AFV Club is rapidly gaining a reputation for producing excellent artillery pieces and this new kit just adds to the growing list.

The 7.5cm Pak40 was the most widely used German anti-tank gun of the war being encountered on all fronts from late 1941 onwards as well as being mounted on a variety of vehicles.

The kit represents an early model gun as evidenced by the initial style muzzle brake and also features steel spoked wheels instead of the earler pressed steel wheels.

The kit consists of 139 parts in olive green plastic with an aluminium barrel, pressed brass gun shields and ‘rubber’ tyres for a multi-media kit similar to the recent Pak43/41.

The quality of the mouldings is again excellent with virtually no pin marks on any parts, this is especially noticeable on the parts with detail on both sides such as the lower folding gun shield that are completely free of any blemishes.

There are some very small and finely moulded parts which do have a little thin flash but this should be easy to remove and you will also need to take care when removing these small parts from the sprues.

Sprue D from the 10.5cm leFH18 is included but you only use 6 parts from this for the telescopic sight mounting and canisters on the gun shield with the rest consigned to the spares box.

Detail on the parts is very well done from the nice bolt head and panel details on the gun cradle and trunnions, the well represented wheel spokes to the split trail arms which have very subtle weld seams down one side which should not be confused with moulding seams and removed by mistake.

The gun shields are provided in two pre-bent pressed brass parts with very small plastic studs to add for the spacers and there is the already released set AF35073 with brass studs available separately to use if the plastic bits get a bit fiddley? Additional etched parts are provided for the central bolted plates. the small front sliding shield and top sill.

The ‘rubber’ tyres are well done and have the two longitudinal groves and the "Continental" embossing on the sidewall plus a sizable sink hole at the pour point in the middle of the tread but this can be positioned on the ground contact so isn’t really a problem at all. These are fitted to the nice wheels which have separate brake drums, hand brake lever and other small fittings.

The trailing arms can be positioned in either the closed transport mode or split firing position with alternate positioned parts depending on your choice.

With the metal barrel the two part muzzle brake and five part breech with separate sliding block are positioned over small notches at either end of the barrel for a secure fit and you should obviously make sure the muzzle brake and breech are lined up correctly before final gluing.

Construction is fairly conventional for this type of gun with the gun/cradle, trunnion assembly, base with split trailing arms and wheels able to be built as sub-assemblies and married together to finish of the model. The brass shields have very fine mounting arms and care should be taken when fitting these as well as with the many other fine parts on the gun mounting and trailing arms.

No markings are provided with the painting guide simply showing a gun in overall German Grey and Dark Yellow for an early or late war gun.

Rubber Tyres

Another excellent artillery piece from AFV Club with the metal barrel and two part brass shields adding that extra detail dimension.
The level of detail is also a step up from other Pak40s available as you would expect with a brand new kit and should find a home in many a diorama.

Highly recommended.

Also released is set #AG 35012 with the pressed brass shields and brass plugs which can be used on any other Pak40 kit as well as on the Marder II and set #AF 35075 7.5cm Pak40 Ammunition and Accessory set to add life to dioramas.

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Click HERE for a comparison review with the Dragon kit #6249 PaK 40 7.5cm Anti-Tank Gun.

See the PaK40 Subjects page for additional reviews of PaK40 related kits/update sets.

Marder III Ausf.H Nuts & Bolts Vol.18 128 pages, Soft Cover

Thanks to AFV Club for the review kit.
is distributed in Australia by J.B.Wholesalers