introduction

Thor Hobby is a new manufacturer of modeling accessories based in Taiwan. They have recently come out with ammunition sets for several German weapons. This review will deal with set A7204, ammunition for the WWII German RW61 rocket launcher L/5.4 Sturmtiger in 1/72 scale.

the kit

This set comes in a small zip top bag with a cardboard header. There are six rounds in the bag, three each of what appears to be the Rakaten Sprenggranate (rocket high explosive) and three of the Rakaten Hohladungsgranate (rocket shaped charge). The former is a high explosive round with 125kg of explosive inside. The latter was specifically designed to breach fortifications.

The rounds are well turned and show a clean finish. Detail is fairly good but to my eyes the fuses appear to be somewhat oversized. There is some detail on the bases but there should be a ring of rocket nozzles (32 total, in four groups of 8) on the edge of the base of the round. There are no instructions for painting and no decals. Going off of the 1/35 scale AFV Club kit, AF35139, which offers the same rounds, instructions for painting are a dark green body and silver fuse. I was unable to get accurate dimensional measurements of the kit parts. The actual rounds were almost five feet long, and again, by eyeball, they appear to be about the proper length.

I don’t know how many kit offerings there are of the Sturmtiger in 1/72 (the only ones I could find were the Dragon metal kits) but these would make a nice addition for a diorama.