Does anyone know who manufactures, or how I can otherwise get, the correct grills (screens) located under the lip of the engine access hatches of the Kpfw. 38(t)? Thanks.

David:

I have no thoughts on any of the available AM PE sets regarding those 38(t) under-the-door-lip intake grills, but have built both Dragon and Tristar kits with them...

From my own visual comparisons between the kit PE and the examples of the "real thing", I'd say that the Dragon items look much more like the subject in terms of opening size, shape and distribution across the grill than do Tristar's, though both look pretty nice when installed, IMHO - given as you can hardly see them unless the door is raised to view those neat motors available for those kits! I did find that the kits instruct builders to mount the grills in the wrong place - they should, given the photos of the real McCoy, be mounted more inside and behind the hatch-lip (which I did by doing just a little surgery on the styrene and PE parts)...

A good place to see the Tristar and Dragon and real parts all together for comparison is on Terry Ashley's PMMS - He did a great comparison review of the Marder III H kits (Marder III H used the entire original rear deck and hatches of the 38(t), and kits have those grills...) - the actual place to go to see his comparison photo of the grills in question is his review of the Dragon Marder III H kit 6331. Terry A also addresses that part-location issue... I'm sure he knows much more about all of it than do I, and you should, I think, find his commentary interesting!

From this... maybe comparing pics of AM PE set (several makers sell PE kits for ausf B, E/F, G 38(t) tanks and for the Marder III H) grills to Terry Ashley's grill-comparison pic would allow you to "pick your poison"? Or maybe if seeing the actual grills is key for your project, AND you are not already building one of the Dragon kits of the likely tank... maybe obtaining the Dragon grills from those newer Marder II H or the 38(t) E/F or G kits would be a route to go? Just an idea!

I often head to LuckyModel.com and look the PE set up - they post useful pics of many products and often one can get a good look at prospective bits to buy, and L-M has great prices, IMO!

Hope this helps, at least a bit!

Bob

Thanks, Bob. Been away for awhile. Great discussion.

Here is a url of a photo of an actual 38(t) grill that I have: http://gallery.kitmaker.net/showphoto.php/photo/370707

I think the latest Tristar grill matches better, but I don't need another 38(t) model, and have yet to locate one in a PE set. Oh, well; will keep looking or try to figure how to fabricate a couple.

Thanks, again!
David

David;

Hi! sorta wondered where you went!

OK - looked at your pic... How about this: That grill, per se, is pretty tiny. IF you had almost ANY of the Tristar, Dragon, or AM grills, AND you built on that clearly-evident framing to add some depth when seen from the side on the wide-open door, it would probably look quite sharp! The difference among grills is generally in the shape and size of the grid holes or cells... the real deficiency in ALL of the PE grills, IMO, is that they are flat and thin, and when seen from the side as parts of those (open) hatches, they look just that - flat and thin. Whereas the real thing had a nice lipped frame to support that grill. IF you were to add that, I think it would way overshadow the "not-quite-rightness" of the PE grill itself!

Cheers!

Bob

Fine idea Bob.
Many thanks!
David

The voyager set comes with those screens, but also comes with a lot of other stuff you may or may not want.

Thanks, Jesse.
I'll look into set. Being picky, I may go for it despite the unneeded parts.
Really appreciate your calling it to my attention!
David