Hobby Boss 1/35 Hungarian Light Tank 38M Toldi II (B40) Kit First Look

By Dave Manter

First Look

The 38M Toldi was produced and developed under license from Swedish Landsverk L-60B between 1939 and 1942. Only 202 were produced. Toldi tanks entered Hungarian service in 1940. They first saw action with the Hungarian Army against Yugoslavia in 1941.

These tanks were mostly used against the USSR between 1941 and 1944. Because of their light armor, armament and good communications equipment, they were mostly used for reconnaissance. The design was no match against Soviet T-34 medium tanks encountered during the early stages of Operation Barbarossa.

The HobbyBoss kit of the Hungarian Light Tank 38M Toldi II (B40) consists of over 434 styrene parts on 17 sprues including the hull and 21 detail parts in photo etch. Most of the parts count comes from the individual track links. These links are small, but very well detailed. The rest of the parts are molded very well, with great detail and very little flash.

Construction begins with the lower hull and suspension. The track links require 125 per side and being quite small, they will take some time to cleanup. You then move onto the upper hull and HobbyBoss has managed to include all kinds of details here. The fender brackets are all photo etch so they will be in scale. Constructions ends with the turret and detail here is very nice as well.

Test fitting of all the main parts show fit to be really good throughout. Decals are provided for one vehicle.

With the low parts count minus the track links, this will be a fairly quick build. Congratulations to HobbyBoss for producing some very interesting subjects in the world of armor modeling. Recommended!

My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample!