Dragon

1/72 PzKpfw.IV Ausf.G Early

Kit Number: 7278

Reviewed by  John King, IPMS# 46812

MSRP: $24.95 Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com Dragon Models has come out with some really nice 1/72 armor models lately. They claim 1/35 level of detail in 1/72. Upon opening the box, you do see that attempt at 1/35 detail in 1/72! The kit is packaged in the standard Dragon packaging, which consists of a nice sturdy box, parts wrapped well, and the decals, PE, and tracks packed against a thin piece of cardboard. The instructions are a 3-page double-sided full-color set of directions and provide Model Master and Gunze paint numbers and decals/paint guide for 5 tanks (1 in desert yellow, 3 in a white wash, and 1 in gray). There are over 150 parts in the kit including the four PE parts and two DS100 tracks. Although it seems like a lot of parts for a 1/72 scale tank, you end up with some parts not being used. The parts have little to no flash and no sink marks in any noticeable location. One of the unique features of the kit parts are the separate wheel and tire parts. Each wheel is separate from the tire, allowing the modeler to paint each separately for a much finer level of detail. Speaking of fine level of detail, all of the hatches have detail on the inside. However, there is no detail inside of the hull. An antennae is also provided (part D38), which looks to-scale, but easy to break. So, how does this kit build up? Honestly, this was my first ever tank I managed to finish (I primarily build 1/72 and 1/144 aircraft). The build was fairly straight forward. However, I did leave some parts off until final assembly in order to make painting easier, which I’ll explain. In Step 2, if you choose to build it with the piece of track on the front, I would recommend leaving that off till the end. Also in Step 2, parts 16 and 17 are so small (and well detailed) that it makes placing them on the model a little difficult, but just take your time and use tweezers and you’ll do fine. In Step 3, I left part D7 (the exhaust) off until the final assembly. I also chose to leave all the wheels off until the model was painted. Of note in Step 4 is that the hinge detail on parts D23 and D24 are just simply amazing; this truly shows the 1/35 detail in a 1/72 model. It was also in Step 4 that I got a little confused with what the instructions were trying to tell me to do. The connection and location of parts D18 (D19) and A19 (A20) with the hull of the tank was not quite clear. It took some playing around with the parts until I finally figured it out; just remember to take your time and dry fit before you glue. When it came time to glue the fenders (parts A1 and A2) to the hull, I ran into a little problem. For some reason, I could not get the fenders to site even. When I look at the model from the back, it appears that the back end of the fenders slope down. I do not think this is a problem with the kit, as the reviews I read about other Dragon Panzer IVs do not mention that problem. More-or-less this is just a result of my inexperience with tank models. As I stated earlier, the hatches all have some detail on the inside of them. In Step 7, the modeler has the option to pose the commander’s hatch in the open or closed position. A little scratch building and that opened hatch could really make the model stand out (remember that it’s 1/72; a little bit goes a long way). I chose to paint my model in the overall gray scheme of 3rd Pz.Rgt. "Totenkopf." This scheme has two small SS skulls on it. The decals for those skulls consisted of two pieces; one is the white background and the other consists of all the lines of the skull. The decals went on well, but I would have liked if the decals were spread apart more on the decal sheet. I nicked a few of the other decals trying to cut out the ones I wanted. The decals are printed by Cartograph and are all in good register. I weathered my model with some chalk pastels the same way I weather my aircraft. After the paint and decals were finished, I added the final bits and the tracks. The tracks are really well detailed, but they did not seem to be long enough. I glued one end to one of the wheels and let it dry. Then I stretched the track around all the wheels and glued it in place. It might be beneficial to stretch the tracks before painting. This will make wrapping the tracks around the wheels much easier. I spent about 8-10 hours on this kit, with the only problems being the ones listed above. I would venture to guess that had I built a tank before, I might not have run into the problems I had. The level of detail is just awesome in this kit and I would recommend it to anyone who has built a tank before. Although, if you’ve got a few models of any subject under your belt, why not give the kit a tray and expand your horizons? I did, and now I’ll probably be building another tank in the near future! I huge thanks goes out to Dragon Models USA and IPMS for the opportunity to review this model!