Dragon

1/35 PaK 43/3 L/71 mit Behelfslafette

Kit Number: 6522

Reviewed by  Joachim Lotz, IPMS# 44170

MSRP: $41.50 Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com This gun is the same as the one used in the Jagdpanther. Unfortunately I was not able to find any information about this gun used as a PaK. The only reference I had were 3 pictures provided to me by fellow IPMS members; one picture showing the gun on something like a test firing range and two pictures of the gun in an emplacement. The Kit This kit uses the parts from Dragon’s Flak 36/37 for the limber, and new molded parts for the gun itself. The following parts are included in the kit: 17 light grey sprues. 1 sprue with clear parts. 1 P/E Fret. 1 metal chain. 1 piece of tubing. 1 Jagdpanther mantlet. 1 cruciform. 12 step instruction sheet with painting guide for 3 guns of unknown units. There are 420 parts in the box, but not all parts will be used. So that leaves some for the spare parts box. All parts are very detailed and don’t show any ejector pin marks or flash. But there are some small mold parting lines that need to be cleaned up. The Build I started the build with the assembly of the cruciform. Here you need to decide if you want the gun in firing or towing position, because the kit allows only one or the other. Reason being are the earth spikes. If they are glued in to high the cruciform will not attach to the limbers and when to low the cruciform sit on the spikes itself. Only other option would be to shorten the spikes so the gun can be attached to the limbers or taken off. The outriggers are where the clear parts go and I could not find any reason why these parts are clear so I painted them over. Next I started to assemble the 2 limbers. Both limbers are pretty much identical with the exception that one limber has the tow bar and the other has a seat attached to it. A nice feature is the lift chain for the gun mount. I had some problems with the chain fitting in the winch housing since the instructions aren’t clear about it. I tied the lift ring with invisible thread to the chain and it worked very well. Another well engineered part from dragon are the wheels which are made up of several disks which leaves the seams hidden in the groves of the tire profile. The hooks that secure the gun to the limbers can be made movable. But the fit is so good that they seized after all the painting was done. After I had the limbers completed I went on and put the gun together. Here I recommend attaching part P16 after the breach block assembly has been attached to the gun. And this is the part when I got struck by disaster. During the painting process the gun mount slipped out of my clamp and dropped to the floor causing the gun sight to break off and never to be found again. And I have hardwood floor in my shop. After fruitless searching attempts and asking club members if they maybe have a spare sight I remembered that I had an old Italeri Marder 3 and used the gun sight from there on the Pak. Painting and weathering First I painted everything in Tamiya Dark Yellow. Then I applied an overall wash of Burnt Sienna to the whole kit which darkened the Yellow. Next I sprayed a coat of Future and applied the 2 decals to the limbers after the Future had cured. Next came a coat of Model Master clear flat. Then I applied a light coat of Bragdon Powder for weathering and highlighted the raised detail with Tamiya Weathering Master. Conclusion This is another nice kit from Dragon of an interesting subject. The fit was good and the detail excellent as we have come to expect from Dragon and it was a fun build. This kit gives a lot of opportunities for the Diorama builder, whether by itself in an emplacement or behind a Sd.Kfz 7. I immensely enjoyed building this kit. I would like to thank Dragon for this review kit. I would also like to thank IPMS members Greg Metge and Ross Petra for supplying the photos of the gun to me.