Swedish armour in kit form

Update 2011-01-20: HobbyFan Pbv 302 included!

What vehicles of the swedish military is available in kit form? I will here try to compile a list of which kits that can be used as a basis for a simpler conversion, or straight out of the box. If you know some kit that can be used to build a certain vehicle, or if you have any other comment, feel free to comment using the comment form below. All comments are presently being moderated, so it can take a while for your post to appear.

In the list below I have not included the resin kits from the swedish armour guru Kjell Svensson. Kjell has made almost all vehicles that has served in the swedish armoured corps in the form of 1/76 scale resin kits, but he does not produce them any more and they are very hard to come by.

Stridsfordon 9040B

Academy has released a 1/35th scale model of the Combat vehicle 90. Expect to see one or two being built here. It features two styles of track (link by link and rubber band type) and it also has a metal barrel and a small PE-set. It looks like it can be a fine model built straight out of the box. (and it does build up to a fine model right out of the box, see the review)

Infanterikanonvagn 91

Hobby Fan have recently released a very nice looking resin kit of the IKV 91 in 1/35.  I managed to get hold of one before they sold out. I haven´t heard anything negative about the kit from those who have built theirs, and the parts sure look fine in the box.

Stridsvagn 122 (Leopard 2S)

The Stridsvagn 122 is available in kit form in 1/35 from Hobby Boss. The kit is according to online reviews a mixed blessing, relying heavily on the HKCW Strv 122 conversion for the Tamiya Leopard 2A5. The HKCW conversion is better detailled, but a harder to get item, and comes at a higher price, and will demand some skill from the builder. Also, while the conversion is more expensive than the whole Hobby Boss kit, you´ll need the expensive Tamiya kit as well. In the hands of a skilled modeller the HKCW/Tamiya combo will result in a very nice kit, which can be seen here and here.
I believe there is no Strv 122 kit or conversion available in 1/72. A brave modeller could use a Leopard 2A5 kit and scratcbuild the missing pieces. On the SPHF website there is an article on how to correct some of the errors on the HKCW conversion. It´s in swedish, but it might be of some help anyway even if you do not speak swedish.

Stridsvagn 121 (Leopard 2A4)

The Strv 121 can be built from basically any of the Leopard 2A4 kits available out there. In 1/35th scale I have seen the Leopard 2A4 from Heller, Italeri, Revell and recently from Hobby Boss. I have built the Italeri kit and I understand that the Revell is pretty much the same. The Italeri kit is quite basic with simple details, fair fit and a few strange cases of parts engineering. It was for a long time the best option for an older Leopard 2 in 1/35. I have never seen inside the box of the Heller kit, but I´ve been told to stay away from it. The Hobby Boss kit is quite new. I recently bought this, but haven´t yet done anything more than look inside the box. The kit however looks nice. Not tamiya class, but better than the Italeri. The earlier Hobby Boss Leopard kits have suffered from ugly and thick representations of the anti slip patches on the hull. The Leopard 2A4 is much better in this respect. Maybe they are a bit on the thick side still, but I can live with that. A small fret of photoetch is also included. If you want a Leopard2A4 in 1/35 I believe the Hobby Boss kit is the best starting point.

In 1/72 the Leopard 2A4 is offered by Revell, Hasegawa and Dragon, and the Dragon is the kit that is recommended by the very productive builder Björn Bäcklund in his comments below. Thanks Björn. There is an article, in swedish, at the SPHF website. There are some pictures and a painting guide that can be useful for the non-swedish speaking minority :)

Stridsvagn 103 (The S-tank)

There are three injection molded kits available for the modeller. Two in 1/35 (Strv 103B and Strv 103C) and one in 1/72 (Strv 103C). All three from Trumpeter. All three kits are reasonably accurate and easy to build. There is one thing regarding the Trumpeter kits in 1/35. They are too short. It´s like the hull is in a different scale lengthwise. Although the kit is nearly 10 mm too short, my advice is to forget all about it, it will not be easily seen in the finished model unless you put it next to a model that has the correct length. If you are hell bent on having a Strv S that is dimensionally accurate, you could try to get hold of the Accurate Armour resin kit. It´s a bit more challenging than the Trumpeter kits, and you´ll get at least five Trumpeter kits for the price of one Accurate Armour kit. But on the other hand, it is very detailled and.. er.. heavy. I built the Accurate Armour kit a few years ago, you can see it here.
There are other kits of the S-tank as well. The Korean resin kit manufacturer, SOL had a Strv 103 in 1/35, which might still be available on the world wide web somewhere. Tamiya and Academy also had the S-tank as an injection molded kit in 1/48. I don´t recommend it to anyone who wants to build a serious replica of the S-tank, but it used to come with an electric motor, so it might be a nice toy. I have actually seen this kit (Academy) next to the Trumpeter 1/35 kit in my local hobby shop, sold for about 50% more than the Trumpeter! In 1/72 there is also a resin kit avialable from Cromwell.

I also forgot to mention the 1/48 kit from Aurora. Haven´t seen it myself, but I believe this kit features a “working suspension”.

Stridsvagn 81, 101, 102, 104 Centurion

For many years the only available Centurion in 1/35 was the old Tamiya kit. It could be used as a base for a swedish Centurion, as Markus Eriksson proves here. but things have improved recently. AFV Club has issued two different versions of the Centurion, with more likely to come. First out was the Australian Centurion Mk 5, which could be used as a base for the Strv 81, armed with the 20pdr gun. There are numerous modifications that needs to be done. We might have a look at that in a future article. The second Centurion to be released from AFV Club was the Mk 5 armed with a 105mm gun. This kit could be used to build a Strv 102, with the proper modifications ofcourse. There is also an AFV Club kit of the israeli Sho’t kal, that could be used as the basis for a Strv 104. If you don´t feel like doing that conversion yourself you can buy a Strv 104-conversion from Hobby Fan. It´s expensive (about €80-90) but it´s the only game in town.
In 1/72 or 1/76, the only Centurion I know of is the Airfix kit.

Stridsvagn m/41

The Strv m/41 was a locally produced variant of the czech tank TNH, a tank also known as the Pz 38t. To build a Strv m/41 you could use some of the available Pz 38t kits. The Ausf that is recommended is the G. The Pz 38t is available in 1/35 in the form of an ancient Italeri kit, and as a state of the art kit from Tristar and Dragon. The Dragon kit comes with interior. There is a separate interior from tristar that could be used for their kit. I have the tristar kits (vehicle + interior) and they look really sweet. I´ll have to build it some day.

In 1/72 the Pz 38t is available from Unimodel, in their Vz 38 kit you even get swedish decals (they are unfortunately a bit oversized). (I have made a Strv m/41 using the Unimodel kit, you can see it here.) To make any of the kits more like a Strv m/41 there is some modifications needed to be done. It might not surprise you that SPHF has an article, in swedish, that explains what to do. The article is thoroughly illustrated, and should be of assistance even if you don´t read swedish.

Stridsvagn m/38, 39

The Strv m/38 was developed by Landsverk, and Landsverk also sold the license to produce this tank to Hungary, as the Toldi. I have seen the Toldi available in resin in 1/35 from a hungarian producer called Balaton. I think there is a Toldi available in 1/72 also, from some other producer. There are of course differences between a swedish tank and a hungarian.

Stridsvagn m/37

The stridsvagn m/37 is a variant of the Czech construction AH-1V. The Praga AH-1V is available in 1/72 from Attak, but according to my source the scale is closer to 1/80. Given the size of the real thing, the kit must be assembled under a microscope .

I was told that an italian ww2 thank, the M13/40, is very similar to the Praga-AH. The M13/40 is available from Tamiya in 1/35. When looking at pictures of the tank I find that there are a lot of similarities. But the suspension and wheels are all different. I can´t say if the dimensions are correct, but if they are in the same neighbourhood maybe this kit can be used as a basis for a Strv m/37 in 1/35.

Renault FT-17 “Putte”

The Swedish army bought one Renault FT-17 to try it out. The polish company RPM makes one in 1/35 and in 1/72 according to google, and Matchbox used to make one in 1/76.

Stridsvagn m/21-29

The first tank in swedish service, the  Strv m/21 is available in 1/35 from MR-modellbau in the form of the German world war one tank, the LK II. If my memory serves me right, the kit is based on the Strv m/21 at Axvall, and is out of the box more correct as a Strv m/21-29, than a LK II.

SAV m/43

A company called Armycast M&M makes a resin kit of the SAV m/43. It can be bought from Panzershop. The rumor says that there are more swedish armour on the way from Armycast. We´ll be looking forward to that.

Pansarbandvagn 301

Armycast M&M also makes a Pbv 301 in 1/35 as a resin kit. Just like the SAV it can be ordered from Panzershop. It is, just as the SAV rather expensive.

Pansarbandvagn  302A

HobbyFan that gave us the Ikv 91 and the Strv 104 conversion have now released a Pbv 302 in 1/35th scale. We hope to give you a review of this kit soon.

Pansarbandvagn 501 (BMP-1)

The old Dragon/Italeri/Zvesda BMP-1 could be used, as would any other BMP-1 kit.

In 1/72, the BMP-1 is available from Ace.

Pansarbandvagn 401 (MTLB)

The MTLB is available in 1/35 from Skif as an injection molded kit, and as a resin kit from Armo. There are plenty of aftermarket stuff like fruilmodel tracks, eduard photo etch and Armo sells the wheels and resin tracks as upgrades for the not so nice wheels that comes with the skif kit. There are som changes that needs to be done in order to make the MTLB look like a Pbv 401. You can see some of the work needed here.

In 1/72 the MTLB is available as an injection molded short run kit from the russian manufacturer Ace. You even get swedish decals. However, you need to do the same modifications on the 1/72 scale kit as on the 1/35 kits.

M 8 Greyhound

There was one (?) M 8 greyhound in use with the Swedish forces in Kongo in the sixties. Tamiya does one in 1/35, and Italeri in 1/72.

Pansarbil m/31F

Sweden bought three BA-10 armoured cars from Finland, who had captured them from the soviets. They were equipped with swedish guns and a periscope sightof the same type that is used on the Strv m/41. Unimodel has a BA-10 in 1/72. EasternExpress has one in 1/35. I have converted the Unimodel kit in to a Pbil m/31F, and you can read about it, and see the result here.

Pansarbil m/41

The Pbil m/41 was a Landsverk L180 with a different turret. The L-180 has been made in resin in 1/35 by Scale Line. Just scratchbuild a new turret and change some minor details.. well. It sounds easy anyway. I have the kit and will give it a try.

Artilleritraktor m/40

The Artilleritraktor m/40 was a Demag Sdkfz 10. Italeri has made an Sdkfz 10 in 1/35.
Ace has made a kit of it 1/72.

The Artilleritraktor can be used as a prime mover for the…

Haubits m/39

Sweden bought the 105mm howitser from Germany. In german service the gun is known as LeFH 18 and it is available from AFV Club. The swedish gun was of course somewhat different, and it was modified during its career. But the AFV Club kit would be a good starting point.

In 1/72 the LeFH 18 is available from the russian kit producer Ace.

Bandvagn 206

The Hägglunds Bandvagn 206 has been missing from this list, as a reader pointed out (thanks!). In 1/35 it is available from a company called Firing Lines. It´s a resin kit with PE-details. The tracks are constructed from PE and according to people I have met who have built it, they are a real pain. It is also quite expensive, but it looks nice and it is a really odd subject.

I don’t know if there is one in 1/72, but in 1/87 there is atleast one from a company called Trident.

About Erik Gustavsson

One of the founding fathers of Plastic Warfare, and the creator and administrator of this website.
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8 Responses to Swedish armour in kit form

  1. Björn Bäcklund says:

    Hej.
    Bra initiativ med listan över svenskt pansar i modell.
    Jag har ett par kommentarer tii vad som skrivits:
    Pansarbandvagn 401 i 1/72 finns/fanns från ACE (med svenska dekaler)
    Stridsvagn 121 i 1/72. Jag anser att Revells är den sämsta i den skalan. Hjulen är dåliga, luckor saknas på sidorna osv.
    Hasegawas “skrov” är bättre och jag har för mig att även tornet var bättre detaljerat. Däremot är band o hjulen skit på denna.
    Dragons måste nog vara den bästa.

  2. Erik_G says:

    Tack för dina kommentarer. Tack även till er andra som bidragit med tillägg till listan.
    Om ni har tips på några byggartiklar som handlar om att konvertera byggsats X till det svenska fordonet Y så är dessa också välkomna.

    mvh
    Erik G

  3. Ola says:

    Hejsan.

    Jag såg att Italeri har kommit ut med en modell av Bofors “pom-pom” 40mm lvkanon

  4. Erik G says:

    Ja just det. Det stämmer. Tack för påpekandet! Har den förresten släppts ännu?

    mvh
    Erik G

  5. Ola says:

    jäpp den har släppts…men dyr nästan 300 riksdaler för pjäsen….svårt att veta vad man får

  6. Uffe says:

    Excelent, to ease your curiosity regarding Auroras modell, you can find pictures here, http://www.ipmsstockholm.net/forum/works/article.asp?data=9173253010_~d_20070924_130310_~t_Auroras_S@045Tank_~a_holst.xml
    I refurbished one a couple of weeks ago, The suspension is fun because you can tilt the machine up resp down.

  7. Matus says:

    That was a great post…I love this site….Thanks

  8. Håkan Bengtsson says:

    Du har ju glömt firing lines byggsats av Bv206. Skala 1/35

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