At the beginning of World War two the German Army had little need for dedicated mobile AA defence as the Luftwaffe enjoyed air superiorty. However after a short while it became more important for mobile AA defence as the Army realized that the Luftwaffe could not always provide a protective umbrella. A quick solution was to convert soft skin and half-track vehicles to provide this mobile AA defence, but it was also soon realized that many of these conversions left the crews exposed. It was then decided to mount more effective mobile AA platforms that would have fully enclosed turrets to protect the crews and improve overall survivability in the face of ever increasing Allied air supremacy. The Panther medium tank chassis was ideal for these future mobile AA defences, the 5.5 cm Zwilling Flakpanzer was one of many proposals that did not advance beyond the drawing board.

The T-90A Main Battle Tank is currently the most modern tank in service with Russian ground forces. Although a development of the T-72, the tank consists of a 125mm 2A46M-5 smoothbore gun, a pair of auxiliary machine guns and Russia’s Shtora-1 combined electro-optical countermeasures suite to protect the tank against laser-guided weapons. It entered service in 2005, replacing the aging T-72s and T-80s and forming the backbone of current Russian ground forces.

History

As quoted from the introduction in the book "Self-propelled tank destroyers constituted an essential component of the Third Reich’s armored arm. Vehicles, which were especially useful in defensive warfare, in which the German army found itself after losing strategic initiative on the Eastern Front in the summer 1943 and following the Allied landing in Italy and France, with time began to effectively compete in armored sub-units with classic tanks. One of the largest vehicles of that type was Jagdpanther Sd.Kfz. 173, based on the chassis of the famous Panther tank".

The Parts

The parts are secured in a small plastic bag with two stickers applied. The first of those stickers matches the product number “35674”. The second sticker might represent the number of part sprues, “2”, or it might be an “inspector” number. Sprue “A” has 14 parts and Sprue “B” has 19 parts, with a total of 33 parts making up the machine gun and wheeled carriage. All parts are clearly marked with an I.D. number that is an alphanumeric combination. For example, the gunner’s seat is on sprue B and is part #16 on that sprue. On the kit instructions the gunner’s seat is identified as “B16”. This makes part identification very simple, very easy, and very clear.

If you are looking for a unique addition for your next 1/35 scale US Army Airborne diorama, please allow me to direct your attention to the Plusmodel offering of a Cushman 53 scooter. The kit comes with decals for a single scooter that was used by the 101^st Airborne. This kit was more challenging to build than the 1/48 scale scooters I have previously reviewed, and this kit will also require you have some experience with small photo-etch items. I would highly recommend this kit to anyone wanting something unique to sit next to their 1/35 scale figures or vehicles.