Dragon
7.5cm Pak 40/4 auf RSO
DML 1:35 Scale Smart Kit No. 6640
Kit review by Terry Ashley

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Introduction:
The Raupenschlepper Ost RSO was developed by Steyr in 1942 and  produced between October 1943 and May 1944 for use in rough conditions encountered in Russia and used the same engine/transmission as their 1500A 1.5 tonne truck.

The suspension was a very basic design with all steel wheels and just four small leaf springs but the all tracked design and high ground clearance gave it excellent performance in the worst of conditions. Of the approximately 23,000 RSO's of all versions produced, 60 were built to mount the PaK 40/4 anti-tank on the rear flat bed and a lightly armoured front driver's compartment.

After being issued to field units their mobility and ready time was appreciated but the disadvantages outweighed with low speed, noisy engine and little protection for the crew, especially while on the move saw production end in 1944 with just the 60 units produced.

The kit:
This is the first really new kit from DML for some time (the RSO part that is) and I have been looking forward to the kit since it was first announced a while back. On first impressions the standard of moulding is very good with very clean crisp mouldings, there is some fine flash on some parts and the mould seams to be removed are a little heavy in places along with the many small plastic nodes on the parts. The lack of visible pin marks being very evident as is the fine details included on the parts but the PaK 40 parts have heavier mould seams as they have been around for a few years now.

As mentioned the RSO chassis and superstructure is new with the 7.5cm PaK 40/4 coming from the previous PaK 40 kits (6249, 6250) although the metal barrel from those kits is not included here, just the plastic barrel. The kit includes the full Steyr V8 3.5l, 8-cylinder 85hp gasoline engine as well as the full driver's compartment and cruciform mounting for the PaK 40/4.

The kit consists of 306 parts in light grey plastic, 144 individual "Magic track" links, 42 etched part and two miniscule wire steps plus two decal sheets and the fold out instruction sheet. A word of warning with the two small wire steps, these were included in the small decal sheet zip lock plastic bag without any hint they were lurking in there and if you are not careful these will disappear very quickly as they did on my kit before I realised where they were, expecting to find them in with the other metal parts (etched). Luckily I had bought two kits so can use the surviving set to make replacements in thin wire, or I could walk around without any shoes and hope I find them the hard way :-)

Metal and Etched parts
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The instructions unfortunately contain the usual array or errors and omissions common with DML instructions and I'll try and point out most of these throughout the review.

Dimensionally the kit matches the 1:35 plans in the Nuts & Bolts and Panzer Tracts books listed below well in all regards except for one area. That being the length of the rear bed/gun platform with the Nuts & Bolts plans showing the bed about 5mm longer than the kit bed giving a distinct overhang from the chassis. Conversely the plans in the Panzer Tracts book match the size of the kit bed so we are left scratching our heads a little. To confuse matters both books list the overall length of the vehicle differently with period photo evidence showing RSO/PaK 40s with the extended bed with at least one photo showing the shorter bed. That appears to be a prototype or early production vehicle with production vehicles appearing to have the extended bed as shown in the Nuts & Bolts plans, again based on photo evidence. More on this below.

It also seems though DML have fallen for the three card trick when looking at museum restored vehicles and included some detail that has been added by the museum instead of the authentic WWII detail, this relates mainly to the front driver and co driver seats as well as other smaller details. The seats depicted in the kit are the extruded plastic M113 crew seats without the cushion added by the museum as noted in the Nuts & Bolts book and not the canvas seats of the WWII RSO. I may be wrong but I didn’t think extruded plastic was available in the 1940s and an educated guess would assume these would be similar to the standard RSO and other German vehicle seats of WWII.

Running Gear:
Both the drive and idlers are tooth sprockets on the RSO and have the inner solid disc and outer ribbed disc as separate parts, the detail on the sprocket halves is very good with the drive sprocket central hub having the “Steyr” logo correctly depicted and legible. There is quite a bit of mould seam cleanup required between the sprocket teeth and on the ribs that needs care and you should also watch as both the inner sprocket disc for the drive and idler are marked B18 on the instructions (and sprues) but are in fact different.

The central round locating lug is a different size between the two with the smaller lug on the idler and larger lug for the drive sprocket. This may seem obvious but if you glue the smaller lug on the drive sprocket the larger lug won’t fit the idler sprocket when you get there, so care is needed.

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The fit of the inner ribbed brake drum (parts B16) to the drive sprockets requires care as there are no actual locating pins or guides and you have to ensure it is positioned evenly on the sprocket, also the round final drive mountings (parts B15) have three holes for the corresponding pins on the brake drum. One of the holes/pins is smaller than the other two (not sure why?) so make sure you line the holes/pins correctly for a proper fit.

The central differential/axle assemble has nine parts but the fit is quite sloppy to say least with a fair bit of movement even when there are ‘T’ locating pins and you have to make sure the parts are lined up correctly as it’s very easy to fit these with the wrong orientation. The lugs on the ends of parts A30, A31 also need to be trimmed as they are too long to fit into the locating holes on the final drive housing plates (parts A16, A17).

The fit of the final drive housings is also not that good and again you have to ensure they are located perfectly square to the axles as the glue dries, or the drive sprockets will be askew when fitted later.

The rear idler units also have the top sprocket halves that need careful cleanup of the mould seams and the fit of the parts is again not good with the locating holes being larger than the corresponding pins resulting in quite a bit of movement. You have to be careful fitting the parts A9, A10 and I actually test fitted the axle to the chassis to get the correct angle as the instructions were rather vague. In all the fit of the parts with these two assemblies is not up the DML’s usual standards.

There is another possible issue where you have both the drive and idler sprockets with teeth in fitting the track. Both the drive and idler sprockets are meant to be glued in place and when fitting the track the teeth may not align with the track holes, this is not a problem when the sprockets can be rotated to accommodate any alignment issues but not when glued in place and it may be an idea to leave one of the sprockets off until fitting the track to get the alignment right.

Another alternative is to make one of the sprockets movable and this isn’t that difficult really given the design of the drive sprockets and their mountings, see the modifications here should you wish to have rotating drive sprockets.

The task is not that difficult really as the round opening in the back of the drum brake disc is the exact size to take a Tamiya poly cap, although you have to cut the poly cap in half as the recess in the disc is not deep enough for the whole cap.

I then liberated a couple of axle stubs from a derelict Tamiya M3 Bradley and all you need do is drill 3.4mm hole in the middle of the drum disc mounting (parts B15) for the axle stub. Check the length of axle that will fit inside the drive sprocket and trim the axle stub accordingly then glue part B15 to A16, A17 as per instructions, glue the axle ensuring it is a perfect 90degre angle and leave to dry completely.

Drive sprocket parts with scavanged Tamiya poly cap and axle stub.
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You then cut the three pins from the brake drums and either just super glue the poly cap into the drive sprocket or make a small plastic card disc to hold it in place, this means you have to trim the poly cap a little thinner and have less of a grip on the axle, but both methods work okay.

Assembled differencial/final drives with axle stub added, poly cap superglued to the drive sprocket with the three pins cut off.
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Assembled differencial/final drives with axle stub added, poly cap secured with card disc in the drive sprocket with the three pins cut off.
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When all glue is dry you just fit the drive sprocket to the axle stub and you can rotate this to align with the track guide holes without any trouble, all very easy really and you can leave the sprockets off until fitting the track later if you wish.

Fully assembled differencial/final drives with movable drive sprockets.
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The all steel road wheels are the correct diameter and have the dish profile and lightening holes nicely done but the centre hub is poorly defined and too shallow. The actual wheel hub is noticeably raised from the wheel dish and larger in diameter to that on the kit wheels. Hopefully the aftermarket people are tooling up resin road wheels as we speak as the wheels are a major part of the kit.

The kit also includes small etched strips to add over the road wheel hubs but I have only seen these fitted to early RSO/1s and haven't seen any photos of these strips on 7.5cm RSO wheels so it's best to not fit these as these instructions indicate.

The multi part suspension H frame is nicely moulded with just the mould seams to be removed with the fit of the three main frames (parts A2, B3x2) being very good making for a precise assembly, you just need to ensure the two side frames (parts B3) are parallel with each other. The four road wheel mounting bars are not numbered in the instructions but are parts B1, B2 with the bars being fitted diagonally opposite each other on either side of the frame. Note you should not glue the four bars in place until you have added the road wheels to ensure all eight wheels touch the ground.

There are small etched discs added to the ends of the road wheel bars for added detail and the road wheels have small mounting plugs glued to the rear hub with the fit to the axle stub also being very good. The assembled suspension frame is later added to the lower chassis with the four leaf springs mating to brackets on the side of the chassis.

Tracks:
The tracks are labelled "Magic Track" by DML and are individual links designed to be glued together to form the track runs with the track fitted around the drive and idler sprockets as well as the top run track sag added before the glue has dried completely. It is claimed there is no cleanup required on these track links but that is not quite the case as there are three small pin marks and the remnants of the sprue join on  the inside of each link as well as a fine mould seam on each side of the link to be removed. Of course you could not worry about this to save time as the pin marks and mould seams are quite fine but they may show with the weathering process, so I guess the choice is yours.
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The detail on the link face has a nice cast texture but the pin bolts are not well defined at all with the links fitting together easily and also fit to the sprockets nicely and should look okay once fitted. If you wanted fully working track there is three options available; Friulmodel set #ALT29, Modelkasten set #SK-33 and WWII Productions set #35004.

The instructions indicate to use 67 links per side but I used 68 links of the review kit, no big deal and when fitting the assembled track runs I needed to move the drive sprocket a little to align the tooth holes correctly and either leaving one sprocket off till fitting the track or making the drive sprocket movable as above will be needed for trouble free fitting of the tracks.

Steyr V8 3.5l, 8-cylinder Engine:
The kit includes a full detailed engine, this engine is the same as that used in the Steyr 1500A 1.5t truck and is made up of 48 parts with the main engine block in two halves with separate lower sump cover. Each bank of cylinders is in two parts with separate head covers; these are different for each bank of four cylinders so take care you don’t mix these up after removing from the sprues.

The large distinctive top mounted cooler blowers have well defined fan blades with separate small ‘star’ brackets plus separate square oil coolers with subtle mesh texture and look quite impressive. Take note that the lip around the top of the fan units should be there so don’t trim this thinking it might be excessive flash.

Other parts include the alternator, distributor and the front pulley assembly with the belt moulded on and this requires care in handling as the belt is moulded quite thin. Note, you should not fit the small top pipe (part E14) as this will foul the driver's compartment when this is fitted over the engine onto the chassis.

The fit of the cooler blowers to the top of the engine was a little troublesome and needed about 1mm trimmed from the front of the star bracket (part E17) to align with the top pulley on part E36 and the centre of the other star bracket (part E18) needed to be drilled out to allow the fan rod (part E15) to pass through. Note that the two cooler blowers just sit on the edge of the two engine end plates (parts E19, E28) so check the cooler blowers sit level before the glue dries. The locating pins on the alternator mounting (part E5) are best trimmed off for easier fitting.

The two exhaust manifolds are not mentioned in the instructions and are different for either side; part E20 is the left manifold and D21 the right manifold, these are located under the cylinder banks either side of the engine block.

The rear transmission housing in three parts is joined to the engine mounting bracket, unfortunately this is fractionally too wide to fit between the hull tub sides and the small locating pins either side had to be removed and the ends of the bracket trimmed slightly to fit into the tub. These locating pins are not really needed as there are additional locating pins on the bottom of the sump that fit into holes in the tub floor which are sufficient to locate the engine correctly.

There is an eight part drive shaft which leads back to the rear axle differential; the shaft and differential are joined later in the assembly. One thing to note is the three part air cleaner is mounted inside the cab assembly with the pipe joining the engine as you fit the cab, but I’m not sure how you actually do this as there is no access to the engine once the cab assembly is in place so as long as the air cleaner pipe points in the general direction that’s probably the best you can do.

The fully assembled engine in quite impressive with well defined details and there is plenty wiring and smaller details that could be added if you wanted to display the engine but it’s a pity it’s mostly hidden once the chassis and cab are joined. You can actually see the cylinder heads through the crew compartment but this is because the kit doesn't include the engine bay side panels as it should to blank off the engine.

Lower Chassis:
The lower chassis tub is a single moulding free of any pin marks with nice surface detail on both sides of the floor as well as on the outside of the side panels with separate inside panels again with excellent detail. These inside panels also create the top detail of the chassis once fitted as well as including the mounting brackets for the cab and rear bed.

The instructions don’t indicate this but you MUST add the two side exhaust pipes (parts A7, A8) before anything else as it’s very difficult to add these later and once the main chassis is assembled there are additional parts for the rear bar and support brackets and towing pintle, inner bulkheads the front bar and two towing hooks. These hooks (parts A11, A12) are too long and should be shortened by about 1.5mm with the one piece muffler added to the rear hull and mated to the side exhaust pipes, the small exhaust pipe out of the muffler is the wrong shape and should have a rounded profile, not right angled as provided. You shouldn’t attach the top cross member (part A19) until after the engine has been added later.Dragon

Two parts included in the kit but don’t get a mention in the instructions other than just appearing in the step 6 illustrations are the two drive sprocket debris removers (parts A5, A6) attached to the chassis side just in front of the drive sprockets. The holes in ends of the rod could be enlarged for a better appearance but while the debris removers are included the curved track pin deflector is not, this is used to push the track pins back in place as they pass over the sprockets and hopefully this will be included in the inevitable etched update sets for the kit?

While you get the internal detail with the bulkheads etc. the kit doesn’t include the additional bulkhead and support braces added for the 7.5cm PaK40 RSO mounting other than the top part of the bulkhead and gun mounting pin (part F15) and you may wish to add the additional detail. Granted not a lot of this will be seen after assembly, just as the detail already included can’t be so it’s up to the individual if you want to add the bulkheads/braces or not? You may want to think about the fuel tank as this is also not included but again can't be seen afterwards so probabloy isn't an issue.

Final assembly of the running gear, engine and chassis sub-assemblies posed no real fit problems but fitting the engine can be a little fiddley with some minor coaxing may be needed but nothing excessive. You also need to feed the drive shaft through the rear bulkhead in the process.

With the front idler assembly the instructions are very confusing with arrows showing the axle mountings and the panel cover (part A22) both going in the same place. The cover arms in fact go up over the axle resting on top of the rear tub bulkhead inside the tub side panels.

The rear drive sprocket assembly did not fit very well at all, and the two final drive housings were not wide enough to fit over the chassis frames by about 1mm (0.5mm each side). I had to trim some plastic off the side of the chassis to allow the assembly to fit properly.

Armoured Driver compartment:
The main Driver compartment is a single large impressive moulding that includes the sides, angled front plates and engine compartment cover with the rear plate, top crew hatches and floor as separate parts. You may want to add the fine weld seams on the panel joins to improve the appearance further.

The rear plate has the engine compartment vent cut-outs but you don’t get any mesh that should be over the vents, I presume because the museum example didn’t have any? It is easy to add this from any spare etched mesh to enhance the detail.

The separate floor plate has additional parts for the driver’s foot pedals that are nicely done plus the steering lever box and separate levers; these have the top hand grips tapered and not the correct even profile but can easily be replaced with short sections of plastic rod. A few items are missing these being the gear shift lever that extends out from the centrally mounted engine, the two brake fluid containers located under the top lip behind the steering levers and the side panels to the engine compartment. On the co-driver's side is the three parts engine air cleaner and small battery box.

The seats as mentioned above are not authentic WWII items but are Modern U.S. M113 crew seats without the cushions added by the museum during the vehicle restoration. There is a clear image of the backrest of the actual WWII RSO PaK40 seats in the Panzer Tracts book (page 7-172) showing the standard canvas covered German truck seat. Granted this shot is of a test vehicle but there is no reason to think the production vehicles would be different but it’s clearly obvious the kit seats are not original given that extruded plastic or the ability to manufacture it weren’t around in the 1940s. But you can either glue the crew hatches closed or make some replacement seats more fitting the time period.

As an example I modified the RSO seats from the Royal Models RSO/1 update set (#272) to fit the RSO PaK40 crew cab based on an educated (or uneducated) assumption the seats would be similar to the RSO/1 and other German truck seats of the period.

View of kit seat underside and the actual M113 seat, note the shape and four mounting lugs the same as the incorrect kit seats
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Original incorrect kit seats
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Modified Royal Model crew seats more applicable to time period.
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The small instrument panel included is also not original and is another museum addition as noted in the Nuts & Bolts book but as there are no clear photos available of the actual panel it will do the job.

The fit of the floor to the cab is good but you have to carefully insert the front of the floor into the cab to avoid any problems, the top crew hatches are provided in plastic or thin brass sheet with additional etched latches.

The plastic hatches are a little on the thick side with the brass hatches obviously thinner but the larger outer brass hatch is the wrong shape, considering the plastic hatch is good this is rather odd? Added to this when the brass hatch hinges are mated to the moulded on hinges on the cab the hatch sticks out past the back of the cab.

So we are basically left with the plastic hatches and thinning these down will improve the appearance, especially if shown open, you will also need to cut out a small 1.5mm square from the top cornet of the plastic hatch to allow for the tray side latches that fit to the cab compartment, oh what a web etc.  Another alternative is to make new hatches from thin plastic card using the kit hatch as a template, this will solve the thickness issue and being just flat panels is no big deal, see kit images.

Rear Platform:
This is a fairly simple sub-assembly with the main floor in one large part with the correct dot pattern tread plate texturing, the underside filler panels plus the three separate folding side gates. Smaller items include the front and rear gun supports, the two folding crew seats and the lid from the open ammo locker.

There has been some debate over the length of the rear tray bed as mentioned above and there is evidence with a well documented overhead shot published in all the books listed below of the RSO captured and evaluated at Ft. Knox which clearly shows the extended bed with the seven ammo lockers to hold the stated load of 28 x 7.5cm rounds and there are also side profile shots available that again clearly show the same bed length which is about 5mm longer than the kit bed.

Also with the longer bed the actual gun mounting is set back the same scale 5mm which can be seen in some photos as the muzzle brake doesn’t extend out over the hull front like it does with the shorter bed.

Other evidence shows the shorter bed length as depicted in the kit and the Panzer Tracts plans with the muzzle brake extending the extra distance over the hull front which basically means without further precise data on the actual bed dimensions I'm not going to make a definitive call and there is no real reason to doubt the length of the kit bed at this point.

The bed has the ammo and equipment lockers engraved apart from the one open locker at the back, but there are two lockers missing from behind the cab, there should be four across the bed not just the two outside lockers as on the kit bed.

The side folding gate panels have separate supports as these are in different positions in relation to the panels in the upright and lowered positions. The corner latches for the side panels are supplied in etched brass and while they suffer from the perennial 2D appearance of all etched bits they do give a good effect for the latches. You could use these are templates to make the latches from thin wire for the full 3D appearance if you wished.

The front and rear gun travel locks are nicely done but the rear lock has the bed mounting brackets too far back, again due to the rebuilt museum vehicle having these in the wrong place. They should in fact be placed centrally on the panel they sit on and by carefully cutting the brackets off with a sharp blade they can be reposition centrally on the panel, this may seem a small and insignificant change and leaving the brackets as they are may not be that noticeable, again it's up to the individual to make the alteration or not? The folding crew seats are correctly depicted and can be fitted in the raised or lowered position as you wish.

The instructions show to fit the armoured cab and rear bed to the chassis separately but I found it easier to join the two together beforehand into one large sub-assembly and then fit this to the lower hull. The join between the cab and bed is very positive due to two large locating lugs and the subsequent fit of the sub-assembly to the lower hull was very good so this method makes for very easy assembly.

Cruciform Gun Mounting:
The complex looking cruciform base is nicely represented in the kit with the square base plate and the four short outrigger legs in three parts each. You do have to take careful note of the part numbers and writing them on the parts with a fine pen will help. It’s best not to glue the small mountings (parts F13, F14) as you assemble each leg as these have to align with the lower hull mountings and having them movable will help with this.

When fitting the outrigger legs to the base they have to go in a set order, so again check the instructions to position these correctly, the overall fit of the parts was good apart from having to enlarge the holes in a couple of parts F13, F14 but not all.

The top turntable is also a nicely done single moulding and fits snugly to the cruciform base but the instructions indicate to fit this through the opening in the rear platform after attaching this to the lower hull, something that is quite difficult with the platform in place due to having to line up the base supports (parts F13, F14) with the hull mountings.

It is far easier to fit the cruciform base to the lower hull before fitting the rear platform as you have clear access to the mounting to ensure they are aligned correctly, the base fits neatly through the opening in the platform as this is added later as noted above.

7.5cm PaK 40/4:
The 7.5cm PaK 40/4 is the same as in the previous PaK 40 kits (6249, 6250) but obviously without the wheels and trails, the parts have fairly prominent mould seams to be removed as they have been around for a few years now and care is needed cleaning some of the smaller parts.

There is the choice of three muzzle brakes and most images of active 7.5cm RSO’s indicate that using the muzzle brake with the round profile rear section (part B56) and angled front section (part B46) would be the most appropriate.

The barrel in plastic is in one single moulding other than the rear quarter as a separate part and this reduced the seam cleanup required and by ensuring the mating surfaces on the four part breech are perfectly smooth will help reduce any gaps to be filled. The lower barrel slide (part B36) like just about all gun kits doesn’t have the lower edge sills that attach it to the gun cradle and you may want to add these from thin card.

The gun cradle in two halves has rivet detail on the inside of the rear section for good detail but the instructions show to fit the trunnion supports (parts B26, B27) on the wrong side of the cradle and you should swap these about from that indicated. Missing from the front of the cradle is the barrel lock mounting for the forward gun travel lock as this is additional detail added to the guns on the RSO and this should be added.

The small recoil rods and their mounting (part B32) don’t have any indication where they should go in the instructions, and the mounting should be attached to the underside of the breech with the inner cradle rod guide (part B31) going inside the gun cradle with the rod fed though the guide as you fit the gun to the cradle. I actually didn’t bother using the inner guide to make things easier as this can’t be seen after the gun is assembled.

Assembly of the two gun trunnions and the added parts is fairly straightforward although cleaning the mould seams from the small parts needs care and the end of the hand wheel mounting (part B13) is shown incorrectly positioned in the instructions. It’s pretty obvious where it should go as the mounting won’t reach the locating hole indicated, but will meet the intended locating hole so this shouldn’t be a problem.

The kit gives you the sight mounting with and without the sight and you should only fit the gun sight for a gun in action; the sight was always stowed away when not in use to prevent damage.

The spaced gun shields are in two parts but are thick and butt joined together with just the edges bevelled to give the impression of the gap between with brass parts for the movable shields trapped between them. The appearance is acceptable but obviously replacing the shields with any of the available brass PaK40 shields will improve the appearance considerably.

Added to the bottom of the standard shields is an extension lower shield but this would not fit properly due to the bevelling of the inside shields and I had to shave plastic away to make the locating area flat to allow the locating lugs on the shield extension to sit correctly.

Another addition is the lower traverse ring (part F18) and the two trunnion clamps (parts F1, F2) and it’s best to glue the clamps to the ring and then temporarily fit the gun to the carriage turntable to get the correct placement of the clamps on the trunnion sides. Don’t glue the ring to the turntable, just the clamps to the trunnion sides, also the ring should have traverse teeth on the inside curve but these are not included.

The assembled gun fits neatly to the locating hole in the cruciform turntable you can leave the gun off until after painting to make things easier as it will sit in place without glue if you wish, just remember this if you pick the kit up.

Additional items included in the kit are two wooden shell boxes with separate lids, six single shell canisters and eight rounds of 7.5mm ammo, four Gr. Patr. 38 (High Explosive Anti-Tank) and four Sprgr.Patr.34 (High Explosive) plus three used shell casings.

Decals & Instructions:
The kit has two decal sheets, one from the PaK 40 kit 6249 with an array of stencil data for the ammo boxes/canisters and shells in both black and white as well as a small sheet for the vehicle itself. This has a single Wahrmacht number plate, two different unit insignia and a few arm of service markings for the seven different schemes shown in the instruction painting guide.

All but two of the schemes have the usual note “Unidentified Unit”.The instructions as mentioned are typical DML I’m sorry to say with an array of miss numbered parts, parts not identified and placement arrows pointing to the wrong place. This has been commented on forever about DML instructions yet they don’t seem to improve?
Option 1: Unidentified Unit, Eastern Front 1944
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Option 3: Pz.Jg.Abt.152, 1.Ski.Jg.Div., Eastern Front 1944
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Option 5: Unidentified Unit, Meppen 1944
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Option 7: Pz.Jg.Abt.152, 1.Ski.Jg.Div., Eastern Front 1944
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Option 2: Unidentified Unit, Eastern Front 1944
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Option 4: Unidentified Unit, Eastern Front 1944
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Option 6: Unidentified Unit, Eastern Front 1944
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Conclusion:
The kit is without doubt a generational leap over the old Italeri RSO kit and will build into an impressive looking kit, but it could have been even better if not for the odd clanger DML like to drop into many of their kits, maybe just to see if we are awake?

There is some excellent detail such as the lower hull tub/chassis, engine, armoured cab and the cruciform turntable for the PaK 40 but then we have those M113 seats, road wheel hubs that are very poorly done, the crew hatches that really need replacing unless fitted closed and numerous smaller issues and some poorly fitting parts. It’s almost like they got the apprentice to do up the drive train on a Friday arvo, the fit here is so different from the rest of the kit which fits very well on the whole.

But overall it is a nice kit that looks very much the part but a bit of work is needed to build a truly great kit and I really hope they fix the road wheel hubs at least before releasing the other kits in the series, but somehow I won’t be holding my breath unfortunately given DML's track record on issues such as this.

Rating 8/10

The Sprues:

Sprue images
Click on thumbnails for larger view

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Build images
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Sprue detail images
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References:
7.5cm Pak 40/4 auf gep.
Selbstfahrlafftte Raupenachleper OST (RSO)

Nuts & Bolts Vol. 09 Revised
book
Panzerjaeger
Panzer Tracts No.7.3
Thomas L Jentz, Hilary Louise Doyle
Book
Allied & Axis No.20
Raupenachleper OST

Ampersand Publishing
book
Ground Power Magazine
#119- 4/2004

Published by GALILEO Publishing Co.,Ltd
book
Steyr 1500A in detail
Special Museum Line No.9

Wings & Wheels Publications
book
Thanks to my credit card and Rainbow Ten for the review kits.


Page created November 15, 2010



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