Matthew Lenton takes us most of the way through a build of another of Dragon's new small Panther based Flak variants - this time it's the 5.5cm twin.



Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Matthew,

An interesting and enlightening review of another of these recent series of Paper Panzer kits. It's also most interesting in that the reader can see one of these kits from a different reviewer's perspective. I was rather amazed to read that the guns on this version would retain their elevation despite whatever angle they are positioned, especially since the guns are longer/bigger than the 3.7 cm version. Also, with the 3.7 cm version, they are so loose that they must either be glued at a fixed angle or the builder will need to modify the pivot mechanism in some form.

As for the guns at full elevation, it does look somewhat appropriate. Compare your picture 43 to the following:



There is also the image of the Sgt. York that can be found about one quarter of the way down the page at:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1334350_.html

As long as the empty interior is not viewable through any "cracks" it should be fine. Thank you for mentioning about the thinning of the exhaust covers and a few other points. I'll be sure to keep them in mind when my build progresses.

Cheers,
Jan

Thank you Jan, I'm glad it wasn't all deja vu at least then .
On the gun elevation staying put, of course that is the one sprue that is completely different on the two kits. The only "special" action I took was, in the light of reading your review, not to clean up the swivel joint - on photo 32 it can be seen how I sanded off the part that is exposed to view, but left the moulding marks in place at the pivot itself.

Good idea to use the Sgt York as a reference; maybe all that needs to be done is a bit of filler in that little knock-out mark or a piece of plastic sheet to flatten things out a bit.

Nay Sayer I:

Nothing against the reviewer but I have to say the mold quality on this kit looks to be absolutely sponge like, no crisp sharp edges here.

Very disappointing!