Kit Review: Dragon Models Limited 1/35 scale ‘39-‘45 Series Kit No. 6655; Panzer-Regiment 7, 10 Panzer-Division, Smolensk 1941; 67 parts (56 in grey styrene, 11 etched brass); pre-order price US$10.95 via Dragon USA Online

Advantages: new German tank crew figures always welcome; Guderian figure a nice bonus

Disadvantages: painting and assembly instructions leave a lot to be desired (see text)

Rating: Highly Recommended

Recommendation: to all early war German armor fans and those wanting a Guderian figure

As German armor seem to be the primary product of DML these days, it is always good when they come out with another set of crew figures to populate these kits. This new set offers three tank crewmen, shown in the box art as a captain, a corporal and a private, with the former and latter in the hatches of an early Panzer III and the corporal standing on the engine deck. The looks on their faces make it seem as they just found out what the word “steppe” really means.

Also included is a figure of the legendary Generaloberst Heinz Guderian in his greatcoat and walking at a slow pace.

The three panzer crew are normal DML fare: six piece figures (head, torso, arms and legs) with separate side caps and kit. The officer comes with headset cups and the etched brass headset band to complete it. Two jerry cans are included but are extra to the kit, as nobody is carrying or using them.

The Guderian figure is quite involved, as there are 23 parts on the sprue and he takes all of them. To DML’s discredit, even though the box art is by Ron Volstad, the directions are the “stick here and paint” type which really hurts the Guderian figure as he is quite complex. There are 13 parts to the basic figure (two-piece head, collar, two-piece torso, legs, arms, hands and boots) and then a six-piece greatcoat and collar assembly. An optional pair of boots, hat and baton finish the figure off. But as noted the directions are as clear as mud about how to assemble him.

While the box art is a good assistance to painting the panzer crew, it is useless for Guderian as it simply shows painting the greatcoat. Missing are his collar tabs and trousers, both of which are obvious. What should be a good figure is marred by this lack of interest in the directions.

Overall the crew figures will be popular, and modelers with a good deal of experience painting figures, doing DML figures, and having access to references on Guderian will be able to do a good job with that figure.

- Cookie Sewell

Panzer Regiment 7 - 10.Panzer Division - Smolensk 1941
Manufacturer: Dragon models
Scale: 1/35
Material: Styrene & Photo-etch
Serial Number: 6655
Price: TBA

Introduction

This new figure set from Dragon includes three figures plus a separate 'bonus' figure of 'Generaloberst Guderian'. So that's four figures then. A normal Dragon figure set contains four figures. Offhand I can't think of a Dragon figure set that only contains three figures. Maybe they do from now on, and so if we're given a fourth....it's a bonus!

Kit Contents

Right...now that's off my chest...the set consists of two large sprues of grey styrene, and two small photo-etched frets. On the larger of the two plastic sprues are the three figures representing the Panzer crew, with the Heinz Guderian figure is on the other.

First the three Panzer crew. Each is conventionally broken down into upper torso, separate arms and legs, heads and headgear. The sculpting is very good indeed, yet each of the torso parts suffers from the dreaded plastic cooling lines which will need to be removed. I know it seems that I go on about these, but it really is time they do something about them. The title of the kit is 10 Panzer Division, Smolensk 1941, when in fact the absence of moulded on insignia or even decals means they can be just about any Panzer crew anywhere. Two of the figures are wearing the double breasted panzer tunic, with the third in shirt sleeves, All three wear the sidecap, with one figure modelled with headphones, and therefore having the various wires for the 'phones themselves and throatmike moulded onto his tunic. He also has binoculars in his right hand. The Headphones themselves are provided separately on the sprue with the bands being provided as photo-etched parts. All three figure poses are fairly generic, in that they could be used in a variety scenes, one in the cupola, one standing on the deck, the third half in the turret side hatch.

Moving onto the Heinz Guderian figure, it's one we've seen before, and he's one of the earlier, true 2nd Generation figure releases. He's supplied with separate two-piece torso (and therefore no cooling lines), two-part head (back and front), and separate hands to fit to his sleeves, along with separate boots (not to be fitted to the sleeves - it would just look odd). The idea behind the 2nd Generation figure sets was that the increased parts count, as a result of moulding heads in two pieces and separate hands etc., would allow finer detail. It worked to an extent, although it had various drawbacks such as the join that would result from moulding a two-piece head that wasn't wearing a helmet with strap. Therefore it was an idea that was dropped, although some of associated ideas, such as slide moulded weapons were retained. The idea behind a two-part head was to be able to increase the detail of the head's ears. On this figure of Heinz Guderian it wasn't entirely successful. You can see from the extreme close-up below that there's not much detail evident inside the structure of the Pinna. Also...I hate to say this, but it's easy enough to 'Google' him...it doesn't look much like Guderian either. Having said that, and as long as you accept that nobody is going to look at your completed figure and remark that he's a dead ringer for the chap, it actually is an exceptionally good figure. He's posed wearing a greatcoat, the lower portions of which are supplied in sections for better detail and to give that great 'undercut'. He's even supplied with a choice of boots. I can't figure out why though. One pair has a tread pattern, the other doesn't, but why there should be two...who knows?

Lastly, on the main figure sprue, we're also provided with two very nice jerry cans, along with photo-etched inserts to represent the central seam, with separate handles and pouring spouts. They're both marked as water cans. Sadly, the PE inserts don't match the plastic cans provided and so are useless.

Conclusion

It's a nice figure set, and will no doubt find many uses. However, I don't like the device of calling Guderian a bonus figure. It would have been - IF - there had been four other figures included. I also get fed up of Dragon's PE Jerry can inserts not matching the plastic cans provided. It's not the first time I've come across this.

- Vinnie Branigan