Mirage Hobby 354013, 1:35 scale, TKS-B Tankiette, plastic model kit by

This is a beautiful kit. Make no mistake--this was a tiny vehicle, so the model you'll build is more on the order of a watchmaker's experience than a typical 1/35 tank kit! It represents reconnaissance vehicle used by the Polish infantry units in 1939. Tankettes were a fad pursued by many contemporary armies in the late 1920s and 1930s, especially favored by nations with limited natural resources or a small industrial base, like Imperial Japan and the newly-independent post-WWI Poland. The TKS-B as represented in the kit could be armed with either of two small weapons better suited to anti-infantry or anti-road convoy action than protection from other armored vehicles. Although the Polish army fought valiantly, holding off the German Wehrmacht for several weeks before either escaping over the borders to either Romania or Hungary, or melting into the local civilian population to continue resistance for the duration of the war, the light armor available in small numbers was just not enough to hold back the Blitzkrieg. Captured vehicles that had not been destroyed in battle or before being abandoned by their crews when fuel and ammunition ran out were often repainted, fueled, and incorporated into the Wehrmacht, often as tractors to pull artillery pieces, or as secondary support weapons during the invasion of France or the early days of the invasion of the Soviet Union, so kits like these offer many possibilities beyond the decals in the kit and the example on the box. Happy modeling!

The reason I bought this model is that I can either build it as the TKS with the 7.92mm WZ-30 machinegun or the TKS-B with the 20mm auto canon. I plan to buy a second model in the near future. This model is very detailed it even comes with signal flags. The signal flags were used in the place of a radio or when radio silence was critical to the battle field situation. The signal flags are still used by the U.S. Army and American soldiers are taught how to use them on maneuvers. So I bet the Polish is still using signal flags, because today Polish and American soldiers are training together in attempt to stop a Russian invasion of Poland and possibly the entire European Continent.

Have not built kit yet. Model is tiny, with small parts.