Italeri

1/72 Sturmpanzer IV "Brummbar" Sd.Kfz. 166

Kit Number: 7050

Reviewed by  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $15.00 Includes 2 figures. Thanks to Model Rectifier Corporation (www.modelrectifier.com) and Italeri for the review kit. The Sturmpanzer Development of the Brummbar began in 1942. The famous Sturmgeschutz III (StuG 3), which was based on the PzKw III chassis wasn't as good an infantry support vehicle as the Wehrmacht wanted. So they asked the engineers for something newer and better. And what they got was an engineering answer, an armored vehicle on the newer Panzer IV chassis, with a BIG gun, the 150 mm (5.9 inch) Sturmhaubitze (StuH) 43 L/12. The StuH 43 could fire either HE or a shaped-charge anti armor rounds. This made the Sturmpanzer IV a fearsome weapon in an urban environment, where it could be used to breach walls with HE or deal with armor or fortified positions using the shaped charge round. The Germans never called the Sturmpanzer IV "Brummar", this was an Allied intelligence name. German soldiers called it "Stupa". Of course, no one thinks of everything, and the Stupa did have a few problems. The first was that it was VERY vulnerable to infantry attacks, since the 150 mm gun was the only weapon it carried. Later versions mounted a MG-34, but the early "fix" was to put a MP-40 submachine gun inside, and add firing ports. Another problem was that the gun was big. And it was heavy. The PzIV drive system wasn't up to moving all that weight, and transmission problems plagued the Sturmpanzer all through its career. The Kit This kit is an Italeri Panzer IV (kit 7007) with parts added to make it a Brummbar. If you can't find the Panzer IV kit, the parts are in there to build the tank, including hull, turret and gun. Thanks, Italeri. Brummbars were mostly used on the Russian front, but the markings in the kit are for two used in Italy, one from Normandy and one from Warsaw. The track is "length and link", which allows a good-looking assembly with minimal fuss. Assembly The assembly instructions call for putting the suspension and track assemblies together, then adding them to the hull, and completing the vehicle by putting on the upper section. This worked pretty well for me. The suspension section consists of two sets of axles mounted on the hull side. The bogie wheels, drive wheels and end wheels are all two parts. The return rollers are one piece. These could be a problem, if I wasn't putting on the side armor, which pretty much covers up the whole shebang anyway. Assembling the hull and adding the "length and link" tracks took a little time, but it came out pretty well. There are no locators on the drive sprockets. While I was assembling the tracks, I knocked the outer side off of one of the wheels, I got it back together a bit out of line. As a result, the track links on one side are ever so slightly out of true. I often use too much cement, but this time I didn't use enough to ensure that the assembly would stand up to handling. The hatches and gun fit very nicely on the upper works, and this fitted nicely onto the lower hull/suspension. The add-on parts like the jack, shovel, light, bore cleaners and periscope are nice little touches which are expected on a modern armor kit. I painted the vehicle overall Testors® Panzer Yellow, and added stripes in Panzer dark brown. This is supposed to be the Brummbar from the boxtop, but the darker brown isn't close to the one shown. I did this painting before adding the side skirts, the muffler assembly and the extra road wheels, to make painting the dark brown stripes a lot easier. Now for the finishing touches. I put on some future, and then did the markings. The decals were quite good, although they were a little sparse. On the other hand, it was pretty easy to put them on in just a few minutes. I then put Dullcote over the decals. Great. No silvering. Then I ran into the difficult part. The side skirts mount on 4 angled pieces on each side of the vehicle. There are indications where the parts are supposed to go on the skirt parts, but nothing on the vehicle, and no indication about what angle to put the brackets, or where they connect to the vehicle. I tried to use tube glue to mount the brackets to the skirts, and then adjust them to fit the hull. There just didn't seem to be enough "sticky" to make the brackets hold when I moved them.

I wound up using CA and accelerator, but I'm pretty sure there are alignment problems there. Also, there's a support further down the skirt which just isn't in the kit. As a result, the bottom of the skirt sags against the tracks. The other problem I had was a "shoot yourself in the foot" error. I mounted the exhaust section on the rear of the tank too high. I blame the instructions for being ambiguous about the placement. But if I had looked at the part of the instructions I scanned for the skirt support, I would have seen the correct placement. As it is, I couldn't mount both sets of spare wheels. It's fixable. Overall Assessment: Recommended. In spite of my problems, it's an eminently buildable kit. There aren't any real fit problems; in fact I was impressed with how well the upper hatches went into the hull structure. YOU can certainly do better than I did. Especially since I've given you all this guidance. Or if you build one of the two versions that doesn't use the side skirts, you can avoid a lot of the grief. Thanks to Italeri and IPMS/USA for providing another adventure in scale modeling.

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