The Kit

The Orange Box Series from Dragon are basically previously released models that have been repackaged. This particular kit is a combo of the Dragon 6069 Schwerer Plattformwagen Typ SSY railcar flat top and the Dragon Kit # 9018 Pz Bef Wg III Ausf K

The sprues for this kit are an assortment from different kits needed to piece together a Ausf J Pz III

• A Upper Hull
• B x 2 Drive Sprocket and idler wheel
• b Add on armor and upper hull detail
• C Lower Hull
• D x 2 Road Wheels and Return Rollers
• E Turret parts
• F Misc parts
• g Star Antenna
• H x 2 More misc pars
• J Only 5 pieces out of a complete sprue
• K Add on armor and front deck
• L Single Antenna
• M Antenna base
• O Turret
• Stainless Steel Wire for Antenna (see sprue M)

There is nothing provided for tow cables.

First Look

The 122 SpH 74 is a tracked, medium sized self-propelled gun in service with the modern Finnish army. A Soviet design, the SpH 74 is the Finnish designation for essentially the 2S1 Gvozdika that has been around since the early 70’s.

Skif’s new release is a reissue of their earlier 2S1 with the inclusion of new parts to allow the modeler to build the version currently in operation by Finland. As far as I can tell the new parts are mainly in photo etch, with the original plastic parts unchanged. In fact more than a few parts will go unused as they are 2S1 specific and not present in photos of the 74 I’ve been able to dig up.

Kagero has come up with another winner if you’re a Panzer IV nut, like I am. The book is soft cover with heavy stock and full color art on the front and back covers. This book covers the Panzer IV J. The strength of the book isn’t the text, unless you read Polish. The 1/35 scale drawings are beautiful, showing all the angles of the tank, in all twenty seven pages. The drawings do have some text in English, so you know what variant you’re looking at. The reader does know which production version is being represented. Included are exploded drawings of the different muffler systems, return rollers, idler wheels, road wheel assemblies, treads, muzzle brakes, cupolas, and armor skirts. There are also four pages of 1/48 and 1/72 scale drawings. Thirty one pages in all. Add to this four pages of full color prints, with two tanks on each page.

History

I could not find very much information on this vehicle since it was a one-off field conversion. It was part of the HQ Company of the s.Pz.Jg. Abt. 653 during the battle of Kursk and it appears that this vehicle survived until at least summer of 1944, but I could not confirm that.

The Kit

This is a kit of the Panther D as a Befehlspanzer or command tank from DML’s Cyberhobby line. The kit comes as a smart kit and is loaded as usual with a boat load of extra parts. And correctly for an early D, it does not have Zimmerit coating since this wasn’t applied to tanks until September of 1943. The kit contains the following:

The lead article of this issue, and the cover feature, focuses on a spectacular diorama by Frank Bazin, which he calls Hill 112. It’s a historical vignette of a moment in time. It depicts the British thrust of July 10, 1944 in their vain attempt to break the German hold on Caen, a month after the Allies landed in France. Bazin’s diorama captures the intensity of the immediate aftermath of the British bombardment and is what all modelers should strive for in a diorama. His article focuses on three components of the diorama - the enhancements and weathering of the Tamiya Tiger I, the exquisite scratch built figures which populate the scene, and the foliage that dominates the hill top.