Model Armour

7.5cm PaK 40 & Gun Crew w/3.7cm PaK 35/36

Manufacturer: Dragon models

Scale: 1/72

Material: Styrene & photo-etch

Serial Number: 7374

Price: TBA

Introduction

Dragon themselves need no introduction, being arguably the premier 1/35^th scale manufacturer of armoured fighting vehicle kits. There can't be many modellers around that are unaware of their line of 1/72^nd scale kits either...but many modellers may be unaware of how far this scale has progressed in terms of quality...

The Kit

The kit consists of the two guns...a 7.5cm PaK40 and 3.7cm PaK 35/36 along with five figures.

The kit arrives in the standard Dragon box for 1/72^nd scale kits. Inside there's the Dragon 'card', which in this case contains only one small decal sheet and one tiny photo-etched fret. Also in the box are a four-sided instruction pamphlet and ten small sprues of light grey styrene.

The moulding is of course superb, although there was some kind of mould residue on the figure sprue in my example, which looked suspiciously similar to oil of some kind?

Of the ten sprues within the box, there are two sprues consisting of parts for the PaK40 and two for the PaK35/36. The other six sprues all consist of parts that go to making up the five figures.

Each of the two guns have been the subject of earlier kits, and once built you'd be hard put to tell from a photograph exactly which scale they were. The PaK40 includes a two-piece shield, moulded commendably thin for this scale, although a scale thickness will never be achievable at this scale. Dragon have made extensive use of slide-moulding in producing this one, evidenced by the one-piece gun slide, and therefore no ugly seam to try and disguise down the middle. The main barrel is slide moulded in one piece with muzzle brake an integral part, and we even get the choice of three barrels with early, mid and late production brakes. The wheels are supplied on a separate small sprue, each in two parts, and again we're offered a choice between pressed solid hubs and open-spoked. The gun can be built in firing or towing mode with the trails open.

The PaK35/36 is similar in quality. Again using slide-moulding, the tiny barrel is supplied pre-drilled and moulded integrally with the slide, and although the shield on this one is one part, there is a small photo-etched insert for the sliding armour over the barrel. Again the gun can be displayed in firing or towing mode.

The rest of the kit consists of parts that go together to make up the five figures...and it seems lots more too. The main body parts of the five figures are held on one sprue, such as separate upper torso's and arms and legs. The parts breakdown is almost exactly the same as they would be at the larger scale of 1/35^th. This holds true even for equipment, with two weapons sprues being supplied along with two sprues of personal equipment. Now these last two will come as quite a surprise to most modellers...even those used to this smaller scale. Along with separate heads, we get tiny, perfectly formed separate canteens, bread bags, gasmask cylinders, etc., which, although they will make assembly more difficult, think how great they'll look once painted up....added to which there are many, many more than you would need for the five figures in this set, meaning that if you normally work at this scale you'll have absolutely loads left over for other projects!

The five tiny figures are moulded in action poses, based around the firing of the PaK40, although it should be possible adapting these to other uses, or around the PaK35/36 as they all have separate arms etc. In addition there are four shells provided.

The tiny decal sheet provided contains mainly markings for the ready rounds, although there are kill rings supplied for both of the guns.

Conclusion

Imagine the diorama you could build with this set...or rather the size of it. This scale has come on in leaps and bounds as far as quality is concerned, and there really are levels of detail in this kit to rival the larger scale of 1/35^th. Superb!

My thanks to Dragon models for the review sample

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