15cm sIG 33/2 (Sfl.) auf Gw. 38 (t) (Sd.Kfz. 138/1) Ausf. H, Dragon, 1/35 scale, kit review.
Hi everyone and welcome to the kit review video of the Geschützwagen 38 H für sIG. 33/1 by Dragon in 1/35 scale.
There seem to be several name variants for this vehicle, one can be seen on the box,
another one would be sIG 33 (Sfl.) auf PzKpfw. 38 (t) Sd.Kfz. 138/1 Ausf. H
This is all somehow too complicated for me, so i will refer to this vehicle as "Grille" (cricket) in this video. This term was one of those used by the troops.
It is much shorter and also sounds nicer. Not overly technical.
This Grille kit is a new release by Dragon, what the new things are exactly i do not know.
The same vehicle got released a few years ago by Dragon in several variants already.
Apparently there are some minor differences, probably making this kit here a proper initial production vehicle.
I never got my hands on the previous releases, so i can not compare to find the actual differences.
Normally i boycott these new Dragon kits, but here i made an exception from the rule,
because the kit comes with figures, you get a metal gun barrel, photo-etched parts and Magic Tracks.
These are good reasons for me to make an exception from the rule. We will look at that in detail right now.
The box is pretty strong, it should protect the parts nicely.
The bags contain several sprues most of the time. Absolutely sufficient way of packing the kit.
Here we have the metal gun barrel, photo-etch and decals all in one bag.
I appreciate that it is included, but i´d like to show you how things used to look like.
This is from a Premium Edition kit of a Panther tank.
Thats how we would like it.
Dragon still offers the flattened kits, but in this case they actually throw in goodies.
Let´s start with the instructions.
There is a sprue map where we can see all the included sprues and parts.
The parts marked with blue won´t be needed and will go in the spare parts box. Quite nice overall.
There are the usual safety notes.
The paint chart refers to GSI Creos Aqueous Hobby Color,
GSI Creos Mr. Color and Model Master Color.
The assembly starts in the usual way with running gear components.
There is really no big difference to other 38(t) kits made by Dragon.
The instructions are quite cluttered, which is typical for Dragon. Here it is still okay though, later it will get worse.
The gearbox and engine are included, which is very nice.
They give you basically the complete interior for the vehicle. The fighting compartment is open on the top anyway, so there will be a lot to see.
Driver seat and radiator get installed here.
Seems to be very detailed overall.
There are photo-etched tool clamps for the tools on the vehicle. For some people this is a must, i am not really a fan of that.
I hope the kit features tool parts with molded on tool clamps. I would prefer that.
Here starts the assembly of the fighting compartment.
Things become very hard to read here. It seems like Dragon does not care about us at all.
They just printed all the drawings they had on there and we have to figure it out.
Anyway, it looks like this will be very detailed once we managed to assemble it.
Enormous level of detail here with various radios, stowage boxes and whatever you can think of.
There are empty ammunition holders with photo-etch straps and holders with the grenade and straps molded on.
I like that we have the option between these two holders.
This drawing tries to clearify where all the tiny parts actually go. I hope it will help.
This entire section of the instructions is not clearly arranged at all, i do not like that.
The disaster continues over here. I do not really have to say much about that. It is cluttered.
Now we get to the assembly of the infantry howitzer. The aluminium gun barrel gets used here.
Dragon offers several variants of this gun and also uses the kit of the weapon for various vehicle kits. It seems like it goes together pretty nicely.
There is an option for photo-etched loops on the side armor plates.
That is probably very tedious to do, but the level of detail is increased and you can actually tie some foliage camouflage on there. A nice touch!
Finally the Magic Tracks get put on.
The only reason for the presence of Magic Tracks in this kit is the fact that there are no DS tracks for a 38(t) by Dragon. As long as we profit from it i am fine with that.
Dragon suggests two painting and marking options.
The first one is sand yellow with red brown blotches. Looks pretty interesting.
It says "unknown unit, Eastern Front 1943".
The second vehicle represents the prototype by the BMM factory.
BMM stands for "Böhmisch-Mährische Maschinenfabrik" ("Bohemian-Moravian machine factory") in Prague.
It got built in 1943 and was just painted in sand yellow.
Down there we are shown how to assemble and paint the crew figures.
It is up to you whether or not you want to use the figures, they may not fit the thing you have in mind.
The instructions for the figures are standard. I already built the figures some years ago. I was not very impressed by them.
Anyway, they are included it is a nice addition to the kit.
After these rather confusing instructions it will hopefully be more enjoyable to take a look at the plastic parts. Here i have the lower hull.
It looks like it is pretty much identical with the other 38(t) lower hulls made by Dragon.
The bottom side is nicely detailed with various rivets connecting the armor plates.
Same applies to the sides, they are pretty visible on the finished model.
Inside we see these knobs, they will hold the engine and the gearbox.
Thats it really. The part is not twisted in any way.
It is solid enough to be the basis of the model, but also fine enough to have all the details.
Here we have the sprue with most of the running gear parts. It is labeled as Panzer 38(t) Ausf. G.
This was one of the last versions of the 38(t), so it is logic that it was used as a basis for this self propelled gun.
This sprue is well known, it is featured in many other 38(t) kits
The wheels have details on the inner side, which is a nice touch in my opinion.
There are a lot of connection points between the parts and the sprue.
Quite a lot of sanding will be required here, but of course it is worth the effort.
Lets have a closer look at this sprue.
The leave springs have a very fine surface texture.
The rivet heads on the wheels are wonderful.
The sprocket wheels are also nicely represented.
The connection point sits in between the teeth, which is a bit tricky to remove. Just be careful when you cut off the part, it is all to easy to cut off or damage one of the teeth there.
Now follows a specific sprue for this vehicle.
It is labeled as "Bison H".Yet another name! Now we have Grille, Bison and the other monstrous designations i brought up earlier. I will spare you from saying them again.
This sprue features a lot of parts of the superstructure and interior.
The side armor plates have no ejection pin marks on the inside.
Very good. Filling them is so annoying.
I don´t know what this part is meant to represent, but it looks very crisp.
Here we have enormously filigree parts, like these struts. Same applies to these parts over here.
Very nicely done. There is no flash in sight. The overall molding quality is superb.
These loops are molded on the side armor plates. If you want you can shave them off and replace them with photo-etched loops, which are included in the kit.
That is just a little extra for the experts, everyone else will be happy with the plastic parts. I will probably go for the plastic loops myself.
Here we have a small sprue with radios and visors, all of that goes into the interior.
Small, but nice. The level of detail is nice. Putting these parts on the model, painting and weathering them will be interesting and a challenge.
This sprue is again labeled as 38(t) Ausf. G and holds the parts for the interior of the lower hull.
There is the gearbox, the engine and seats.
It is a known sprue for me, i already used it a few times. It always worked fine.
The engine is such a nice addition for the kit, it allows for many creative ways of displaying it.
It is interesting to see how Dragon combines various different sprues. We look at some kind of weird sprue here.
Up here we have the tools without molded on tool clamps. We have to use the photo-etched clamps for them.
As far as i can tell there are no alternatives. You have to use the photo-etched clamps or you can use tools from your spare parts box which have the tool clamps molded on.
You do not have a choice with this kit, which is unfortunate.
I personally do not like to work with photo-etched tool clamps at all, so i have to avoid them.
Right here we have more tools and other small bits.
At the bottom we have another sprue for the engine compartment.
Another small sprue with bits and pieces which go on various areas of the vehicle.
It is just like the parts we looked at before, fine detail and nicely molded.
Here we have various parts that belong to the hull, like the engine deck, the fenders or the rear armor plate.
There is also a small antenna and an ammo belt..
A wild mixture of parts here. I suspect a lot of this is not needed for the model, like this Chech machine gun. I don´t think we need that for our model.
Let´s have a closer look.
The towing hooks are very filigree and sharp.
I like them very much.
This part here fell off the sprue, i will make sure not to loose it.
I like it that the engine hatches are separate, so you can built it opened without any hassle. The engine should be nicely visible.
Here we have a sIG 33 sprue which features the gun cradle and aiming devices.
I have not yet built any sIG 33. Supposedly the Dragon kit is very nice, so i am interested in seeing that myself.
Another sIG 33 sprue with more gun cradle parts and the gun breach.
The two piece gun breach might be a bit tricky to deal with. One might end up with a seam line which requires some filling.
Anyway, it is not the biggest obstacle, i will be able to take care of that.
Here are more parts for the fighting compartment interior.
The sprue with the ammunition is included twice.
Up here we have the holders without the grenades.
Here are more radios and the carriers for them. They are pretty bent and twisted.
Its a shame, it does not speak for the way the kit is packaged.
I assume one can straighten up the parts again.
The projectiles inside the holders are very nicely detailed.
Should be fairly easy to paint that way, too.
It is great to have the option between the used and unused ammo holders. That way you can display the vehicle in any condition.
Two FuG 5 antennas are included, both of them are quite flashy, though.
The molding quality is not nice at all here. The reason for that is the age of the actual molding tool.
These antennas are the very same as in this old Dragon antenna set from 1996.
The kit comes with quite a few clear parts, mainly for vision ports and optics for the sIG 33 gun.
The molding quality is fine, the parts are very clear, too.
I do not really catch the point of these clear parts in tank kits, i just paint them like anything else.
Some people like to mask them off to keep them clear. It is impossible to see through them though, because there are no mirrors like a real visor.
Because of that it is a bit weird to me.
It is such a nice feeling to see the glorious Magic Tracks by Dragon in a kit box again.
In my opinion one of the best things in the armor modelling genre.
Of course one can even improve that even further with metal tracks, like Friul for example. This is a matter of taste afterall.
In my opinion the Magic Tracks are pretty much the best option out there.
As i mentioned earlier the only reason why we get these tracks in the kit is the absence of DS tracks for the 38(t) family in general. I hope it remains that way!
Magic Tracks make a Dragon kit attractive for me.
Thankfully there is also a metal gun barrel included in the kit.
At the end one can even see some rifling inside. This feature is nicely visible on such a large caliber gun.
This is an excellent addition to the kit, which saves time and money. The metal gun barrels usually fit very nicely.
The kit comes also with this pre-formed piece of wire.
It is meant to represent the power line that connects to the Notek light.
It is nice to see this in a Dragon kit again, at least in this particular one.
It used to be standard for Dragon and saved a lot of work for us model builders.
The wire is very stiff, it won´t bend without intention. Superglue works fine to glue this wire on and it has the right shape already.
It saves you from bending your own conduit wire. In this case the shape is pretty complex.
No swearing and pain is involved here.
There is a lot of photo-etch in this kit. Most parts are small loops and brackets.
I am not the biggest friend of photo-etched parts, but some people simply love that stuff.
For me stuff like this exhaust grill is important, it will enhance the detail on the engine deck a lot. I also care about these boxes and struts for the interior.
I do not care that much about all the loops and tool clamps here.
Dragon is extremely "generous" with the decals here, all we get are six cross insignias.
We do not get any unit markings. All in all this is very meagre.
Despite that, the decals are nicely printed and Dragon decals are usually easy to work with.
The crew figures wear winter uniforms.
Some ammunition is included as well, looks like it belongs to an 88mm gun.
The figures look decent. I already built them some years ago and i was not impressed at all by them.
There were some big fit issues, really bad. The shape of the torsos was not matching the shapes of the legs.
It is really a shame. As you can see the parts are quite chunky looking in places, which is probably the reason why they don´t fit very well.
The figures can be used, but you will need quite some filler to get them right.
There are photo-etched parts for the figures as well, they are for the headphones and microphones.
It is a well known photo-etch fret, which i used a couple of dozen times already and also have left over frets sitting here everywhere.
I like using these PE parts, they work just fine. The metal is a bit tenacious, but you will get it right with a bit of patience. Additionally you can also temper the metal to make it softer.
There is actually very little to criticise about this kit.
It is very different compared to most of the other recent Dragon releases, because it is a solid kit, which does not force you to cut old tooling parts into the right shape or fill big holes, because the manufacturer was too lazy to make a proper new molding tool.
No, this not the case here. Everything goes as it should here. You can actually build this kit without major conversions.
There is a full interior.
They give you figures, which are not excellent, but they are included anyway. It is pretty nice.
Photo-etched parts, metal gun barrel, Magic Tracks - thats what we want, i am very happy about that.
If Dragon would keep going this way it would be awesome. All in all i really like their kits.
This box of fun costs about 70€.
Thats a lot of money, especially when compared to the prices of Dragon kits 10 years ago. Back then this kit would have costed half the money.
However, other brands like Meng or Takom are in a similar price range and they offer not quite as much.
I refer to this particular kit now, this statement does not apply to other new releases by Dragon. These are certainly not worth the money.
I am very happy that i did not buy some rubbish.
It seems like the kit is worth its money and i am looking forward to seeing how it builds up. My first impression of this kit is very good.
Thats it for this kit review, i hope you enjoyed it.
See you again in the next video, your Hamilkar Barkas.
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