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.

This is the first of a two-volume set detailing the history, tactical development, and use of the various marks of the Sturmgeschutz III, commonly referred to as the StuG III. Volume 1 is predominately text. Volume 2 is mostly photographic in content.

This book offers a wealth of data for modelers, as well as those more interested in the technical aspects of this weapons system. Chapters include: background, technical development, series production, design variants A thru G, the factories involved in production, and combat records and troop reports.

There is a full developmental section, where the evolution of tactics is examined. Due to the requirements of the conflict, a weapon developed to support the infantry with mobile heavy firepower, evolved into a premier tank killer and improvised tank replacement. A howitzer-armed version, the Sturmhaubitze, was introduced to remedy this, with limited success mostly due to the limited numbers produced.

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

Review of the Railcar

The instructions are a composite of the two separate sets of instructions, so I’ll start with steps 23 and 24: the assembly of the railcar frame and top or deck. Make sure that you have a flat surface to place the 4 pieces of the deck and that surface will not be marred by the possible glue seepage between the 4 pieces. Lay the 4 pieces face down and run a line of glue between the panels. While the glue is still soft, place the frame on the underside of the deck and make sure that everything is square. Glue the frame to the deck and let it dry.