The set has one cleanly cast resin part for the machine gun, ball mounting and outer gun trough with the nicely machined barrel with extremely fine cooling fins and a small etched front sight for the barrel which has the muzzle hollowed out as well although this flash suppressor is slightly undersized but not that noticeable.

The ball mounting is a little too small and doesn't have the sight hole above the gun but there is not enough room to add this due to the undersized ball mounting which also results in the gun protruding too far forward in the kit gun mountings, see below.

There is only the small casting block to be removed from the gun and it's ready to fit the barrel into the pre-drilled hole in the resin receiver. The opening in the end of the gun trough had to be slightly opened up to fit the barrel neatly but other than that the assembled gun and mounting looks superb.

Fitting the gun to the Tristar 38(t) kits (#35020, #35022 or #35026) was the same as with the kit guns and so no alterations were required but unfortunately the resin ball is slightly smaller than that in the Tristar kit meaning the ball was very loose inside the mounting and extends way to far out the front and you will have to build up the ball to get a better fit.

The fit to the Tamiya Marder III was slightly better but still a little loose and the ball will again have to be built up for a better fit.

Voyager gun fitted to Tristar kit with view of the kit gun (middle) and real gun (right)
Note, undersized ball mounting with no sight hole.

Another alternative is to drill out the barrel locating hole in the kit ball mounting to the appropriate size for the metal barrel and cut off the resin gun trough and then attach the resin part to the kit ball with the metal barrel. This will give you the best of both worlds without too much work.

Tristar kit part modified to take Voyager metal barrel and resin cradle

Conclusion:
This is a nicely done ZB-37 machine gun with the metal barrel having extemely fine details but the fit of the ball will require a little work. Other than that this update will add greatly to the overall appearance of whichever kit it is used on, but you will have to buy two sets for the 38(t) Ausf. C-F.

Recommended 6/10.

See the Voyager Models website for additional details.

Thanks to Voyager Models for kindly providing the review samples.

Page Created November 14, 2006