Zvezda

1/35 German SdKfz.251/10 with 37mm Pak35/36

Kit Number: 3588

Reviewed by  Chris Bryan, IPMS# 45187

MSRP: $34.98 Review Kit Supplied by Dragon Models USA: Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com The SdDKfz251/10 was an armored fighting vehicle served by a crew of five men that were attached to motorized infantry units. The weapons on this vehicle consisted of a PaK35/36 anti-tank gun and a rear-facing MG or anti-tank rifle. Many of these vehicles served on the Eastern Front and were pitted against larger and better armored vehicles like the T34 with the Cristi-inspired sloped armor. Because of the inefficiency of the guns, the, with the vehicle, were nick-named "The Door Knocker." During the later parts of the Second World War, these vehicles were pulled from front line units and continued to serve as support and garrison vehicles. Prior to this, they had served on all fronts. The end of World War II did not bring the end of the 251's service life. Many served with other nations with multiple modifications. When I opened the box, I was not surprised to find that this was a flat kit. Perusing through the sprues, I was impressed with the level of raised and recessed detail. The molding on several parts rivals or exceeds that of a fine resin cast. The only thing I saw at first glance is that the armored oil pan was molded into the vehicle's floor. Lower hull assembly is relatively straight-forward. Because of the contours, I began by fitting the sides from the rear and worked to the front using a liquid glue. There are some sink marks on the inner sides but these will be hidden. On part C-3, there is no locator and the part must be moved as far forward as possible.

In Step 6, the suspension began with the dry hubs. It is easy to obtain the correct angle because of dual locator pin setup. Next, I moved on to the road wheels and suspension arms. Normally, I would expect a lot of clean up here, but it was virtually nonexistent, although they were a bit loose and some detail was sparse. That problem was easily remedied with a Historex Punch and Die Set. Once the bolt heads were corrected, I moved to the steering linkage. Parts C-53 and C-51 were too small and fragile to use, so I drilled through both ends of Assembly 19-A using a .035 drill bit and cut two links of straight pin, ¼ inch long, to allow the mounting of the tie rod. On the upper hull, the four vision blocks at the front of the vehicle had separate inner frames. This was a really nice touch. The only drawback to this was that it restricted the positioning to closed. Before sealing the upper and lower hulls, hinge pivots should be installed because the rear doors are posable with nicely molded hinges. Then, because "Mr. Murphy" was likely to show up when I least expected it, I chose to install the hinges and apply the doors later since the doors can be adjusted on the hinges.

At this point in the build, I began to deviate from the instructions and skip around a bit. The interior seating and stowage would be built and painted as subassemblies and installed after the armored body was built and painted. First, I attacked the firewall/dash to the interior floorpan. This allowed me to correctly line up the sides of the fighting compartment. The firewall/dash was the only part on which I encountered any flash. When fitting the lower armored panels to the floor, there were no locators. Despite this, both sides lined up with ease. Part E-18 in my kit was broken. This part is the rear body panel that houses the double doors. It was not a good fit. The only way to fix this was to separate both sides of this panel from the bottom and apply them individually. This small problem did not cause me to discount the kit. It is just part of modeling. Truth be told, separating the pieces made for a better fit. The lower shell of the fighting compartment was now together. Parts D-12 and D-13, which were the underside armor for the front chassis, fit very well. Being separate pieces allowed for the molding of very crisp angles. At this stage, I was instructed to install the engine, but it would be left out for now so that some detailing could be done to take a extraordinarily good engine to the next level. After doing a test fit on the amazing little Maybach 6 cylinder engine, three things occurred to me: The firewall was open-sided. This needed to be filled since the hood would be open. There was no steering rod. There was no exhaust other than the manifold.

All of these problems were easily resolved. Also, in the engine bay, Part 39, the flexhose was included but needed a little wire wrap to be properly represented. Returning back to the rear of the vehicle, both rear doors are lined up and held together with a piece of blue tape so that the hinges could be lined up with the doors in the correct position. (If the doors are to be closed, none of this is necessary). Thus far, I had found this to be well engineered kit with the only real problem being the side fenders. They needed to be attached at the rear of the vehicle first and slightly flexed to fall into position along the sides. Moving along to the 37mm gun, a.k.a. "Door Knocker, impressive was the first word that came to mind. This gun is a kit in and of itself. Side by side with a similar gun from another kit, the level of extra detail is readily apparent. When assembling subassembly 24-A, which is the breech, I had to take care not to locate the charging handle backwards.

Before proceeding, it is important to note that the instructions for the gun are set up in ten subassemblies. Assembly 24-D is the gun itself. ZVEZDA has taken a novel approach with the gun molding. It is a two-part solid cast halves mold. The locator pins are so closely milled that almost no glue is required. All in all, the gun is a beautifully well engineered piece. The gun shield slides over the barrel, but it takes a little finagling to seat the shield properly. When the gun is mounted on the vehicle, it transforms from a simple transport into an impressive looking offensive vehicle. (It was not mentioned in the instructions, but Part E-24 is a shield for the rear facing MG). Now that the exterior was complete, except for the road wheels and the tracks, I moved back to the interior. The one thing that made this interior unique was the option to replace the two rear benches with ammo cans for the 37mm gun. Other than that, it was a straight forward build with the added touch of the decals for the instruments.

The road wheels were the standard interlocking type. The standout feature of these was the thinness. The tracks were also of equal detail; finely molded with drain holes in each cleat. There was a small amount of flash on the connecting tab of each, but it was easily cleaned up. To add to the level of detail, each pad was a separate piece on the tracks. In finishing the build I found that once the body was mated to the chassis, the front axle was too far back and needed to be corrected. This was accomplished with heating and flexing until the pieces lined up correctly. The strong points of this kit are: A high level of detail. Relative ease of construction. High quality engineering. A complete engine. I would not suggest this as a first armor kit, but once a builder has completed three or four pieces of armor, this kit could be done with a high level of confidence. My thanks for this review sample go to IPMS National and Dragon Models USA.