Small Scale Military Headquarters

I picked up all three of the new 21st tanks today. Here is what we have. First is the PZKW IV Ausf. D. 21st is getting better and a bit more clever with their models. This tank features new castings for the glacis plate and the rear hull. The new glacis plate(between the front plate and the machine gun/drivers port plate) is cast with new correct shape transmission doors. The drivers port and hull machine gun castings are new and very correct to prototype. The rear hull is also new with the correct exhausts(one main engine and one turret traverse motor) and the rear mounted smoke grenade launcher. The turret is also all new with the correct one piece side doors, roof vent and vision ports. 21st really did their homework on this one. The markings are pretty good too, featuring the Fifth Panzer Division. Basically the markings are the same as the FOV Pzkw IV ausf. F-1. The only problem with this tank is that 21st tried to be clever and cover over the skirt mounting holes in the hull with tools and the jack. This results in improper placement of the tools. They did add a correct step and hook device that did cover two of the holes. There is also the noticable absence of the antenea. Excellent vehicle overall. My vehicle had no sample defects.
Next is the Brummbar. New castings for the upper hull result in nice detail and three opening hatches. Excellent. All the added details needed for the Brummbar are there, including the extra bogies on the rear hull. While most but not all Brummbars had Zimmermit coatings, 21st elected to go with out it. They have yet to do a Zimmermit coating on any of their models, this would have been a good one to try it on. Other than that, this model is cleanly cast and crisp in detail. Again, excellent. The only sample defect is the skirting on one side was loose and bent down. It straightened right out with a little glue.
Finally is the Stug IV. If you liked the Stug that came with the playset, you will love this one. The details have been corrected with the omission of the machine gun on the right front hull. As someone stated before, the commander`s hatch now opens now along with the gunners hatch. It is a bit tricky to get open due to tight clearences though. Nice, crisp casting and nice paint job. There are no markings other than the German cross, so it is open to have some Stug unit applied by the new owner. The main gun needs a little attention as it does not fully depress as it should. The upper machine gun is new and nicely cast. Another well done piece by 21st. If you are Stug fan, this one is a must have. Excellent again. The only defect was a blob of assembly glue on the left track. Also, the side skirts tend to pop off with handling. I will end up ACCing mine on.
Overall, the new 21st tanks are right up there with the quality of their new aircraft. Nice paint, prototypical correctness(PC) and castings. Nice work 21st!

PS: They all have new correct tracks. Another improvement over the previous PZKW IV`s.

TJ

I'm envious!!

My wife is currently at Wally's looking for these three new beasts as well as the howitzer sets. I hope she had some luck.

I've always liked the Brummbar. I had the old Monogram kit as well as the Tamiya version. Now I have the new A&A Minis version.

Great review!!

C2000

I would agree that they are great tanks, the Stug IV was my favorite and the one I picked up. I thought the missing MG on the front glacis was an error, but glad to know its accurate as now I won't fashion one from scratch. Good to hear that the Panzer IVD was also accurate, but I just though its paintscheme was a little too plain... The Brumbar was also an interesting choice to make for a 1:32 vehicle, and I place it right there with the 21st Jagdtiger Wirblewind, Stugs and Mobelwagon as far as unique (and odd looking) armor pieces go. I didn't pick this piece up when I first saw it, then went back a few hours later and they were gone. Thats the fastest I've ever seen a 21c product move in my area!

What about the sprockets and idler wheels? Did they backdated those too?

Ach liebe, there is one in every crowd. seriously it is a good question. Yes they did back date the sprockets on the earlier vehicle and they are correct for the later versions. The earlier version is actually well done. One thing I noticed ,while thumbing through some panzer books, in conjunction with the "dull paint scheme" discussion on the earlier panzer, is that the version modeled had green lines sprayed on it. It definitely made for a more interesting paint scheme. I will leave mine the grey. I did paint the rubber on the road wheels though.

TJ

I found a bunch of these at another Wal Mart in my area and picked up the Brumbar - and the Panzer IV. Just couldn't resist!

Thanks for the reviews. I'll have to hunt these down and see the big improvements.

Is it the tanks your hiding or yourself?

Thank you Krieglok and Meskary for the review. I'm gonna drive 40 miles to a Walmart that actually carry 21st stuff for these tanks.

I'm gonna try out 1/32 as a second collection. 1/18, or even 1/16 is dry for the moment in terms of armor, so I'm branching out.

The minor detail adjustments shouldnt be too hard. The track bar across the front is flat stock with the ends twisted to fit up into the towing lugs. I made them for my 1:18 PZKW IVs. They do add more depth to the front. They could be painted with Polly scale panzer grey or panzer dark yellow, depending on the tank color.

I will admit, the figures offered with the tanks were pretty crappy. The nice thing is that the arms can be repositioned with a little knife work. I repositioned one of the machine gunners into a usable machinegunner for the Stug. I took the other two and positioned their arms so they rested in their hatches, one on top of the Brumbar and the other in the radio man`s hatch on the Ausf. D. I pulled the arms on the Rommels figures to the front and placed one on the "D" standing errect with his hands on the cupola ring. The other had his arms placed out to the front in a "sleepwalking" position. He was placed in the stug commander hatch. Bear in mind that these fellow gave up the major portions of their bottom halfs to fit in the hatches. I trim the legs and hips away with nippers until they just fit and stay in the place I want them to be in.

The problem with the "D" tank is the road wheels tires were not painted. I did the black portion of the whels myself and they looked pretty good after that. This tank also needs a set of spare bogies on the left side hull and an aerial. It is still a good effort by 21st and just right to do some minor improving upon.

TJ

I followed krieglok's idea and painted the bogie wheels on the Panzer IV as well. That made the tank look alot better by giving some more color texture to the vehicle, when viewed from the side. I also painted the tow cable a weathered black, touched up the tools, and added a couple jerry cans to the sides.

My pleasure. T-mans idea of painting the tow cables is one I never thought of. Very good. We could probably do a small book about how to improve each model. The ideas seem endless. That is one thing I like about the 21st stuff is that you can leave it stock or do easy improvements like mentioned above. I picked up some flat stock pieces at the hobby shop and will try making a cross bar for the front of the track section. I will let you know particulars if it works out. Merry Christmas to Y`all.

TJ

Very good ideas. I will have to try the sharpie idea for sure. I have come up with cheap way to do the track bracket in the front using .040x.10" styrene stock strips. I make a number of right angle brackets by heating the plastic over a candle for a couple seconds. I bend it with my fingers to get a decent 90 degree, it need not be perfect. I then trim the angles to match the width of the cross bar on one end and trim the other end of the bracket enough to rest inside the inside pocket of the tow bracket on the tank . I make a cross bar using the same stock by eyeing up the distance between the two towing brackets on the panzer front. After I cut the cross piece, I super glue the ends and let them set. The flat face of the bracket should be 90 degrees from the tab that fits into the towing bracketTest fit and if it is a little too long, try triming the "horns" that fit into the towing brackets. If it fits well, make as many copies of the bracket for all the 21st panzers you want to do as they are all the same size in that location. I superglued them on and then painted them to match. It seems to do the trick. I made about 8 of them all together in about 20 minutes

Here is a link to see a visual on what I am talking about. Have fun. TJ

http://www.members.aol.com/drkrieglok/tb.jpg

Found all three of the new 1/32 scale tanks! They are awesome!