In 1938-39 Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, and in March, 1939 150 unfinished LT-38 were confiscated and transferred to CKD in Prague for completion. All of them were included in the German army as PzKpfw 38 (t) Ausf A - Sd. Kfz.140 and the tank became the most widely used of the captured tanks in the German Army along with the Lt-35, and remained in production until June, 1942.

During the war PzKpfw 38(t) was exported and was used by the allies of Germany: Rumania (50), Slovakia (90), Bulgaria (10) and Hungary (102). Some were captured by the Red Army and were used in battle. Lastly in May 1945 PzKpfw 38(t), under the designation LT-38/37, were returned to Czechoslovakia and was used by their army as a training tank until the beginning of 1950.

PzKpfw 38 (t) were used in the Polish campaign (3rd light division), in Norway (31st army unit), France (6th, 7th and 8th tank divisions), in the Balkan campaign (8th tank division) and in the USSR (6th, 7th, 8th, 12th, 19th and 20th tank division). In a course of campaign in the USSR, the shortcomings of the armour and armament rendered the PzKpfw 38(t) ineffective and, practically, useless. Eventually as they were returned for repair they were reworked into various spg or tank destroyer versions. After 1942 any tank versions that remained were assigned to minor roles usually reconnaissance, rear area security and the training of crews.

The PzBeFwg 38 (t) was a command and control tank. It was built both with and without a turret. Many thanks toJED Military Equipment Directory for the abbreviated information given above on this tank.

The small box has a within it a newsprint instruction sheet, a sliver of a decal sheet and a big of green and black parts. All of the sprues are rather small and most show some flash and relatively large parts attachment points. You'll be using the razor saw on many of them. Detailing looks fairly good to me and it appears that there are some optional parts. It will be interesting to see how those flat tracks are to be bent over the fore and aft sprockets as they are not rubber. However, the plastic does seem a trifle softer than usual so perhaps careful bending will get them to conform.

The chassis suspension is molded to the side panels so those bits won't be a problem. Apparently, this one kit includes parts for a regular PzKw 38 (t) as there are several bits crossed off the parts listing. The instruction sheet offers no writeup of any kind, just drawings. The construction sequence is 6 parts, each of an exploded view and appear more than adequate to build the model. Apparently the radio communication antennas are optional, though the box art shows them both being used. Also optional are sections of track to be used as some form of additional armor protection.

There are two sets of markings provided on the rather small decal sheet. One is for a tank used in France in 1940 and the other for one used in Russian in 1941. Both are overall panzer grey. External colors are given as generic, Tamiya, Humbrol and Agama paints. The decals look well printed, but the white markings are almost invisible against the light blue background of the sheet. It will be interesting to see if they are visible when applied to the dark grey hull.

Small scale armor seems to be making a resurgence after many years of quiescence. New issues by Hasegawa and Revell as well as Italeri's entry into the field by bringing back many ESCI kits shows that the interest has returned. The more unusual subjects from smaller Eastern European companies like Attack means that the 1/72 military modeler now has an even greater choice of kits than before. Attack's kits seem very much like a short run kit and so should be treated as such. As a result, I would not recommend them to beginners, but others with some short run experience should have no trouble at all.

Review kit courtesy of my kit collection.

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