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Friday, December 09, 2016 - 02:51 PM UTC
Also announced today by Dragon (and that makes three), a completely new tooled Panzer IV Ausf. D at 1/35.
Production of the Ausf.D commenced in October 1939, with some 229 tanks produced altogether through till May 1941. Like its predecessors, the Ausf.D mounted a short-barreled 7.5cm KwK37 L/24 gun in the turret.

Major improvements on this mark were thicker armour on the sides and rear (upgraded from 15mm to 20mm) and the fitting of an external mantlet. A hull machine gun was reintroduced in front of the radio operator. The tank weighed 20 tons and it was operated by a crew of five. This variant was widely used in Germany’s campaigns in France, the Balkans, North Africa and Russia.

Dragon has offered kits of the Ausf.D before, but this latest model is a brand new item that utilizes completely new toolings. Indeed, the only reused components on this 1/35 scale plastic kit are the on-vehicle tools, and the DS tracks that have been used on Dragon’s previous Panzer IVs.

This completely refurbished tank thus gives modellers a Panzer IV D built to the very highest Smart Kit levels. Furthermore, the highly experienced design team has sought to minimize the number of parts wherever possible so that model-makers are spared the ardour of repetitive assembly. It goes without saying that they have done so without sacrificing any detail either.

This kit fits together with ease, and it now offers even more assembly pleasure thanks to the clever engineering. Indeed, the early-war Panzer IV D has been given a new lease of life!
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Comments

A completely new Panzer IV except the tools and DS [ ] tracks, should be interesting.
DEC 09, 2016 - 07:22 PM
New tool.... Hmmmmm. Why on earth would the D need to re-tool the IV-D hull or turret stuff? It has great IV-D kits already in the line-up. And, what's with the hinted-at parts-reduction "so that model-makers are spared the repetitive assembly"? I didn't know that most folks who buy Dragon IV kits were beefing about the fact that there are 8 wheel bogies needing possible assembly (probably the most-repetitive part on these kits?). I'll suppose that the D has simplified those bogies to be a 1-piece bogie with 2 pegs for the wheels.... It could, I'm sure, come out looking OK when built. So I'm sure that some who are put off by those Dragon IV-x kits with north-of-900 parts per pop will look at this one. I'm not (yet!) put off by those kits nor by the many-part bogies D has long provided, but I certainly AM put off by the DS tracks. This one won't be on my list (but then, I already have a few of D's previous IV-D kits, so I have thousands of parts yet to go through before I need to add another box to my stack :-) ), but those looking for a simpler IV-D build may be in luck with this.
DEC 09, 2016 - 10:26 PM
they need to do the jumbo sherman and the Lee tank which I have been waiting for!?
DEC 10, 2016 - 02:55 AM
Vemmadave Yes they do !!!
DEC 10, 2016 - 04:14 AM
This might be another example of "this kit is not intended for you." Sure they'll try to sell it to you but the simple construction was made for another market and now they will sell it to you as "new and improved " when it's really not. Their previous Panzer IV D is a very daunting kit. It was sold under the Platz label as the tie-in for Girls und Panzer. Imagine a teen trying to put it together as maybe their second model ever. So a simplified kit would be welcome for that market. And just for the heck of it market to those regular Dragon customers. Wonder if they fixed the under sized muffler? And don't forget that the superior Tristar kit is back out. So Dragon may have seen a need to tweak their kit to better compete. (See the PMMS comparison reviews from back in the day...)
DEC 10, 2016 - 07:13 AM
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