sits. Drawing given is to short and i just made it longer, so it would insert into engine block and centre everything

Continue with engine cylinders

Added spark plugs from scratch

Also tried to work with 0.6 rivets.... to small.
I'm still choosing the order between paint, cut and glue.

Whole tank has more than 500 rivets. I hope i can keep up with that

Cylinders assembled on engine block

Pay attention that both sides are asymmetrical

Errors:

None

Thanks Zaphod

Yep, meeting it for first time

Additional parts for the engine

Power unit and engine mounts

Now i got exact position of engine mounts on the floor

Air filters with mounts

Tubes from air filter to cylinder were maid from wire with isolation

Errors:

Tube pattern number confused with other tube pattern.

By 251l, 251 they meant 88l, 88p. And vice versa 88.

In addition this pattern was wrong - cylinders on both sides are asymmetrical and there is no chance you can use same pattern for both. Also, connections to cylinders must be vertical and not horizontal, as shown

Spent some time to finish glue all bolts in engine compartment and then came the time to put engine in!

Prepared some more details: two fuel filters, one unknown small tank and some strengthening bars.

To place engine and other parts easily, you need to do steps in right order.

First of all fuel filters

Then the engine, that attaches to firewall and seats on two floor mounts

(In retrospect, i think it was unnecessary to cut out the hole in firewall)

Finally all the bars and two hoses from air intakes to air filters.

Engine compartment is finished, except exhaust pipes, that will be attached in later stage

Errors:

Confusing part 95 - strip that holds little tank and confusing drawings how to attach it. Sorted out by improvising.

Though this model was printed with double side color where needed, some parts are luck of it, like parts 96,97,98. Painted myself.

Part 99 a little bit short in length. Painted white glue mark and glued on remained edge.

Thanks Zaphod

I'm sorry for late update.

Suddenly, there is some other major project in my life, that i need to route my free time to, so progress on Panzer I slowed down.

But i managed to glued rest of rivets in fight compartment, though this was pain in the @ss. 0.6 rivets easily delaminate and hard to work with.

The method i choose was: paint whole strip->cut->glue.

After that i added rails for compartment floor and some crates of ammunition

That's all for now... and i don't know when there will be next update, but please be patient and stay tuned

Errors:

None

Hi all!

I managed to find some time in between for the model.

So next in main compartment are supportings for drive shaft cover and pedal rod

Then set of signal flags and some tube for... maybe rocket or something. Unfortunately, i wasn't able to find any drawings/pictures of interior with explanations, so it will be all guesses

Errors:

Part 116 on drawings page shows to make 5 wire parts, but you need only 4, for flag rods.

In this stage i also want to notice, that there are a lot of little mistakes in drawings, like overlapping isometrical view or like in drawing above that shows flags set and you can notice that all the pointers are offset

Little weird after Sherman

Thanks Zhapod and thank you for interesting info

I'm in a period of moving to new apartment and this consumes all my free time.

But i had a little break in between, so a there is a progress with Panzer I.

Main transmission mechanism.

A few sub builds, that parted to more sub builds.

Steering clutches and brakes

Assembled each part separately and then connected together. Numbers on the side guided how to connect

Errors:

none

Next sub build is a gearbox

Gear stick knob was made from little piece of playdough

Errors:

None

Well... Hello to all!

I'm back... after three months

Sorry for that

All this time was consumed by moving with my family to our own apartment. It was a tough period and i didn't find time, space and mood to continue the model.

But now i have my own cabinet and more convenient place for the hobby, so the build is back!

Eventually i assembled last part of transmission mechanism - reductor.

Continued with main driving shaft, that was made from solder rod

And here all the pieces together

Everything connects good into the hall

Assembled shaft cover. Tricky one, but that polish glue that i used on Sherman turret helped a lot

Thanks Zaphod!

Next are floor plates and accumulator

I chose to separate plate,s so those can be lifted to get access to crate below, and put them freely.

Accumulator

Then i assembled pedals

Pedals must be glued to pedal levers only after foot plate put in place.

Bugs:

None

Next are steering brake levers

The rod itself I made from office fastener

Bugs:

detail 183 must be marked as count 2 and not one

Thanks

Built driver's seat.

The frame made from two sizes of solder wire

Glued parts 188a and 189a on 1.5mm cardboard and not 0.5mm, as suggested

This gave me more easy way to glue the skin on

And seat installed at it's place

Errors:

None

Front plate with all the stuff: instrument panel, radio set and couple of shelfs

For gauges glass imitation i used some thin plastic from old package

Assembled all together

Glued in place

Errors:

Gluing mark on detail 191 for detail 195 (radio set rack) must be full white and not frame. It confuses which side of rack to stick

It's time for hull's upper part

Starting from a frame

This one has a lot of angled sides, so designer gave support structure to glue all sides with right angles

On the left is the support structure, on the right is the hull part

Most of the parts must be cut with angled edges

In a matter of fact, it's really helped, and I connected all sides with ease

Also tried dry fit upper plate

Last part glued without support structure and frame of upper hull is ready

Errors:

there are some mistakes with left /right sides on parts K11, K13 and K15. So, you need to pay attention when assembling all together

Little progress with upper hull part

I glued inner skins by perimeter and attached the part to main hull

Connected with no issues

Errors:

None

Continue with visors mechanisms

Three of a kind

The front visor was a tricky one, but i doubt that i will play with those, though they are working and can be open

Errors:

Part 210 must be glued on 0.5 cardboard, but asterisk is missing.

Assembled part 226 does not fit correctly with part 219 - openings for visor position to wide

My patience for repeated small parts is not what it used to be.

So, in couple with holidays and pressure at work it took some time until i finished those machine gun magazines. Did it bit by bit here and there.

In addition made shelfs for those, rotation gear strip and two gas masks

Magazines

Shelfs

Gas masks and their mounting strips

Placed everything inside and filled up shelfs

Final touch was to close with upper plate. I thought to leave it open to see the inside, but noticed that even with it attached you can see almost everything inside the hull

Errors:

None

Thanks Siegfried!

Very interesting video as well!

Started to put outer skin.

This step is crucial, and you must cut everything prices and dry fit every part.

I did minimum adjustments to two parts only: 243 and 244.

The fitment was satisfying and everything aligned well.

To connect all parts in a best way i did it in this order:

Upper front skin (part 243)

Two small front bumper skins (part 245)

Bottom and side skins (parts 242, 244)

Upper main part. First glued middle and then each side (part 250)

And then all the small parts at the bottom and finished

Errors:

none

Quote from Siegfried

Hello Igor,

on the tank is an nazi swastika, please edit your pictures or change it that it looks like four squares.

Your tanks looks very well, but in Germany is an swastika not allowed.

Regards Laurin

Display More

Thanks for noticing that. I didn't know that even historical model prohibited with signs.

Corrected previous post. Sorry

Finished body with rear upper part.

First of all assembled power structure, so i can point where will be endings of exhaust pipes.

Then inner exhaust pipes were bent from wire with isolation and glued inside.

Attached power structure and covered with skin.

Errors:

There is a design flaw - no inner skin for rear upper part. It just white, in contrast to lower one. Fixed it by power structure sides, making skin form spare color for firewall side and painting grey on rear side

Thanks Isaac!

Next step is the fenders.

In this publishing there is a double-sided printing and this a huge plus in in design. I wish every publisher could do so.

For this time i marked bending lines from outside. This gave me accurate 90 degrees bend.

Before gluing to place, I assembled front and rear fender ends

Erros:

None

Worked hard on all hatch doors and visor covers

Visor covers and front transmission cover

Side hatch doors and hinges

Rear engine hatch doors and hinges

Fuel tank filler nozzle covers

All doors on their places and can be opened

As i suspected, there is no way to open visors. The mechanism design is wrong... So they'll just remain closed

Errors:

Visor cover mechanism designed wrong. Even with my addition of cardboard, visor base is not flash with the wall and stuck at the beginning of opening

Thanks Zaphod!

So, it was a busy week, that shows little progress.

In this stage i decided to finish all the outer rivets.

As I mentioned before, got laser cut round rivets 0.6 mm and 0.8 mm from Drafmodel. Cutting is high quality, but as it happens in such small scale, sometimes they fall into layers, so i was in need to correct some rivets several times.

Probably will happen again... but it adds to overall look.

Want to mention about coloring - I didn't want to paint every rivet separately and going insane So I first I painted whole strips and then cut rivets out. Paint also got into slits around laser cut and solved white edges problem