Tank Model

1/35 MG-34 Panzer Set

Stock Number: A-13

Reviewed By  Bart Cusumano, IPMS# 31882

MSRP: $9.00 Visit their website (www.tank-model.ru). The Maschinengewehr-34 (MG-34) was the main infantry support weapon of the German Army in the first half of WW II. It also served as the main vehicle, or tank machine gun for the entire war. The weapon was air-cooled and fired a 7.92mm Mauser round. Tank Models has produced item number A-13 which is a set of two MG-34's cast in their brownish-gray resin. There are 14 parts in total - seven per MG-34. For each weapon you get the main gun, two bipods (one deployed and one retracted), a magazine (the truncated cone type), two ammo bags (one opened and one closed) and for some reason, a spare barrel (which is not an accurate depiction of the actual spare item). The parts come packed in a clear poly zip-bag with a cardboard fold-over stapled to the top. There are no assembly instructions or photos of the finished product provided. Assembly of the parts is fairly simple and rudimentary - with no problems. However, I was a bit put off by the amount of cleanup that was required on my samples. One of the reasons I usually don't mind spending a little extra cash for resin accessories is that they are usually pretty much ready to use from the package (aside from pour stub clean up). This was just not the case here. There were also some details missing on the guns: - the forward hard sight was missing - cocking lever is way too short - the gun barrel is missing the holes on the cooling jacket. One of my references said that the tank-mounted weapons had armored barrels without the cooling holes, but even still, the barrels as provided just don't look right. There were air holes present in one of the circular magazines. One of the guns was warped - despite the use of multiple pour gates. On a positive note, the business end of the weapon is already open and will not require drilling out. I also found the casting to be quite crisp and once painted up, the MG-34's looked quite nice - despite their problems. Ditto for the ammo bags. Just for reference sake, I pulled out a box of Tamiya's German Infantry Weapons Set (item #3611). This set has been around for a number of years now and to be honest, the MG-34's provided looked pretty darned good - they are not as crisply molded as the Tank resin items, but what they lack in crispness was made up for in one big category: one of these sets will cost you about the same as this Tank item - and not only do you get four (4) MG-34's, but a whole bunch of other weapons to boot. If you absolutely have to have a resin MG-34, then these pieces will suffice. Like I said, they do look good once you paint them up. I will more than likely use the items I did for this review in a future diorama. But for my money, I would recommend taking a look at the Tamiya (or even DML) items. Many thanks to Tank Models for providing the sample and to IPMS/USA for allowing me the pleasure of doing this review.

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