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Preview: Panzer Mate's First Figure in 35th scale - Guess what it is?
What/Who are panzer mate exactly?
Panzer Mate is a specialised, one-person business that creates high-quality 3D-printed upgrade parts and detailed components for Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) models. Founded in 2019, the brand was born out of a desire to share highly detailed, custom-made pieces with the broader modelling community. As a completely solo operation, every single aspect of the business is handled in-house. This includes inventing the brand name, designing the logo, creating the 3D digital models, printing the physical parts, conducting meticulous fit tests, photographing the final products, and designing and assembling the packaging before personally shipping them out.
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The passionate owner behind Panzer Mate is Murat Özgül, a dedicated AFV modeller who successfully merged his professional expertise with his lifelong hobby. Özgül brings an extensive creative background to the business, having spent 30 years working as a Creative Director for various advertising agencies, followed by a decade operating as a freelance graphic designer. His deep roots in the hobby industry also include editing and graphic design work for AK Interactive, where he has produced over 30 modelling books. He initially began 3D printing components to enhance his own scale models, which ultimately inspired him to launch Panzer Mate to help fellow hobbyists elevate their own builds.
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The WWII German Panzer Crewman in 1/35th scale & the illustration that inspired it.
The Tigerfibel crew instruction manual (D 656/27), officially authorised in August 1943 under Generaloberst Heinz Guderian, stands as a landmark departure from standard military education. Recognising that the immense complexity and high production cost of the Tiger I tank required flawless operator care, training director Lieutenant Colonel Hans Christern and creator Lieutenant Josef von Glatter-Götz completely discarded the dense, dry jargon typical of wartime handbooks. Instead, they framed the operational guide as a playful school primer (Fibel) written in casual soldier slang and rhyming poetry. By turning vital maintenance schedules, gunnery charts, and mechanical parameters into engaging, memorable lessons, the manual successfully kept rushed, young recruits focused and drastically lowered preventable mechanical failures on the battlefield.
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The iconic, winking cartoon character flexing on the cover—brought to life as a detailed 1/35 scale 3D-printed miniature by Panzer Mate—serves as the primary anchor for the manual's unique psychological approach. Hand-drawn by enlisted artists Gessinger and Wagner, this bold figure personifies the ultimate, self-assured "Tiger Man" who has achieved complete mastery over his vehicle. Throughout the booklet, he and his fellow fictional crewmates guide readers through a running narrative that humorously analogises the massive tank to a demanding, beautiful woman named "Elvira". By reframing technical procedures like track adjustments, engine synchronisation, and fuel management as the delicate art of courting and protecting a girlfriend, the manual leveraged the mindsets of its young male crews to ensure they treated their machines with the utmost care.
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German WWII Tank Crewman
From Panzer Mate
Kit No. PM020
1/35th scale
1/35th scale
3D-printed resin
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The figure:
This 1/35 scale 3D-printed resin figure (Ref: PM020) seamlessly translates the iconic 2D Tigerfibel cover illustration into a physical miniature, capturing a confident, grinning tank crewman turning to flex his right bicep while his left arm dynamically hooks inward.
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He is accurately modelled wearing a short-sleeved field shirt with a sharp collar, a neatly tucked necktie, baggy trousers bloused into laced combat boots, a service belt with an attached pistol holster, and a tilted side cap (Schiffchen).
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This entire unpainted figure arrives safely enclosed within a durable, professional transparent plastic box package featuring a clean white insert. The product packaging clearly displays the bold red and black Panzer Mate branding, a reference image of the completed figure, the 1/35 scale designation, and a convenient QR code on the front that links modellers directly to detailed historical manuals and step-by-step assembly guides.
Fresh out of the package, the figure is securely anchored to an intricate, cage-like network of 3D printing support pillars. This temporary attachment structure is a standard characteristic of the manufacturing process, and it must be carefully and completely removed by the modeller prior to final assembly and priming (of course) but the finished product looks pretty good here woth not a lot of clean up.
This figure is going out to shops as we speak – & you can get this and most of Panzer Mate's products are available for sale in these online shops:
AK Interactive from Spain
Ultracast from Canada
A.M.S Paints and Accessories from Scotland
B.N.A Model World from Australia