Kit Review: Dragon Models Limited 1/35 Scale '39-'45 Series Kit No.
6347; Blitzkreig in the West - France 1940; 84 parts; price about US $10.95Advantages: provides early war period German tank/self-propelled gun crewmen and an early war German antitank team
Disadvantages: not Gen2 figure
Rating: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: for German fans, especially early "StuG" lovers
Dragon's switch to "Gen2" quality figures has sort of lulled us into a bit of disappointment when they release more conventional figure sets, but suffice to say even their regular figures are superior, especially when done to match the great artwork of Ron Volstad.
This set offers three types of figures in one box - an early war German infantry officer, two StuG crewmen, and an antitank team with the early German 7.92mm antitank rifle and the massed hand grenade antitank/antipersonnel weapon.
The figures are conventional DML ones - each figure consists of head, torso, two legs, and two arms, but the detail and animation are excellent for each one. The officer and antitank team come with Model
1935 helmets, but the StuG crew comes with one figure in a floppy beret and the other with a "crash" helmet - I admit to not having seen this before, but assume it was another attempt like the floppy beret with hardshell liner to provide protection to armored vehicle crews. (Was it simply the liner itself? I plead out on this one!)Weapons are original DML ones - e.g. no slide molding - but are still well done. The Panzerbusche 39 rifles come with the extra magazines to mount on the sides of the rifle as well as the bipods and carrying handles.
Overall, anyone doing early war armored vehicles (as most modelers know with armored crewmen, paint them black with pink piping and they're tank crews, field grey with red piping and they're self-propelled gun crews) or wanting to ambush a Tamiya Char B will want to pick up this set.
Thanks to Freddie Leung for the review sample.
Cookie Sewell