Robert Forsyth, born in Berkshire, England, has studied the history and operations of the Luftwaffe since his school days. Based in East Sussex with his wife, he runs an aviation and military publishing business full-time. He has written articles for the magazines Aeroplane , Aviation News, FlyPast, and The Aviation Historian, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the latter publication. He is the author of several hard bound books, including: JV 44 - The Galland Circus (1996), Battle over Bavaria - The B-26 versus the German Jets (Classic, 1998), Mistel - German Composite Aircraft and Operations 1942-1945 (Classic, 2001), Messerschmitt Me 264 Amerikabomber (Classic, 2006, with Eddie Creek); He 162 Volksjager (Classic, 2009, with Eddie Creek); Heinkel He 111 (Crecy, 2014); Junkers Ju 52 (Specialty Press. 2015, with Eddie Creek).

This kit represents the final Marder series of tank destroyer, the model M, that was used in Normandy during the D-Day operations. This version of the Marder was the most produced by the Germans during World War II. Tamiya has taken their kit # 35255 Marder III M from 2002 and added some new parts and figures. Gone are the one-piece rubber band style tracks being replaced with two sprues of link and length tracks. These new tracks make up two sprues that also include new drive sprockets and a dozen 7.5cm rounds to fit into the side ammo bins. A new sprue with four new figures, helmets and headsets is included. The new instruction sheet is in booklet style, not the older Tamiya trifold style. This is nice and helps in referring to different assembly steps – just flips the pages, not the whole sheet. There are 12 pages consisting of 22 steps in the instructions. Along with this is a separate color page showing one Normandy Marder on both sides.

This is a review of the Hasegawa Mitsubishi Colt Galant GTO-MR.

Engine

No engine. It’s curbside kit.

Interior

Interior is wonderfully engraved and the supplied upholstery decals fit well. Didn’t even have to paint some of the parts.

Body

Body was crisp and clean with no flash. I had hoped to just polish the plastic but there were swirls in the roof so it had to be primed and painted. I used Tru-Color sun orange which is pretty darn close to factory color.

Chassis

The suspension parts are separate from the chassis pan as is the exhaust system. Some of the parts are pretty small and care must be taken when working with them.

Instructions

The instructions are several pages long with suggested paint color for specific parts.

This was a very enjoyable kit to work on. Thank you to IPMS for allowing me to review this kit.