It has been 35 years since a Japanese firm named Peerless released their 1/35th scale kit of the Raupenschlepper Ost (RSO), a fully tracked vehicle designed to help deal with the thick mud of the Eastern Front’s “roads” which eventually turned to slippery, icy mud with the coming of winter. The Peerless kit (Peerless/Max in North America) molds eventually found their way to Italeri, where they soldier on to the present day. This kit of the RSO/01 is Dragon Models’ second release in a series of RSO vehicles, this kit being a standard cargo version. It is a state-of-the-art kit that surpasses the Peerless/Italeri kit in every category.

Bottom Line

Perfect to-scale 15” (381mm) barrels for Littorio WW2 Italian warship class

The Italian 381mm/50 (15”) gun barrels, 1934 Model, were the largest produced in Italy, with 40 being manufactured. They were designed by Ansaldo in 1934 for the Littorio battleships, but most were made by OTO. They were mounted in triple turrets, three turrets per ship. These guns were considered as excellent as, and had better penetrating power than, similar guns from other countries. Rate of fire was 45 seconds and muzzle velocity was 850 m/s. Range was over 42,000 meters. Dispersion of shot was a chronic problem for the Italian Navy, and was due more to faulty ammunition than to gun performance.

Thanks go to Bronco models and Dragon Models USA for providing IPMS USA this magnificent kit! We appreciate your generosity!

Bronco’s Flak 88 kit incorporates elements of the actual “new” model (the cannon and lower frame) with additional parts from Dragon’s original Flak 88 kit in the form of the wheeled carriage assemblies that facilitate movement of the weapon between firing locations. This is a complex but relatively simple build; it only requires perseverance to complete, due mostly to the detail and care incorporated in the engineering of the kit.