Advantages: Fresh, highly detailed kit of old favorite; more will follow this one; as detailed as the 250 Neu kits

Disadvantages: Two-piece track links likely to bring howls from many modelers

Rating: Highly Recommended

Recommendation: For all German fans

DML has continued to march with its German kits, and following on the heels of their popular 250 Neu kits they have now started into the Alte models. This is the first one, and it represents the light APC version.   The kit uses many of the pieces from the Neu kits, but provides a totally new set of moldings on two sprues for the upper hull and specific innards of the Alte. This results in a hull which consists of nine major parts to assemble the basic body, but fit appears to be excellent and should not cause too many problems. There are some inconvenient ejection pin marks, such as on the faces of the interior of the vision blocks (partsK38 and K39) but else can be cleaned up. Some modelers will not appreciate the fact that the vision blocks are molded solid, but that is the way that DML chose to do them albeit with optional position lids.

One figure of a driver is included, consisting of five parts. Parts fans will appreciate that the now proven DML "mix and match" sprue system provides them with four extra MG 42 weapons, as the vehicle itself comes with two very nicely done MG 34s.

However, for those who did not like the Borgward B IV with two-piece separate link tracks, guess what's back... Apparently the two vehicles either shared these tracks, or they are close enough for DML to swap them out. The tracks – 80 links are provided – consist of a link with hinges and a "trap" bar to allow the hinge to work. For a vehicle with "dead" tracks like most German halftracks, it's the best possible system for reasonable cost, but many modelers will grumble and start looking for old Tamiya "Grief" tracks to replace them.

Overall, this is a nice little kit and should be a winner. Decals are provided for four different vehicles – two grey ones in Russia, one Panzerbraun in Italy, and one green/sand camouflaged from Russia.  

Thanks to Freddie Leung of DML for the review sample.