Primarily developed in 1939 as a light tank, the Toldi was named after the 14th century Hungarian knight Miklós Toldi. It was armed with a 20mm gun and served with the Hungarian Army as a reconnaissance tank. Subsequent improvements developed were of thicker turret armor and the addition of a 40mm gun.

Hobbyboss surprises modelers again with this lesser known AFV. Produced in crisp tan styrene, this model comes boxed with a small fret of PE and a lot of individual track parts.

Starting with the lower hull construction, careful assembly of the torsion bars are required, there are no locking pins and the attachment point is only via a small pin to the lower hull body. I had to check pictures of actual Toldi for the clearance of the hull to the ground and then loaded the torsion bar contact area with plastic cement and super glue. This was then set aside overnight to gain full bonding strength. They still look wobbly but as long as you do not handle it much it will stand.

The tracks come as individual links and are snap to fit, however, it is still recommended to brush on liquid cement onto the parts especially if you want track sag on the return rollers. This will also help strengthen the tracks, road wheels, drive sprocket, idler and return rollers once they are all glued together.

The muffler pipes and muffler tip are molded thin and to scale and the lower and upper hull mates perfectly. Headlight lenses are molded, oddly, in opaque tan styrene. It is recommended to paint the PE armored cover separately while still not attached to the model. This is so you can paint the lenses in silver as when you install the cover as you will still be able to see the lenses thru the slits of the grilles.

The turret assembly is very straightforward, no breech detail or interior parts are included, but all hatches, turret side armored sight covers can be posed open as are the armored periscope covers on the commander’s cupola. However, as there is no evidence of relief detail or hint of periscope glass I glued them down and shut.

The rest of the construction was very easy and fast.

Hobbyboss then hints us with subsequent versions of the up-armored turret with a separate sprue for the turret and fittings and an improved new lower hull; and then another sprue to contain an upgunned turret for the 40mm (aka Toldi IIa B40)

Good modeling times ahead!

Many thanks to Hobbyboss for the testshot.