Panda Model Marder I 7.5cm Pak.40/1 auf Gw.Lr.s.(f) Sd.Kfz.135 1:35

[Mike]

Marder I 7.5cm Pak.40/1 auf Gw.Lr.s.(f) Sd.Kfz.135
1:35 Panda Model

After the fall of France in 1941 the Germans found themselves with a lot of French armour, which they couldn't resist using to their detriment in hindsight. The Marder I was based on one such piece of hardware, the Lorraine 37L tracked tank supply tractor. The German engineers mounted a 75mm Pak40 anti-tank gun onto a new upper hull, with a large angular shroud installed around the rear of the gun shield. Due to the diminutive size of the tractor unit, which was barely 1.5m wide from track to track, the resulting vehicle looks ridiculously over-burdened from some angles.

It was pressed into service to mobilise the gun, as it had sufficient hitting power to take out the then new T-34s and the heavier KV-1s, acting as a makeshift Tank Destroyer (Panzerjager), although its armour could only really stand up to shrapnel due to the weight constraints of the small chassis. The top was open, which didn't lend itself to the inclement winter weather on the Eastern Front, so in some cases a canvas cover was issued to protect the crew from precipitation and the howling wind. It was superseded by the Marder II that was based on a Panzer II, which in turn was replaced by a Marder III that was built on the Czech designed Panzer 38(T) chassis.


The Kit
This is a new tooling from Panda of this small vehicle, and it arrives in a white themed box that is perhaps a little too large for it. Inside are five sprues of sand coloured styrene, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a decal sheet, separate colour and markings guide, plus an instruction manual. The kit's impression of quality is marred slightly by very thin and cheap feeling bags, which offer little protection to the sprues during transit, although this time the decals and PE are in a ziplok bag for protection from moisture. Looking through the sprues you immediately wonder if they've forgotten to put in the lower hull part, but it is supplied as a number of panels that are glued together in the first construction stage, with the suspension and axles added soon after. The build-up of the wheels is unusual in that they are built into an assembly that includes the leaf-springs and three bogies that are linked, all of which are added to the axles in one go. The drive sprockets and idler wheels are fitted to their own axles at either end of the hull.

Now for the tracks. These are individual links on two of the five sprues, and they're quite small parts with three comparatively large sprue gates per part. Detail is nice however, and there are no ejector pin marks to deal with. You need 107 of them per side, but with only 112 per sprue you don't have many spares in case you get a bit carried away. There is a small jig on one of the other sprues that should help keep them in line whilst building, but as usual you'll have to be careful you don't end up with a track-run glued to the jig.

With the tracks out of the way, work starts on the upper hull, which has a set of PE light cages at the rear and you place it on the model with the lower half of the shroud sticking up at the rear. The kit comes with a sizeable store of 75mm shells, which have recessed rears thanks to a bit of slide-moulding, and these are installed in a rack at the front of the small crew compartment at the rear. This also has a PE frame to the front, which must be folded to an L-shaped section before it is added. Side supports are added into the lower hull component, and the front engine deck is built up with the exhaust with PE shroud on the left side and the gun's traversing platform at the rear, before it is all encompassed by the upper shroud, which has some added equipment inside. The gun's travel lock is necessarily on the front deck, and is made up so that it can be posed up or down, opened or closed. The gun itself is then built up, with a slide-moulded hollow muzzle, so all you need to do is remove the mould seam down its length. All the sighting equipment and controls are put in place before it is mated with the hull, after which you add the original double-skin gun shield with a bit of PE bracketry. A set of pioneer tools are dotted around the hull, and a nicely detailed aerial run is installed inside the main shroud, running from floor to top edge and terminating in a short antenna on a base.


Markings
There are five markings options in the box, three of which have no decals visible, the other two taking up all the markings on the small sheet. No specific units or timescales are quoted in the instructions, so I'll let the profiles do the talking.

The decals are printed anonymously and the black has a slightly grainy finish, with most colours very slightly out of register to the white. As a lot of these markings will have been hand-painted on the originals though, it might well not matter to you, but at least you can make your own arrangements if it does.


Conclusion
A nice little model that is let down a little by the decals and the lack of information on the colour schemes in the box. A little research will be needed if you wanted to model a Marder I of a specific time or campaign.

Recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

and available soon from major hobby shops

[wyverns4]

Cheers Mike!

After visiting Samuer and a few other places in Normandy a few years ago I developed an interest in these captured French vehicles in Germany service and as such have a couple of the RPM versions in the GI tract of the stash monster. Lets just say that they are small and just a little challenging ...

I will have to get one of these, (probably more...), to 'help' me build the RPM kits

Christian, who has just been to Tanzania, A.K.A. exiled to africa part 2