Dragon

1/35 Befehlsjager 38 Ausf M

Kit Number: 6472

Reviewed by  Tom Moon, IPMS# 43192

MSRP: $50.45 Review Sample provided by Dragon Models USA: www.dragonmodelsusa.com The Dragon Befehlsjager 38 Ausf M kit is marketed as a Smart kit that has a good balance of multimedia parts. The kit includes two frets of photo etched brass, a length of braided metal wire for the tow cables, a small set of decals and an 8 page set of instructions. There are a total of 1028 parts, nine of which are clear; however, the usable number of parts is 859. These numbers include the 240 Magic Tracks. The total of parts that you will use will be reduced as you have the choice to use PE vs. plastic, 3 different muzzle brakes, firing vs. travel mode, 2 different antennas, different styles of ammo and their containers, also if you are not going to have the hatches open all the interior can be left out. So, you have many options that need to be reviewed and decided on before you start. Steps 1 to 3 - Lower Hull and running gear As with most armor kits the first step is the running gear. Remember those choices I mentioned in the paragraph above, well, here is the first one. You have a choice of the idler wheel, either round or oblong lightening holes. I will leave these off until I'm ready to mount the tracks as it is designed to rotate in the mounting hole and allow you to take up any slack that appears in the tracks. The second choice is between a solid drive sprocket and one with lightening holes. The bogies and wheels are pretty straight forward. The wheels have a mold seam down the middle of the tire. These are a pain to remove, but I make short work of it by using a Dremel Stylus drill with a high speed cutter that allows me to shave off a miniscule thickness of the tire and then I finish up with a sanding stick to get a semi smooth surface. After this the instructions show adding the idler wheel, drive sprocket, return rollers and the front armor plate. The front armor plate has the pigtail tow shackle and spare track holder. The instructions show a choice between parts G24 and D60 for the spare track holder. There is a problem with part D60 as it is too long and the round locating pin is too large for the predrilled hole. Part G24 fits correctly. Step 4 to 6 - Engine, Transmission, Interior and Firewalls Here you need to decide if you are going to display the hatches open (see step 7) and the top plate open (step 18) to show the interior. In my finished model I will show it buttoned up, but I assembled and installed the interior to see if there were any problems. There are not any real problems, but dry fit and test before committing glue.

Step 7 to 9 - Upper Hull and Side Walls and MG, Radios, and Ready Round Holders The only problem I ran into was that with part Q42, the Drivers hatch bulge does not fit into part C12 frontal plate. To fix this I cutoff the lip of the part X (Hull) to fit the part Q42 onto the hull and C12. The MG assembly went together with no problems. For the radios I made subassemblies to allow me to paint the interior with the radios off. I painted the radios separately and then added them later after the inside was painted. The gasmask holder was added, but I left the gasmask canister off again to paint it off of the vehicle and add it later. The ready round holders are not large enough to hold any of the shells provided. On the photo etched part MA20, the right side lower inside flange is not etched correctly. Make sure of the bend direction before starting the bend. When bending the part MA22 curve, be careful of the flexing of the joint, on mine it gave way and broke. You can place the machine gun in two places, stored in the fighting compartment or in place on the overhead bracket. I ran into some more unusable PE for mounting the MG in the stored position, so I opted for the fighting position. If you take that option, wait till step 19 to install the MG at the very end.

Step 10 to 13 - Pioneer Tools, Fighting Compartment and Rear Panel I built both versions of the perforated tool box. I liked the look of the PE version and went with it. I cleaned up the pioneer tools and painted them off vehicle. They will be added at the very end of the build. The PE tool clamps are incorrectly identified in the instructions, it shows a part that is not on the fret, and the parts that are on the frets are not designed properly to allow assembly. I gave up on them and substituted the clamps from Lion Roars set LE 3509. The instructions show a box on the left front fender, but do not call it out. This is part B27. On the left side fighting compartment, the only problem I had here was the PE to store the MG is not usable. In Step 12, there are some bad instructions, part E24 the fighting compartment floor with two locating holes for the first aid kit E34. The holes are not predrilled. Step 13 - Rear panel - This section requires some planning. The rear travel lock can be shown in either travel mode or firing mode for the gun. The PE straps to hold the tow cable are too short to go around the cable if you have the shackle and two strands of wire. I could only think of two solutions, the first was to leave a strand out, the second was to substitute a longer piece of PE. The part MB1 foot step needs to be left off till the very end as you will knock it off numerous times if you put it on now.

Step 14 to 18 - Gun and Cradle Assembly; Front Plate and Gun Shield Depending on what you chose for the travel lock, install part 21 for the travel lock in place or part 23 for the firing mode. Having the breech block open or closed and one of the three styles of muzzle brakes needs to be chosen at this stage. The chosen style of travel mode or firing mode continues in this step. Firing mode requires the Part B48 with the telescope. Travel mode uses Part B49 the telescope holder with the telescope. In the instruction Part B13 is directed to the wrong locating hole. Use the small upper locating hole. The instructions indicate adding the single rod radio antenna here; I would wait till the very end to keep it from being broken off during final assembly.

Step 19 - Exhaust Pipe The exhaust pipe C64, if you install it here without painting it will be difficult to paint after you paint the outer side of the side shields. Or if you paint it first and paint the side shields, then insert the exhaust pipe with a twisting motion you will possibly scrape off the paint on the parts. There is no good solution here. I actually glued it to the muffler on the rear plate before I glued the rear plate to the hull. This allowed me to paint all the parts then use the twisting motion to get the exhaust pipe into the proper location. I then glued the rear plate to the hull and touched up the paint where it was damaged. The PE part MA12 has the folding lines on the wrong side. You will need to fold them away from the etched bend line. You need to do this so the locating hole for the lamp will be far enough away from the fender so it will fit. Be careful here as if you bend it the wrong way and then bend it the correct way it will probably separate like mine did.

Tracks These are Magic Tracks that require no cleanup unless you want to remove the ejector pin marks on the inner face. These appear to be the proud type that will clean up with a swipe of the sanding stick or the sharp blade. These are not workable tracks so you will need to glue them together. The method I use to glue the tracks together is as follows: I use a track jig that is adjustable. I place it on the work surface and put a strip of yellow Tamiya tape down with the sticky side up. If you don't have a jig, you can use a ruler; just tape it down and use it as a guide to keep the tracks straight. Then I "assemble" the track using the jig and tape to hold all the parts in place. When the vehicle is ready for the tracks, I prepared the tracks one side at a time, adding a dab of Tamiya thin glue at each joint. I let this set for about 3 to 5 minutes. This will allow the glue to set enough to hold the tracks together but still be flexible enough to put sag into the tracks. With the drive sprocket and idler wheel in place, but not glued, mount the tracks with the ends meeting on the bottle flat side. Adjust the sag and the idler wheel so there is no gap in the ends. Let them dry. Remove the tracks. Paint and weather them off the vehicle. Remount them, along with the drive sprocket and idler wheels. When you are happy with the look, glue the drive sprocket and idler wheel into their permanent position. Make sure that these two pieces are correctly aligned, as the biggest mistake armor modelers make is tracks that are toed in or out caused by improper alignment of drive sprockets and/or idler wheels. Painting and Decals. The color call outs are for Testors and Gunze paints. I continue to see a weakness in the painting instructions from all kit makers. Instructions for the small parts like the pioneer tools and travel lights are never listed or shown. Here you have to guess or mimic what someone else has done. The decals are by Cartograf and are up to their usual high standards.

Conclusion This builds into a nice model, with the exception of the lack of ammo that actually fits into the ready round holders. To fill them will take additional effort or aftermarket items. My conclusion is that I had fun making this model, so I recommend it to you. Thanks to Dragon for the review sample and IPMS/USA for the review space. This model can be found at most hobby shops, online hobby shops and at WWW.dragonusaonline.com. References for this variant included the following books: 1. Panzer Tracts 2-2 Panzerjager by Thomas Jentz and H. Doyle. 2. Nuts & Bolts Vol 17 Marder III Panzerjager 38(t) fur 7.5cm PaK40/3 Sd Kfz 138 Part 1 Ausf M by V. Andorfer, M. Block, & J. Nelson There are others that I don't have.