Dragon's latest Stug III release is marketed as a December ‘44 production time frame version. If you follow the instructions, you won't build a vehicle from the Dec 44 production run, but a somewhat jumbled mix with early, mid, and late production features. Fortunately, if you know what you are looking for, the kit includes the parts to build what is commonly accepted as a late ‘44/early 45 vehicle. With some exceptions.

The parts are molded in light gray styrene with crisp details and no noticeable flash. There are some very fine details like the fender tread pattern, hull weld beads, and rough texture on the cast mantle (Topfblende). This release is a bit of a mix-and-match from their earlier StuG III releases (notably the CH May ‘44 Mid-Late Production) with a few additional sprues from their StuG IV kits. A good portion of these parts won't be used and are blued out on the front instruction sheet. But don't be too hasty, you'll need some of those pieces.

This one falls in the "that's an odd duck" category. This was a Japanese attempt – and a successful one, at that – to create a truly amphibious tank. The IJN developed the Type 2 Ka-Mi tank for invading Pacific islands that did not have adequate port facilities to handle regular tanks. The tank had removable pontoons fore and aft for flotation and to avoid shipping any water; they added a trunk for the air intake and a tower over the commander's turret hatch. It could do around 10 km/hr in the water, being driven by two propellers at the rear, and had a range of 150 km. These were probably test results in a bay or on a lake. I could find no information on its performance on the open seas, so I'd take that range and speed with a grain of salt. The vehicle was never used operationally in its amphibious mode, serving mostly as a dug-in pillbox on various Pacific islands.

In the mid 1930’s, the nation of Czechoslovakia had one of the most sophisticated military arms manufacturing industries in Europe. Upon the German annexation of the Czech territories known as the Sudetenland in 1938, and the occupation of the entire country in 1939, the Czech armament factories fell into the hands of German forces. Two main tanks originated from these factories, known as the Panzer 35(t) and Panzer 38(t) to the Germans (“t” is short for the German word for Czechoslovakia, “Tschechoslowakei”). The Panzer 38(t) chassis soldiered on throughout World War Two as the basis for a number of tank destroyers and self propelled flak guns, while the Panzer 35(t) had a shorter career.

The Kit

Nearly 100 injection molded parts in tan plastic plus 2 black plastic treads. All parts exhibit crisp detail and are flash free. The muzzle of the main gun is not slide-molded so will need to be drilled out. Being a snap kit, all parts had a number of locating pins. All of them fit together without modification.

The recent release of the Meng AMX-30 B was quickly followed up by the AUF 1. It uses virtually the same hull as the AMX, so it’s an obvious follow-on to the AMX. In the 1970s, the French Army explored a new self-propelled howitzer to replace the MK F3 155 mm. Development of the AUF 1 was completed in 1972 and production began in 1977 with a run of 440 vehicles. Vehicles were also exported to Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It’s armed with a 155 mm gun with an auto loader and a crew of four.

The kit is composed of eleven sprues molded in green and five sprues of track links and pads molded in brown, a small sprue of clear parts, a small fret of photo etch, and a lower hull and turret. There are decals for two vehicles, though the color profiles only feature one.

Assembly

I wrote the review for the AMX 30, so the assembly of the chassis and tracks is nearly identical to the AMX 30.