Dragon Models has re-released their 7.5cm PaK 40/4 auf RSO/03 ‘Smart Kit’, originally shipped in 2010. This time, however, they’ve included an all-weather canvas cover (‘Allwetterverdeck’). The kit is the fourth DML release of their RSO series, and contains their popular 75mm PaK 40 main weapon used in several of their other their kits. The exquisitely-detailed tarpaulin cover is molded is DS plastic and comes as a single, rigid part. Other new parts include the seats and a newly molded PaK pedestal/mount. The main cargo deck has been replaced with one sporting much more detail, including individual ammunition lockers (nine in all), with one locker providing an option to be modeled open or closed. The track is Dragon’s individual-link Magic Track.

Dragon’s Sd.Kfz.234/3 is an excellent kit with crisp molding, full interior detail and while complicated, it goes together very well. This new Premium Edition is a reissue of Dragon’s 2007 kit #6257 including new fenders with photoetch storage bin covers & locks, and movable suspension that allows the wheels to be angled for turns.

Vehicle Background

The SdKfz 234/3 was the third in a series of heavy armored reconnaissance vehicles produced by Germany during WWII. It had an open-topped superstructure in which a short-barreled 7.5cm L/24 gun was installed. This gun, surplus from the upgrade of older Panzer IV tanks, was intended for use against "soft" targets. Eighty-eight of the 234/3s were produced by Buessing-Nag between June & December of 1944.

Highlights from Osprey’s website: “Designed and produced under the regulations of the Washington Naval Treaty, the heavy cruisers of the Pensacola, Northampton, Portland, New Orleans and Wichita classes were exercises in compromise. While they possessed very heavy armament – the Pensacolas, for example, carrying a main battery of ten 8” guns – this came at the cost of protection – armor was the same thickness as a gun cruiser, and incapable of protecting the vessels from enemy 8” fire. As the classes evolved, these flaws began to be corrected, with the main battery being reduced, and increased protection being added to the vital areas of the ship. Despite these drawbacks, the pre-war heavy cruiser classes served with distinction throughout World War II.”

This volume does a good job of informing the largely uninitiated (that would be this reviewer) about the difficulties of designing these large warships and the consequences of the decisions made.

Many of the latest releases seem to have been ignored by many of the resin companies. One of these is the Trumpeter 1/48 A-3D Skywarrior. Eduard has come to the rescue with several sets that address some detail issues in the kit. This set addresses the seats which are weak. While Trumpeter also includes some photoetch seat belts, they are generic at best.

The USA managed to muddle through World War 2 utilizing the M4 Sherman Medium Tank as the mainstay of its armored forces. However, as the Germans introduced better armored tanks with ever more lethal main guns, the M4 Sherman became increasingly vulnerable. It wasn’t until 1945 that the US finally introduced into front line service its first Heavy Tank, the M26 Pershing with its more potent 90mm main gun and better armor protection. With the Germans and Japanese defeated in WW2, it soon became apparent to the US that its former ally, the Soviet Union, was becoming its main potential adversary in the post war era. And the Soviets were fielding some very impressive heavy tanks of their own, such as the IS-3 and the T-10, and that the US would need to beef up its own forces with suitable weapons to match those in the Soviet arsenal.