Panzerjäger 38 füer 7.5cm PaK40/3 (Sd.Kfz.138)
Marder III Ausf.H
1:35 Dragon/Italeri/Tristar Kit comparison
Driver's plate
The Dragon and Tristar plates have separate vision ports and MG ring
while the Italeri kit has these included with the front plate
The Dragon plate has a number of issues due again to the Ausf.G plate being used.
The left visor and MG ring between 1 and 1.5mm too far outboard and the MG ring has the bolts miss aligned.
As a result of this the third central bolt on the left of the plate is completely missing as there is no room to fit it.
There is a bit of work needed to correct these issues if you want an accurate Driver's plate.
Both the Italeri and Tristar kits have the details and locations correct for the Marder III H.
The images below show the incorrect Dragon plate details as well as showing the Panzer Tracts plans overlayed
to show the actual locations of the various details if you wish to correct the Dragon part?
Here is a larger image of the Driver’s plate to highlight the errors with the Dragon kit in case some are confused?
- The missing bolt due to both the MG ring and visor being too far to the left
- The visor located too low on the plate
- The incorrect orientation of the MG ring bolts, hard to understand how
this can be
wrong with so many photos available, it’s just plain careless and flies in the face of all the
claims about the research and attention to detail put into these kits. - The spacing on the barrel travel lock not in the kit
discrepancies as a whole which results in missing detail important if you care about portraying a Marder III H correctly.
Barrel travel lock details
The Dragon support bracket has six bolts but there should only be four as with the Italeri and Tristar parts.
Easy enough to just cut the middle two bolts off.
There should also be a 1.5mm gap between the lower frame and the travel lock which is missing from the
Dragon assembly but again is correct on the Tristar assembly.
Note the issues with Dragon lock, no space between base and lock,
no central guide post and simple end brackets lacking detail
Machine gun details, the Dragon gun does not have the enlarged cooling fins inside the cradle
but does have additional internal details and ammo belt provided.
