Can anyone differentiate the Ausf. A from the Ausf. B specifically in relation to the two Dragon offerings?

After some additional research I know the B had a slightly larger engine, had an air compressor for air brakes and a heavier reenforced towing pintle to handle larger guns but were any of these alterations visible on the outside? Any cosmetic differences?

There is probably more but the biggest thing to me is that the "A" kit includes the canvas tarp which the "B" for some reason missed out on.

Building the "B" right now i would have gone with the "A" if i could choose again based on the fact that the tarp is included + you get the great looking 5cm PaK as well!

Johan, I appreciate your reply but I was referring to visible structural differences between the Dragon A and B vehicles.

(p.s. The cloth top molding on the Italeri/Revell/Tamiya offering is excellent! I assume the Dragon tarp is equally well done.)


My Revell D7 towing the Dragon PAK 38 with an extra wheel added to the gun and a scratch built fork as per the PAK 38 that WAS in the Ft. Knox, Patton Collection.




(Mike Koenig photos - Patton Museum Collection)

Kimmo,

As usual, your attention to detail is astounding — a lot of putty and Styrene added! Very nice work!




Johan,

I have both Dragon kits — almost finished with the Ausf.B. In the Ausf.A kit, aside from the inclusion of a folded (not open) canvas top, some ammo boxes and of course the very nice 5cm Pak 38, they seem to have the same parts.

The Dragon Ausf.A folded top is not all that great. Although the Tamiya version looks somewhat better, neither one truely represents what I've seen in photos. I'm using the Dragon part as a base for sculpting over to give it more realistic detail — I'm hoping.

Michael,

I believe that both Dragon Ausf.A and Ausf.B kits include a choice of two towing pintle options. I'll check the instructions and sprues when I get home. The Pak is missing the link that you mention.

—mike

Thanks Mike, a little more of both than I would like for an OOB build, but them's the breaks.

Kimmo

Another close up shot of the Saurer D7 track links for Kimmo's reference:

Oh, haha, gotcha

As far as I know the major differences where that the B were reinforced for heavier towing in both hull and tow arm. It also had an airtank in the rear that was used for air brakes on heavier loads (this is omitted in the DML kit).
There are probably more differentiators that I am unaware of!

Sry for derailing the thread, back to you Kimmo

Thank you Johan for you have just answered another of my many questions:

The D7 that was in the Patton collection MUST be an Ausf. B as it HAS an air tank mounted on the rear! So here is a close up photo of the vehice and I take it this must be what the reenforcement for the towing pintle looks like:




Did the Germans use a "D" pintle such as this or is this a US replacement?

And yes Kimmo; now back to you!

In the Dragon kit, there are alternative rear ends: part D24 for the Ausf A, A60 for Ausf B. According to the Jentz Panzertracts book, the demarcation between A and B is in the strengthened hull and rear body. Other changes seem to be independent of that; for example there are certainly Bs with no air tank on the rear.

From what I understand, the easy differentiator is those two kind of triangular plates with their apexes meeting at the towing pintle, clearly visible in the two photos directly above.

Ok, I found the reenforcing tail piece (pintle mount) mentioned by Matthew in the sprue shots of the Dragon Ausf. B kit. It is nice to know that Dragon went to such an extent to differentiate the variants of the two vehicles. Kudos to the manufacture!

I already bought a very nice brass air tank, (HO model railroad casting) that should be about the right size. I guess it is time to order the Dragon Ausf. B and build the Patton D7.

Michael,

PM sent.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back. As hinted at, plenty of bench time this week. Or at least for the next couple of days. Test fitted the running gear, looking good. I sanded off the back lip as mentioned up thread to get a better gap on the right side.



Before sanding



And after



The left side is pretty good, maybe a light scraping will be needed



I cleaned all the track links, all nicely molded thankfully, and corrected two pads as promised. First was a simple strip of 20 thou glued to the face and profiled to shape.



For the other one, I shaved the pad off completely and made a new one from 10 x 60 thou strip. Three layers for the actual pad, then a square and 2 outer strips, trimmed very close and repeat the process. Once set, trim the last layer very close and sand the pad to shape.



And the results



I think 2 layers for the pad will suffice, but otherwise not too bad looking either way. So, if you want to spend a bit of time rather than cash on aftermarket tracks, there's a couple of options. You won't have to fix all the links, just the ones where the pad shows, so no ground links.

Glued a few bits and bobs in place. The bracket on the right fender was horrendously over scale. I took more than 2/3 off with sanding sticks, files and scraping. It could still be thinner. Easier to just replace it with strip or metal of your choice.




Got some work done on the figures as well. Ulrich had some undercuts added to his tunic.




The last figure needed a bit of surgery to get him sitting properly, he'll sit well on the rear bench which is higher than the side benches except the poses look more natural as shown below. A couple of cuts and bends, a wedge and fill. Still in progress.







And there's today's edition. More tomorrow.

Kimmo

Nothing earth shattering to report today. Got the road wheels and front underside primed, we've all seen enough dark grey primed pieces so I'll spare you guys. I also did some work on the fenders. The rear mud guard attaches to the underside with a rather thick locating plug. I cut out a small section of the guard corner and shaved down the plug so it won't be as noticeable. I added a couple of strips to continue the "fender supports" on either side. No idea if that's how it is supposed to look, but at least it looks uniform now.






Also got some minor filling done and continued to work on my latest surgery victim. I'm hoping to get the tracks glued up tomorrow, that's the last major hurdle. Everything else is more or less minor stuff that will be added as late as possible to minimize breakage. That's it for today.

Kimmo

Another good, albeit frustrating session. Got the tracks pretty much sorted out, glued on some more bits and pieces and got the seated figured cleaned and primed.

First off, the tracks. You don't need to be Nostradamus to foresee interesting times ahead. The instructions have the tracks installed backwards, when looking at it from the rear, the pad section should be down. I hope. Next up are the rather small attachment points, these will drive you batty. Glue up sections, let dry for a bit, then fit, pretty standard. The individual links just barely fit properly around the sprockets. Some trimming of width from the guide teeth will probably be needed. I had intended to do the tracks in 2 sections, then paint and install, due to the finicky nature of the tracks, I ended up gluing track and the inside faces of the wheels as I went along. I'll see if I can slip the wheels and tracks off as a unit after the glue has set properly to make painting and filling in the hull seam easier. Doing up the top runs, I realized there is a gap of roughly 1.5 mm at the last join. Much hemming and hawing later, I decided to cut the track link and insert 20 x 40 spacers. They need to be trimmed and blended and the rib fudged. This is the first time I've run across a tweener gap, it will probably happen to everyone at some point. The fit might be bang on if I had repositioned the axles lower as they should be. Oh well. At least there were enough links.







The wire hoop at the rear end of the hull went together well enough, there are a couple of ejector nubs on the backside of the chain which need a light touch to remove. The brackets could be thinner, but I couldn't be bothered to do anything to be honest. You may need to do some trimming to get a good fit on the mid brackets. The fit of parts could be better, but shouldn't pose any real problems. Removing and redoing detail might be the way to go in a few spots.




The front end got some work. The shovel isstrange. It has a recessed lip on the front edge which should be raised? The instructions also mention part A29 which I couldn't find that is to be glued to the fender. There's already a shovel mount molded on. Go figure. So some strip and a sand/fill will be needed. There also seems to be an extra hole. This is where I thought the hood clamp went. I also got some cargo bay details added.




Getting there



And our figure is recovering nicely from the leg work.




And that's it for today. Next update might be Saturday.

Kimmo

A minor update today, didn't get the bench time I was hoping for over the weekend. Continuing with adding what little is left to add and doing some more filling. I got the shovel holder fixed up, it looks much nicer now. Next time around I'll just shave off the molded on detail on the fender and make up the holder or dig around in my spares for a shovel with one already molded on. The tools are sort of ok, they could stand replacing and the clasps are something you might want to replace as well. Your spares bin might be of use here.




The instructions are a bit vague on the placement of the pick axe. There's supposed to be a hole, or you have to drill one, but no indication of where on the kit. I ended up placing the handle as far back as it would go on the upright support while keeping the clasp in a logical place. I also trimmed the locating pin off the wire cutters, I'll just glue it on after painting.


The rear lights and frames got glued on, they'll need some clean up. I realized a little too late that one of the Tamiya sprues has better rear lights, so keep that in mind. They're much better looking than the originals.



And here's the lengthened tracks. A little more blending and they'll be right as rain.



I managed to get some primer on the running gear and tracks as well so they should be good to get glued on next session. Not much left to do before painting can get under way. The figures still need arms and faithful Ulrich will need a bit of work to make sure he grips the steering wheel properly. Hopefully I'll get that all sorted out tomorrow.

Kimmo

Your modifcations on the shovel holder are excellent! I was always dissapointed in this particular detail on this kit. I have tried to improve it myself but your work outshines anything that I was able to accomplish. Kudos!

@ Michael Koenig

Hi, too late !
I'm currently building the same. Unfortunately I did't understood this detail and I've glued in closed position.

Regards
:-H

Thanks Michael, it's not a terribly complicated fix, just requires a bit of a light touch. As mentioned, it's probably easier to just do up a new one altogether or raid the spares bin. I can't for the life of me figure out why it was thought that this was a better way to go when everybody and their mother has been doing it (Italeri included) with the holder molded on to the shovel since Methuselah was in nappies. A lot of head scratchers on this kit, that's for sure.

Kimmo

Found a few hours today to sort out the figures, I'll need to find a few more to get them completed. These figures are obviously from another set as they almost, but not quite sit well or naturally. Ah well, never pass up the opportunity to mess about and improve your skills.

So, after the usual seam clean up and undercuts, I got the arms to sit nicely, albeit with some major gaps to deal with. Normally I'd chop off the hands and glue them onto lengths of sprue and hollow out the sleeves, but I figured I'd see how well I could do with the hands in place. While it is possible and they look decent, it is much easier to do it my preferred way. Next session I'll plug the gaps with milliput to make sure I get a good bond and support and then reshape and add folds and creases as needed. That should be interesting.









As you can see, Ulrich is now sort of gripping the steering wheel. I had to remove some material form the hand to get a hollow. I still need to do some work here. The other figures are a little more straight forward. The arms kind of sit ok as is,b ut not quite naturally so I made a cut in one arm to change the pose slightly and glued the others to look as natural as possible. You'll notice the one arm looks like a major dislocation at this point, that will definitely need some rework. I added a wedge to keep it in place as the glue sets.








You get a couple of extra arms so you might be able to rework a couple of poses should you wish. There is a whole bunch of extra gear included so your spares bin will get some nice additions, including some early type Jerry cans.

Stay tuned.

Kimmo

Found a few hours today so I continued with the figures. Didn't need to use milliput after all. Starting with Ulrich, I made two cuts at the base of his thumb and bent it inward to have him actually gripping the wheel, although they would probably frown on this casual grip in driver's ed. The other figures got some scraping and filling. I plugged the worst of the gaps with perfect putty, wiped it down and then used green stuff in layers, wiping and brushing as it set up. I used a moistened toothpick to get some folds and creases, nothing major yet. I got a coat of primer on to see how things look and surprisingly not bad considering I haven't really done that much. I'll have a more critical look tomorrow.








Even with a rudimentary filling, they look pretty decent so it just goes to show that a wee bit of work can make a big difference and gives you some flexibility with poses. You don't need to be a master sculptor either, I'm certainly not, just use common sense and references, take your time and use a variety of tools. Wear clothing that is roughly the same type, strike the same pose and you will get a good idea of how folds and creases should look if you want to go that extra mile.

More tomorrow.

Kimmo

Yesterday turned into today, which turned out better in terms of total bench time. The figures got a little more work where needed and I got the heads on. The heads are adequate, nothing spectacular but not too bad either. I'll need a coat of primer to check the latest fixes and some filler on the necks.






The tracks got a dark black brown primer coat. I decided to paint the tracks and probably the road wheels before gluing the assemblies to the hull.



I got around to adding the doors. Or trying to add the doors. Some serious fit issues here, this should not be surprising to anyone at this point. I ended up gluing the supports in first and then I'll need to add some width to the doors. The front is particularly funky. I cut the supports off and glued them in place the same as the rear. Some styrene and filler will be needed here and the doors will again need to be widened. How they managed to get this fit so bad is beyond me.








I trimmed the rear support frame mounts so that they wouldn't be as noticeable and also filled in some holes on the front fenders. The holes are probably legacies from other versions.



All in all, a good session and things are getting that much closer to the end. Next update will be during the week.

Kimmo

Finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Got the figures primed with Vallejo black, I prefer working from dark to light and the black gives nice depth. Also got the rest of the cabin and doors sorted out plus a few more bits and bobs glued on.




The gap between the wings and doors was an easy fix, shims of styrene were glued in flush with the rear face and then trimmed and filled.




The front doors needed widening, the rear ones didn't. Well they could have used a hair, but I decided to leave the gaps.
I trimmed off the side lip, then blocked in the shape and finished with strips of 20 and trimmed as needed.






The handles on the driver's side will need to be shaved down or removed so that Ulrich can squeeze in.

And lastly, I glued on the rear view mirror and spot light mounts. These are somewhat over scale and rather basic. A quick scan of refs didn't come up with this particular style of set up, but I'll give Italeri the benefit of doubt again here. A little clean up is still needed. I shaved the mounting pins off and had the vertical supports touch the fenders, they were hovering oh so tantalizingly close so I figured why not.



All that's left are a couple of pieces for the cabin and wheel hubs to glue in place after painting, one strut for the engine/suspension, a notek light and the track assemblies plus track tension adjusting thingies. And some stowage. I should have most of the weekend and Monday to try and wrap this up. Knock on several wooden objects.

Kimmo

Got a surprise session in today, never look a gift session in the mouth. So, got the missing strut in place on the suspension. A minor issue here, the end that goes on the suspension has the mounting hole on the wrong side, slice the pin off the suspension and viola. The strut was quite warped so I straightened it out as best I could. Should have just replaced it with a a length of rod.



I did some trimming and shaving to get Ulrich sitting properly. I managed to break the join on his right arm in fiddling with the fit of the wheel, no biggie, super glued back in place. You can see the handles have been shaved off and I carved a little off the door top to let the arm sit better.



Did up the Jerry cans provided on the Italrei sprues. I'm saving the early pattern ones for a project worthy of them. I noticed the handles are a touch long, so I glued the base first, let that set for a while, then gently sanded the handles a bit. The were still sitting a bit high, but I got them pushed down as the glue started to set.





I also primed the whole thing. This means I will have a good shot at finishing by next Monday.






And that's it for today. I might have some time on Friday to get the tracks panted. If not, that can wait until the weekend.

Kimmo

Hi Kimmo,

Very nice job so far. I'm following step by step...

Looking forward to see the painting of tracks...