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Italeri 1/35 scale Kit No. 6460; PAK 97/38 AT Gun with
Servants
PAK 97/38 AT Gun with Servants
Italeri 1/35 Scale
Reviewed by Cookie Sewell
Summary
Stock Number and Description
Italeri 1/35 scale Kit No. 6460; PAK 97/38
AT Gun with Servants
Scale:
1/35
Media and Contents:
111 parts in dark grey styrene
Price:
USD$16.00
Review Type:
First Look
Advantages:
Compact kit of an offbeat weapon
Disadvantages:
Somewhat crude, "mix and match" combination
of parts to produce a new kit
Recommendation:
Recommended to all German fans
FirstLook
There are times that exigencies create strange bedfellows, and the
tale of the PaK 97/38 is one such story. When the Germans went up
against the Soviets in mid 1941 they found to their horror their
normal antitank guns – the 3.7 cm PaK 36 and new 5 cm PaK 38 – had
little effect on the heavy armor of the big KV and T-34 tanks. Their
interim solution was to simply get a bigger gun – in this case
strapping 700 obsolete France 75mm Canon Modelle de 1897 barrels
onto the carriages of the new PaK 38 gun. They did take precautions,
such as adding a muzzle brake and reinforcing bands, but the guns,
while moderately successful, were clumsy and not popular, and were
relegated to rear area security and the Channel defenses as quickly
as possible. (It was much later in the war that "hollow charge" –
e.g. HEAT ammunition – was developed; this could have made the gun a
success from the start, but that is the way of the world.)
Italeri has now released a kit of this weapon that basically uses
three sources to produce a single kit: their nice PaK 38 carriage of
a few years back, a new barrel and ammunition, and what appears to
be the crew from their PaK 40 of about 30 years ago.
The gun barrel appears to be hurried into production, but on the
other hand so was the original. Alas, instead of using the pressed
steel wheels from the PaK 38 kit this one provides relatively
mediocre late-war "spoke" wheels which look a bit out of place with
the pressed steel castoring wheel fitting provided. A new cradle for
the 75mm barrel also comes with the conversion, as do eight full
rounds and eight casings. The latter are unfortunately not "slide"
molded like their Asian competitors and as such will need to be
drilled out for realism.
The gun shields do make an effort toward scale thickness, and the
main shield is "spaced" to provide a realistic look. The lower
shield may be fixed in firing or travel positions, but no
instructions cover stowage of the castoring wheel in movement order.
The figures appear to be for late-war SS troops in camouflage
smocks, which is sort of unfortunate as most of the action these
guns saw was either early in the war in Russia or on D-Day against
the Allies. As they appear to be the 30 year old moldings of the PaK
40 crew – which was great when it came out and better than the
Tamiya one at the time – they now appear a bit crude and tired in
comparison with modern figures. The positions are not bad and with
some work and good painting can be turned into a good companion set
for this gun.
Box artwork is very good but the box painting directions, as with
many recent Italeri efforts, is awful. Use the frontside, NOT the
back, for painting hints.
Overall this is a good, not a great, kit, but it is reasonably
priced and a good value for the money, and with a bit of work will
yield a nice model.
Sprue Breakdown
A 19 PaK 38 gun shield, carriage,
details
B 40 PaK 40 gun crew
C 25 PaK 38 lower carriage, trails, steering wheel
D 27 Gun barrel, shield, ammunition, wheels