in the mid-1930s, the Czech Army was in need of a capable light tank. The Skoda works was successful in submitting the winning design and it went into production as the LT vz. 35. Eventually, nearly 300 of the tanks were built with the first entering service in late 1936. Following several altercations in the Sudetenland in 1938, the Czech sought to sell off a number of these tanks. The British were quite interested as it was probably the finest light tank in Europe at the time.

More skirmishes with border nations occurred until the country was finally overrun by the Germans in early 1939. As a result, a large number of these tanks were taken into the Wehrmact. They were used with great success in the Polish and French campaigns and saw some action against the Soviets in 1941. In addition to construction for the Czech army, a large number were built for Romania and a few also saw service with the Bulgarian Army.

As you may know, I'm basically an airplane guy, but I got the bug to see what this kit was all about. It comes in the standard CMK orange box that opens at the ends. Inside are four fairly large sprues. As you can see from the scan above, most of these parts are for the running gear and treads. Thankfully, not all the track links are separate, or this kit wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being built by me!

Detailing on the parts is very good with few ejector pin marks in embarrassing places and no appreciable flash at all. There is no interior detailing whatsoever. Not unusual for a tank kit, especially one as reasonably priced as this one. There is, of course, a resin interior built by CMK just for this kit. See this preview for a look-see at it. Just about the only option for the kit, other than decals, is a choice of machine guns. Everything else looks pretty straightforward. Most of the construction time will undoubtedly be spent on the running gear.

The instruction sheet is more than adequate to enable you do build a first-rate model from this kit. Colors are all referenced to either Humbrol or Tamiya shades. Basically you can build any one of four tanks. Two of them have a three tone camo scheme and are different only by the plate and the turret number. The other two are in Panzer Grey. One in markings for the Polish campaign and the other for the French campaign. The decal placement for the last option is on the back of the kit box. The decals are by Propagteam so you know just what to expect from them. The image of the decals was darkened so that you could see the white decals more clearly.

Overall, it looks like it will build into a very nice model. The proprietor at the shop where I purchased this kit said it was a beauty, but of course, he says the same about Combat vacuforms!  :o)

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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