Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $14.95 Upon opening this kit I was amazed at the level of detail. The hull, for example, has bolt detail and is very crisply molded. The fenders have a very high level of detail to them with detail on both the top and underside. One of the downsides to some may be that some of the hand tools come molded to the fenders. Here's a summary of kit features: · One-piece slide-molded lower hull. · One-piece slide-molded gun that can be elevated up and down. · Newly tooled road wheels and sprockets. · Separate final drive covers. · Periscope gun sight is made from a clear part. · Exhaust pipes with hollow ends. · Two types of cooling air intakes are provided with and without air-intake grills. From my first look of the kit I see very minimal flash and no ejector pin marks that would interfere with construction of the model. The kit contains a small fret of photo etch for the intakes and exhaust. The instructions seem clear and concise. There are 5 different marking options for the kit: · 2. Pz. Gren. Div. "Das Reich", Russia 1943 · Pz. Gren. Div. 'GroBdeutschland', Eastern Front 1943 · 16 Pz. Div. 'RFSS', Italy 1944 · 3. Pz. Div. 'Totenkopf', Ukraine 1944 · 1288th SP Gun Rgt., Red Army, Ukraine 1944 I have not determined which one I am going to build, but I am leaning toward the 'RFSS' version. I am looking forward to building this kit as I mainly build 1/35th scale but have built a few other Dragon 1/72nd scale kits and found them to be really nice. I would like thank Dragon Models USA (www.dragonmodelsusa.com) and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this kit.

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