10.5cm K.Pz.Sfl.IVa ‘Dicker Max’
10.5cm K.Pz.Sfl.IVa ‘Dicker Max’ Ref. # 6357 Scale: 1/35th Manufacturer: Dragon Price: Unknown Material: Styrene, PE, Metal IntroductionThe Dicker Max consisted of a Panzer IV chassis mounting a heavily modified 10.5cm Kanone 18. Only two prototypes were produced, both of which were sent to the Eastern Front where apparently they acquitted themselves well. | |
The KitThe kit consists of 19 sprues of light grey styrene, 1 small transparent sprue, 2 separate idler wheels, a separate hull and upper superstructure, aluminium barrel, poly bag of road wheel tyres, two handed bags of Magic Tracks, PE fret and decal sheet. As we’ve all come to expect now from Dragon, the moulding is of a superb standard, with no flash evident, and really sharp detail exhibited. Given that the kit is of a vehicle based on a Panzer IV chassis, and given that Dragon’s last release was a Panzer IV F2, then you could reasonably expect most of the sprues to be in this release. You’d be wrong though. This kit shares it’s lineage with the earlier Panzer IV ‘Superkits’, such as the Panzer IV Ausf.B & C etc. Remember that the F2 recently released was a ‘Smart Kit’ release, and this one isn’t. | |
The sprue breakdown is as follows; Sprue A, of which there are two, contains the components for the main suspension bogey’s, and comes from the Panzer IV superkits, with various small attached side sprues either present or absent depending on the version. This one is actually identical to the one released with the Panzer IV Ausf.D kit #6265, minus the small attached sprue that held the drive sprockets with the separate cogs. Sprue D holding the side fenders, is the same one as included in all the other Panzer IV releases, but a lot of it isn’t actually used in this kit, such as the hull rear wall and exhaust etc. Sprue C is brand new, holding as it does the front glacis which of course is specific to this vehicle, along with the front of the upper fighting compartment. There are two different sprue E’s, both of which are also brand new and hold various bits and pieces for inside the fighting compartment and also the travel lock assembly etc. Sprue F, again brand new, is the breech assembly and mount for the 10.5cm Kanone 18. Sprue K holds the fighting compartment floor and inner walls, and therefore is new. The rest of the sprues are all fairly small, and have been seen before in various releases, such as On-vehicle tools and personal kit sprues from the Second Generation figure sets.....LOADS of spare here! The photo-etched fret has the inserts for the Idler’s which have been included in all the other Panzer IV variants as well, along with tool clamps, tie-downs, fender supports etc. | |
You are going to love this kit! I do and I haven’t started it yet! Of course, you have those suspension bogey’s to assemble.....the ones with 350 parts, or maybe it just feels like 350, but if you’ve built one of Dragon’s Panzer IV’s before, you’ll know what I mean...but the detail is astounding! As you can see from the photographs there is even the tyre-makers logo moulded into the separate tyres. Construction begins to diverge from the previous Panzer IV variants when we get to the rear wall of the hull. Instead of the usual rear wall with exhausts and smoke candle rack, we now get to fix the new rear wall that is ‘flatter’ and has two large hatches with a spare road wheel fixed centrally. These two access hatches can also be displayed open or closed. Construction then continues with the installation of the fighting compartment, which as you can see from the pics is a large one-piece moulding, consisting of the walls already moulded in-situ. I have to say I really like the way Dragon have moulded this, and it should completely negate any problems that might have occurred with mis-alignment of compartment walls etc., along with giving us extremely detailed weld seams on all joins both inside and out. The construction of the fenders and hull deck follow, and then the big gun assembly. The gun breech assembly is highly detailed, and will look superb once built and painted! Two muzzle brakes are included, one for this vehicle, and just in case anybody has some conversion idease in mind, they also include the muzzle brake for the 10.5cm le.FH. The rest of the inside of the fighting compartment looks busy, and although there’s nobody that knows enough about this vehicle to be able to say if anything is wrong, the main consultant on this project, Thomas Anderson, has given us the most likely structure according to his research, and includes such things as ammunition racks etc. Such things as the ventilation ducting for the inside of the fighting compartment are also present, with some finely moulded grills for the apertures. | |
Also for the inside we’re given a wealth of detail such as stick grenade racks with the grenades moulded in-situ, and you have got to look at the photographs to appreciate the detail in these...amazing! Rabbit’s ears scope, battery box, and the ammunition box can be displayed opened with internal detail or closed too! The tracks, as mentioned earlier are as in the earlier release, i.e. ‘Magic Tracks’, individual links which should need no ‘pruning’, but simply slot together and need cementing. It would be nice one day to see if Dragon could actually go that one step further and make the links workable so that no cement is necessary? I’m sure they’re over half way there already! Marking OptionsSince there were only two prototypes produced, the marking options are somewhat limited here, but dragon have given us both options, based on the research of Thomas Anderson again, and thrown in a factory scheme too, which just consisted of three balkencreuz placed around the vehicle. The other two options are a vehicle belonging to Pz.Jg.Abt.521, on the Eastern Front during 1841, and the one returned to Juterbog in 1942. ConclusionYou have to say it’s a superb offering from Dragon. They seem to have done their homework and offered us a highly-detailed kit of a rare variant. Got to be a winner! Highly recommended! My Thanks to Dragon for the review sample For full information on all Dragon products, please see their website, Dragon Models Ltd. |
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