Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $39.90 Dragon Models continues to release premium edition kits and re-vamping some of their older lines to premium edition releases. Their latest addition to this ever increasing revamped line is the Su-100 Tank Destroyer. The box is adorned with two SU-100's rolling through an unknown city street in a rural setting. The sides of the box show off all the neat stuff that is included in the kit. Once again, there is a lot of STUFF. Unfortunately, not all of it is good stuff. Inside the box, you will find 269 parts of grey styrene on 20 different sprues, 1 sprue of three clear parts, 2 medium and one small frets of etched brass, the lower hull tub, 1 coil of braided wire, 2 bags of magic track, 1 bag of cleats, one aluminum barrel, a very nice decal sheet, and a four page fold out instruction manual with 18 steps. Most of the lower assemblies of the vehicle are from previous editions of the T-34 series. That includes the new magic track that has no parts to remove from sprues but you do need to remove the two ejector pin marks from each track shoe. The road wheels are the same as the previous kit but appears to have had raised rib detail. Dragon did include the adjustable idler wheel arm which greatly aids in the attachment of the track. Personally, I was hoping for the spider web design from the T-34/85 kits. The new kit is a slight oddity. Maybe Dragon will attempt to do a post war version later on. They include almost all the items needed for a post war vehicle in this kit. You get both style commanders hatches. You get both style of rear wall plate. The solid style and the split hatch style. The only things not included are the large right front fender stowage box, the newer style self-extracting device, and the left rear infantry call button. A neat addition is the simplified rear engine louvers. Dragon also includes a new rear deck that is already pre-cut to aid in the installation of the brass screen. However, this new deck is entirely too small and of a different bend pattern as the hull. When placed on the rear deck, there is a noticeable gap between the hull and new rear deck. It is better to use the included original deck and cut it out to attach the brass screen. Also, Dragon includes three different barrels. The original three part barrel, 1 slide molded plastic barrel and an aluminum barrel. The one piece plastic barrel doesn't have the same bell housing ends as the aluminum and original barrels. I would definitely use the aluminum barrel. That is as long as it fits in the mantlet properly. The decal sheet is great. It provides you with decals to outfit five different machines. Dragon also includes 8 complete fuel tanks. You can make four pristine tanks or four damaged tanks or you can mix it up. The front fenders are pre-damaged. If you were going to make a pristine tank destroyer, then you are definitely going to be fixing these. I will be building this as an Egyptian SU-100 of the Egyptian army during operation "Kadesh" in 1956. Anubis models and some free hand painting or decals make this an easy conversion. You really don't need to buy the Anubis conversion if you can resin cast parts and scratch build. Italeri produces an SU-100 that includes the post war storage box. I would like to thank Dragon Models and IPMS/USA for allowing me the opportunity to build and convert another of my favorite vehicles. Now if Dragon would only produce a VT-34.

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