I'm seeking info on Cyber Hobby's Orange Box kit number 18 (Schwerer Plattformwagen and Pz.Bef.Wg. III Ausf. K)? I know the Orange Box series is older kits spruced up with some goodies, but with the rail car, tank, and platform this one looks good. Can someone who has made this kit share their impressions?

Bill:

Well.... No, I've not actually looked inside this kit- yet. But, if I understand things right, this kit includes that seemingly ever-popular Typ SSY platformwagen kit and its track-piece base... a kit which folks both at shows and on evil-bay apparently gladly still plunk down 25 - 30 round men for today. Which seems like an endorsement of that part, to me (and I'm pretty convinced to get one of these, as I have seen a couple of cool builds of this wagen...).

The Pz. III kit is, of course, their (DML) older version- with some added Magic Tracks. While the world seems replete with recent Dragon and CH Pz. III releases, this older kit likely builds up OK- again, it still commands 20+ bucks by itself in the market places. And adding in the Magic Track set makes it pretty much more attractive, at least to me. And, hey, it IS a little simpler than the newer kits, so could be a quicker build!

So, all in all... Seems like a pretty good deal, IMO.

The tank is the old Dragon Imperial Series kit, which combined the hull of a Gunze Sangyo Panzer III with the turret shell of a Panzer IV (this short series of command tanks used a turret based on the heavier tank to better accommodate a command radio and a working 50 mm gun). The turret is presumably from Gunze's Panzer IV G kit. These were all tooled around 1989-90, and are decent in presentation, but not as detailed or accurate as current kits. The turret was slightly too large, as I recall (it's buried in my stash, but I checked major components against my drawings). Suspension arms are molded on the hull side. The old style Dragon on-vehicle tools would all benefit from replacement using Cyber Hobby, Tamiya, or other aftermarket bits.