Sprues

• A – This sprue contains the barrel, shield, and gun cradle
• B – This sprue contains the ammo and ammo crates
• C x 2 – Tires
• E – This spure contains the tubular ammo cases
• G – This sprue contains parts for the gun, shield, gun cradle and a lot of unused parts from Kit 35045
• H x 2 – This has the wheel and hand wheels
• N – This has the trails and associated bits
• P – Photo Etched parts

This kit is a representation of the rebuild of a captured Soviet Divisional Gun. The anti-tank performance of the F-22 divisional gun was inferior to the 7.5cm PaK40. However, the Germans had captured over 500 of these guns and made use of them. They were rebored to use the PaK 40 ammo. The recoil system was rebuilt and the controls moved to the left side.

Before starting the model, you need to decide how you want to display the gun, either in travel mode or firing mode. The instructions are fairly clear on what to do on each version. I built mine in the travel mode version.

Step1– This consists of the assembly of the gun and gun cradle. Some of the parts are very small and delicate that will require a lot of care to keep them from being damaged during the build. I left off part G13, the breech lever, until very late in the construction to keep from breaking it off. You can show the breech in either the open or closed position. The instructions say to not glue it in place. On mine it was such a tight fit that glue was not necessary to hold it in the desired position. The barrel is a one piece molding using slide mold technology so you have a plastic round barrel with only minor mold seams to deal with. The muzzle brake is in three parts and is very well done.

Step 2- builds the gun carriage. There are several places in the instructions that say to not use glue, implying that the gun cradle will be moveable in the gun carriage. There are several small parts to be added in this step, such as the turning handle on the hand wheels. I added these to the hand wheel, but opted to leave the hand wheel off until later in the build. The recuperating cylinders are made up of five parts and they don’t line up very well. Take time to ensure that they are straight. They are very apparent when you view the finished model from the front. The placement of Parts H4 is very difficult. These parts are supposed to be attached to the gun cradle at a certain angle. But at this point you don’t know what angle to set them at. So you hold off placing them after the gun cradle and gun are mounted and then you find it requires fitting the piece into the sleeve which is now deep inside the cradle, and then glue it to the cradle. Not an easy task.

Steps 3 & 4cover the building of the gun shield and mounting it to the gun carriage. This step is straightforward and no complications are apparent. I did paint and weather the inside of the shield prior to mounting it to the gun cradle. This is easier than painting and trying to reach inside to weather after the shield is mounted.

Step 5– This step builds the trailer carriage and the two wheels. The only possible problem here is the lower shields Part G60 and G61 that are mounted on Part H6 which is a little delicate arm that attaches to the main carriage. They are prime candidates for being snapped off during painting and handling. I suggest that you leave them off until after the main construction is finished and painted. STOP USING “TILL”

Step 6- This step is concerned with the construction of the two trailing arms. If you are careful in gluing parts G54 and G55, the axle between the upper and lower pieces of the trailing arm, the arms will be movable. The instructions show part N3, the arm adjustment lever as not being glued in and thereby being moveable. However, the fit is not a moveable one. You will need to decide if you want the arms in either travel mode or firing mode. I chose to show the model in travel mode so I glued these two levers in place as shown in Step 7. In this step most of the photo etched parts are added. The instructions have inserted computer generated pictures of how the photo etched parts should look after the bending is complete. Once again there are some very small parts added in this step. Part N12 is a very small handle attached to the spade locking lever. If you are building this model in travel mode, I suggest that you not glue photo etched parts P8 and P10 in place until you mount the gun. The travel lock bar will be attached to the rear of the gun cradle and the locking bar fits over the lock bar. If you don’t get the two photoetched parts in the exact place, the other items will not be in their correct place. I will give further details in step 9.

Step 7– This step shows the attachment of the trailing arms. I did not attach the wheels until after I had painted them and the carriage along with a little weathering. This allowed me to get into those areas mostly hidden by the wheels, but still easily viewed.

Step 8- This step is the marriage of the gun carriage to the wheel carriage.

Step 9– This step shows the different positions you can display the model. The final parts are added here, as well as any parts you left off during the build. The process I suggest that you use is to glue the travel lock bar (Part N14) to the rear of the gun cradle. Then glue bar lock (Part N7) to the travel lock bar. Then mount the gun to the gun carriage. Now you can determine the exact location of photo-etched parts P8 and P10. Once these two parts are in place you can finish gluing the travel lock bar into these two locating parts. Finish the painting and weather these areas.

Step 10– This step builds the ammo boxs and the 3 shells therein. The instructions go into great detail on how to build the box and its lid. However, there is a problem with the lid. The molded on hinges and clasps show the box only in the closed position. You can show the box open, thereby displaying the shells, but the clasp will be missing from the side of the box. Most people will not notice this, but it is not correct.

Painting and Decals

The color charts shows the reference numbers for Tamiya, Humbrol, Mr. Hobby, and Mr. Color. The paint schemes and associated decals are as follows: Overall dark yellow with no other camouflage scheme.

The decals are for the ammo and ammo boxes; there are none for the gun itself. They have no manufacturer's name other than Bronco, so I have to assume that Bronco produced them themselves. They appear to be in register and they went on without any fuss.

Conclusion

The build is at an intermediate level with very good detail. The molding is crisp with no flash and minimal mold lines. I can recommend this kit to all artillery fans.