Drilling (MG 151/20)
1/35 Kit #35002
Review by Terry Ashley
This new set from Calibre35 is of the 2cm MG151/20 mounting and consists of 25 resin pieces cast in a light cream resin, three metal tubes for the MG barrels plus a small etched fret. Three additional ammo belts in a different resin is also included, more on these later.
The
quality of resin casting is excellent with the parts being very crisp and blemish
free with only minimal casting blocks to be removed, the only blemish being
a slight warping in the sides of the MG shields as these are cast very thin.
This should be easy to remidy with some warm water, also the top cross member
(part 13) should help to straighten these.
The cradle for the three MGs is very nicely detailed as are the cannons themselves. The three flash suppressors for the metal barrels are very finely cast but require holes to be drilled to fit over the ends of the barrels, this will take some careful handling and drilling to achieve. An extra flash suppressor is included in case of slip ups which is nice to see, as this would probably be the trickiest part of the construction.
The three ammo bins also have nice details along with alternate gunner's seats, one the early steel type and the later wooden seat plus other small details for the pedistal mounting. The etched fret provides you with the small gun shield and fine ring sight.
The Ammo belts:
These are cast in a very hard resin which is different from the other parts
and will need to be removed from the casting blocks using a fine razor saw.
Cutting with a hobby knife would most likely crack the resin as it isn't very
thick. Again care would be needed when using the razor saw to ensure you cut
the strips completely and they don't break off, the instructions alert you to
this and it is worth noting.
The instruction sheets have exploded view drawings of the construction with additional notes and should be easy to follow, the only down side is that no info is given to fit the mount to the Tamiya 251 kit. I have included scans of the two pages here to show the kit parts.
Highly recommended,
although there are a couple of areas needing care to prevent damage to the parts
as mentioned above but a very detailed Drilling mount will be built from this
kit.
Just on another note, the only thing this set has in common with the earlier
Aires Drilling conversion set
(set No.3004) are the metal barrels and cannon bodies, all other parts are far
more detailed in the Calibre35 set.
References:
Page Created 30 September 2002