Contents

The Nashorn consisted of a 8.8cm PaK43/2 mounted onto a slightly elongated Panzer IV chassis that also used various components from a Panzer III. Although a vehicle to be reckoned with, using the same gun as the Jagdpanther, it had a high silhouette and only a lightly armoured fighting compartment. Nevertheless it was deemed a successful vehicle with just under 500 being manufactured. Dragon might seem to have a bee in their bonnet regarding this vehicle, since they've tried so many times to get it right. It looks as though this time they have.

The Kit Contents

Once again, this is one of those its that is absolutely brimming with sprues. An extremely full box, although a lot of the parts on the sprues are marked as 'Not For Use'. This is mostly due to the fact that Dragon have re-engineered a lot of the parts since their last release of this kit, so much so in fact, that it's reasonable to treat this as a completely new release.

Speaking of the sprues then , there are eleven large ones, five medium-sized and six small ones. In addition we are supplied with two transparent sprues, a separate lower hull, two bags of colour-coded Magic Tracks, photo-etched fret, decal sheet, machined aluminium barrel, and a small bag containing a length of fine wire, and four tiny metal springs.

The second thing that strikes you about this kit, after the amount of plastic in the box, is that instructions....thank God....are brand new, and no longer consist of photographs of partly assembled yellow plastic bits. These are extremely clear, of the exploded line drawings type...although it's fair warning that they might have one or two small errors such as the mis-numbering of parts. Given that Dragon now describe the kit as a '3-in-1', the new instructions were completely necessary anyway, in order to describe the different steps to produce either of the three variants on offer.

The running gear provided is that from the Panzer IV Smart kit series, therefore fairly new and nicely detailed, as in the tyres for the roadwheels having the Continental logo etc. The Magic Tracks supplied are in two different shades of grey as mentioned, although if you want a perfect job, it can't hurt to clean the small pips off each of the links provided, as even though they're supplied off the sprue, there are always pips and sometimes ejector pin marks that need to cleaned off as well.

Not every sprue in the box is new of course, and you wouldn't expect them to be, since if Dragon has toolings that are essentially correct, it would be madness to re-tool them for no gain. Dragon have produced replacement parts on the new sprues where necessary though.

There are three main new sprues, B, F & E. Sprue B consists of new walls for the fighting compartment, which are now moulded incredibly thin, and without the chamfered edge that was necessary on earlier kits to reproduce a scale-like thickness to the armour....now the entire parts are of a scale-thickness.

Sprue F is supplied twice, and consists of various parts to replicate the ammunition racks and lockers inside the fighting compartment, along with a selection of ready rounds. In addition there are now moulded separate parts to represent the louvres of the engine air intakes, which were moulded integrally with the earlier releases, or supplied as photo-etched options.

The last new sprue, E, provides a hot-potch of parts that have been improved to replace parts that are supplied on the other, older sprues. Firstly there are two new front fender sections, which appear much sharper, with improved detail over the older parts. In addition there are fittings and fixtures for the rear wall, new travel lock parts that provide new options, along with some new parts for the gun breech.

The photo-etched fret provided in the kit is also all-new, dropping the photo-etched option for the engine intakes, which are always better done in plastic anyway since they're so complicated to make up without soldering, and also containing some new parts for the various travel lock options. The main gun barrel supplied in the kit as machined aluminium, and is full length, as opposed to just the end section which was supplied as aluminium in the previous 'Premium' release of this vehicle.

The '3-in-1' options of the kit refer to the modeller being able to make either an Initial, Initial Modified, or Early production model. The instructions have different sections devoted to each and shouldn't be too complicated to follow, although the choice of which version you are going to make has to be made fairly early on in the assembly process, the initial version having a slightly different layout of the driver's compartment roof from the other two versions. Continuing with the build, there are varying exhaust layouts dependent on which version you are making too.

The fighting compartment ammunition racks can be modelled opened or closed, although since there is some excellent detail on show, as well as ready rounds provided for the racks, I'd personally find it very difficult to model them closed and not show off all that superb detail!

As with earlier versions, there are temporary parts provided as templates to locate various parts within the fighting compartment, which are tacked in place and later removed once assembly is done. The main gun can be built in firing or locked mode, irrespective of the travel lock arrangement on the forward hull, and although it would have been possible to have one locked and not the other, most modellers would probably want do either both locked or both in the firing position.

The instructions do become a little complicated around the fighting compartment area, but a planned build with close examination of the correct sequence for the version you wish to make should allow a problem-free build, with the travel lock on the forward hull being the last major difference, with three different version being supplied. For each of these you'll need the small springs provided by Dragon, along with the length of wire to represent part of the lock release mechanism.

Markings-wise, we're offered six versions on the instructions sheet, which consist of two of each of the versions in the kit, i.e. two Initial, two Initial modified and two Early schemes. All but one of the Early versions are camouflage schemes, this being in plain overall dark yellow. See the pictures below for more detail.

Conclusion

I'm very glad I never got around to building the Premium release now, as I think this kit looks a lot more interesting! I'm not sure many modellers would want to shell out for this if they already have the Premium release, but for those who never bought that one, it will prove a must have. Beautifully engineered with a considerable amount of new parts, I'm glad to see this one improved and looking forward to building it! Recommended.

- Vinnie Branigan