Tamiya 1/35 Panzerkampfwagen 38(t) Ausf. E/F

History of the vehicle

As many know, the Panzerkampfwagen 38(t) is a German WW2 tank used from the start, all to the end of the War in Europe. The tank is actually a Czechoslovak tank design named LT vz. 38, but as Germany annexed Czechoslovakia in 1938, the tank was renamed. It is generally considered an excellent early war design, with good firepower and high reliability. Even after the tank became obsolete, the chassis saw extensive use as a basis for various other vehicles such as the Jagdpanzer 38(t) (a.k.a. Hetzer), Flakpanzer 38(t), Aufklärungspanzer 38(t), 15-cm-sIG 33 (Sfl.) auf Pz. 38 (t) (a.k.a. Grille) and the Marder III. I hope you’re seeing the pattern, most of the names have.

Info about the kit

The kit is a brand new mold and came out in 2019 according to Scalemates. It costs around 3000 yen (18,5€ in 2025.) in Japan, and in Europe, you will find it for 30€ – 35€. With the large price difference, depending where you live, it may be cheaper for you to import it directly from Japan. That tends to usually be the case with Tamiya model kits.

The kit consists of 7 light grey sprues, features a single PE part (for the grille) and 4 rubber caps for two drive sprockets and two ball MG mounts. You also get a commander figure (featured on the front cover art sitting on the cupola) so if you fancy, you can build him too! Very nice! The tracks are link and length, which is nice to see instead of the rubber or frankly annoying link-by-link ones.

The instructions are written in 4 (!) languages (Japanese, English, German and French) and printed in black and white. They are very clear, and I have never had issues understanding them. When needed, they also show cross-sections of kit parts so it’s easier to understand what parts you are supposed to use and how. This alone deserves a grade extra. Alongside the instructions, you get a small booklet with background information and the history of the tank. I quite appreciate this as you can get younger kids more connected with the build if they know exactly what they’re building.

Building the kit

Press here to see it!

The build

I am personally in awe of the quality of the parts and the ease of the building process. Not even once did I have to use putty, and only on 2-3 parts did I have to remove pin marks. The parts fit together like a glove, and it’s effectively impossible to mess up when building the kit. The only place where I did mess up was during the construction of the turret when I used too much Tamiya Extra Thin, which created a raised edge (see photos)

The link and length tracks are great and these must be the best ones that I ever built. They effectively locked into each other without the need for any glue and I was able to construct both sets in 30 minutes (I glued the links afterwards)

One thing to note is that the ball-mounted machine guns need to be drilled out, so make sure to do it while they’re not glued on the model.

The model was primed using Tamiya Spray primer and painted using AMMO Mig’s new ATOM paints. They work great with water or 70% isopropyl alcohol. The tank was sprayed using RAL7021 Dunkelgrau (ATOM-20160). The tracks and the road wheel rubber parts were painted with Nato Black (ATOM-20161). The exhaust got some texture with Tamiya putty and was painted using a random red-brown that I had laying around.

In preparation for the decals, I put down a layer of Mr. Color GX 100 gloss. The decals were applied with Micro Sol and Set and reacted quite well with them. In my rush I made a small mistake and forgot to put on the gloss layer after the decals. Considering the decals are on the biggest flat surfaces, this will bite me back during weathering.

And on the topic of weathering, I just went wild. First, some light shipping was applied, a Panel line accent (from Tamiya) and a filter using white oil paints. That’s why the model looks a bit washed out. The tracks and the lower part of the model got a mishmash of mud and dust effects, as well as pigments. I think it turned out great in the end.

Enough rambling – lets enjoy some finished build photos!

Opinion on the kit

This is truly an amazing model kit from Tamiya and I cannot recommend it enough to both beginners and old modellers. It builds itself and is based on a very interesting subject. It’s definitely not just another Tiger or Panzer IV. With the price od 30€, the kit is not the the cheapest thing around, but I think the quality you get inside the box far outweight the high pricepoint. I hope my photos can show that.

The build was made over the course of a week and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It allowed me to practice working with weathering which I desperately need.