This kit represents a field modification of an SdKfz 10 Halftrack to mount the 3.7cm PaK 35/36 in the bed. The AT gun basically just had the wheels removed and was placed in a specially designed cradle in the bed of the halftrack. The sprues are from the halftrack kit (new) and the 3.7cm PaK kit (old), along with the special sprue for the mounting of the gun. There are Magic Tracks for the tracks and, if you are careful, they will moveable and will allow for a good representation of the track sag. There is one sprue of clear plastic and one small fret of photo etched parts.

Step 1. This step builds the drive sprocket, idler wheel, and the two front wheels. It has been noted elsewhere that the drive sprocket is undersize in both the diameter and the thickness. After I built a run of the track I found that the drive rollers are too wide and, to get the tracks to fit, I had to sand off a little of the drive rollers on both sides.

Step 2. This step builds the front axle and steering mechanisms. The placement of parts A55 and A56 need to be exact as other parts in step 9 will mate up with these parts. The torsion bars with the mounting arms are set only in one position. It appears that, if you work at it, you can make them moveable to allow for a diorama setting on something other than flat ground. The back end is completed and attached to the rear of the chassis. In the instructions, parts B42 and B41 are mislabeled. They should be A42 and A41, as they are found on the A sprue. I did not attach the idler arm to the body. This idler arm has a locating lug that only allows for one position. I normally attach the idler arm to the idler wheel and use it as the real thing to adjust the amount of sag in the track. Later, when I tried to mount the tracks, I found that 41 links were too tight and 42 links were too loose. So, I cut the locating lug off the idler arm and this allowed me to rotate the idler wheel to get the proper amount of sag in the track.

Step 3. This is the build of the engine. If you do not plan to show the hood open to display the engine, you can skip most of the step other than the engine block (Parts B30 and B35) along with vent part B48. These parts extend into the driving compartment and are quite visible. If you do build the engine, there is a glaring omission of the cooling fan. Cyber-Hobby does a good job of creating the drive and fan belts in multiple parts, but no fan, and it is quite visible if the hood is open.

Step 4. This step starts the build of the transmission. The build of the subassembly of Parts B1, B32, B33, B38, B40, and B41 requires close attention. The parts are similar and require careful placement.

Step 5. This continues the transmission build. When placing the subassembly from step 4, make sure the unit is far back towards the end where the drive shaft is to be attached. If you get this subassembly too far forward, part B33 will interfere with the gun mounting box in step 9. The attachment of lever B31 is a real challenge. The attachment point is minuscule and before the glue can dry, the lever leans over. During dry fitting I noticed that the drive shaft B6 was too short, so I did not mount it to the transmission, but directly to the rear of the engine block. This will come in handy in step 8.

Step 6. This step mounts the transmission, fuel tank, and battery holder to the mounting pad A36. The battery holder has two options. The first is a small, low one that allows the passenger seat to be added to the driving compartment, the second is a tall one that sticks up so that the passenger seat has to be omitted. When building the fuel tank, you may want to wait to add the filler cap until after you have placed the driver seat. There are no placements or locating points and if you get the filler cap too far toward the center of the fuel tank, the driver seat will not fit.

Step 7. This step builds the dashboard and adds it to the firewall. This went together without any problems. I did leave off the steering wheel to facilitate painting and adding of the instrument decals.

Step 8. This step brings several subassemblies together to build the foundation for the rest of the model. Here I started by gluing the firewall into place. It has a very specific locating slot and everything else fits to it. Next were parts B20, B21, and B27. These need to be in place prior to adding the transmission/fuel tank subassembly. The transmission/fuel tank subassembly has location holes that mate up with the locating pins in the floor of the chassis. Now the engine can be dropped in and the drive shaft slipped in under all the levers on the transmission. I left all the road wheels, front wheels, drive sprocket and idler wheel off for ease of painting. The round hoop that I understand was for holding barbed wire can be added later. The little extension D3 will require care to keep from breaking them off. Don’t forget to clip off the 4 mounting lugs as they are not needed for this model.

Step 9. This step has the option of an open hood or closed hood. Either option starts with the build of the radiator and the support rods. In this subassembly, it shows the two lower side hoods in place, but does not show the sprue numbers (Left A31 and Right A28). After these are set, the radiator cover (A63) and the hoods themselves are added. The rest of the front end is mated with the two locating pieces (A55/A56) that were installed in step 2. It is important that you glue in the front fenders (A86 and A87) before adding any other pieces that go between the fenders and the drive sprockets. The next items are the rear fenders. Let the glue set overnight before working on the gun mounts. While the glue is setting, you can build the mounting box. Here, the parts call-out appears to be wrong. The front side (the one with the small cutout) is part D15, but is not called out. The back side in the instructions is labeled as D16, but should be D17. The bottom is not called out, but is actually D16. The two end pieces are labeled D9 and D9, but are both D14. Just dry fit, dry fit, dry fit until you get it right. Once the fenders are dry, you can add the mounting box. Here is where there might be some interference with the transmission if you did not move the top subassembly as far forward as possible. The mounting box has locating points on the side of the chassis and the fenders. Don’t worry if there are gaps between the mounting box and the fenders. The rest of the mounting side pieces will cover those areas completely.

Step 10. This step adds the mounts for a not-included canvas cover. The parts are mislabeled; D40 and D42 should be on the driver’s side, and D41 and D43 on the passenger’s side.

Step 11. This step adds a lot of detail parts to the driver’s side front of the vehicle. I deferred a lot of this until later, as I have a tendency to break them off during handling. However, please note that the mirrors are mislabeled. D5 should be on the passenger side and D6 on the driver’s side. Also, the mirror attached to part A21 is mislabeled as well. It should be part V3. As a side note, Parts A21 and D44 have very small attachment points and can and will be broken at least once during the finishing process. You may want to try super glue instead of plastic glue. The windshield is intended to be moveable, so I left it off to facilitate assembly and painting. Part A53 is a rear view mirror and I used bare metal foil to simulate the mirror. I also attached the mirror at the very end. I did install A30 over the muffler at this time. The front mirror/side marker D11 is mislabeled. It should be D12, and D11 will be placed in step 12 on the passenger side.

Step 12. This step adds a lot of detail parts to the passenger’s side front of the vehicle. You will need to place the storage bin (A29/A65/A64) in place before trying to place the D37 pioneer tool holder. There is a hole in the radiator cover that I believe is intended for the radiator cap part A17, but is not shown in the instructions, nor is the hole shown to be filled with putty. When gluing part D7, the pick axe holder, use the pick as a spacer so that when you add the pick later, it will fit.

Step 13 and 14. These steps build the gun trail and axle. The aiming stick holders are shown in the instructions, but are not called out. They should be A14 for the front and A15 in the rear. The handles, A5 and A6, are backwards. At this time, if you dry fit the axle and trails to the gun mounts, you will find that the trails are too long to fit into the slots of the gun mount G3/G4. I took the hard way and cut away part of the mount and the ribs on the spades to get them to fit. After I did this surgery, I found a better way: just cut about 1mm section out of each trail and it should fit fine.

Step 15. This step builds the barrel and breech block assembly.

Step 16 and 17. These steps build the gun carriage and shield. There were no problems here.

Step 18 – 20. These steps add the hand wheels and barrel to the gun carriage. Then the gun carriage is added to the axle and trails.

Step 21. This step adds the gun subassembly to the vehicle gun mount. There is nothing depicting how the gun assembly is held to the mount. Check you references to see if there is anything you can scratchbuild to fill this void. The tracks are added at this time, along with the DEMAG nameplate on the front of the radiator housing. If you look really close, the nameplate is DEMAC. Once again, the lawyers get involved in screwing up the hobby. The instructions call out 42 links per side; however, that count leaves too much sag, and 41 links allows no sag. To fix this, I cut off the locating lug (see Step 2) and rotated the idler wheel till I got the sag looking correct. Delicate parts to watch out for –Pennant holder D36 and MA2, mirror with small attachment points D6 and A21, and D5 and D6.

Painting and marking

There is only one color scheme, Panzer Grey. There are a set of masks for the windshield and they do a good job for painting the frame as the frame is clear plastic. The decals are very well done. Most are for the dashboard and under the dashboard on the firewall.

Conclusion

This will build into a nice model if you are not overly concerned about the undersized drive sprocket and misshaped drive tooth on the tracks, and the either too long trails or too short gun mounts. This is a very detailed build and will take some real care with the delicate parts to ensure that you end up with a complete model. I can recommend this to the German Halftrack builders and general WWII fans.

References:

• Panzer Tracts 22-1 Leichter Zugkraftwagen 1t Sd Kfz 10 Ausf A and B and Variants ISBN 0-9815382-5-8 Thomas Jentz and Hilary Doyle
• Halftrack Vehicles in the German Army 1935-1945 Schiffer Military History ISBN: 0-//740-758-7 Walter Speilberger
• Sd.Kfz 10 Demag in detail Wings and Wheels Publications R 057 ISBN: 978-80-86416-92-2
• German Light Halftracked Primer Movers 1934-1945 Schiffer Publishing Ltd. Reinhard Frank

Thanks to Dragon USA for the review sample and IPMS/USA for the review space.