King Tiger, Staghound & PT-76 Detail Sets

Voyager Model, 1/35 scale

Reviewed by Luke Pitt

FirstLook

These three new sets are a mixed bag with two from World War II and one of a Russian post war tank. 

PE35234:   WWII German King Tiger Porsche Turret (for the Dragon kit)

This set is made up of 8 frets together with 13 resin pieces,1 turned brass part, 3 lengths of wire, 2 lengths of different dia tow rope and 4 lengths of plastic rod covers; all of the external fittings on the King Tiger.

With seven pages of instructions and 59 assembly sequences, the set is, quite complex. The resin castings are very well produced, with no air bubbles present. All of the various bracket fittings are included, together with the front and rear mud guards.  Of note are the two types of tow rope included, with their numerous fittings included in resin, plastic rod and photo etch. The etch is well done with the bend marks being well defined.  The engine screens are very well done, being both thin and easily bent into shape.

There is a lot to like about this set, as it is easy to assemble and would enhance the already excellent Dragon kit.

Voyager seem to have gone the extra mile with this set and it represents pretty good value for money. The hull Schurzen is shown on the box, but that, alas, is a different update and not included in this set.

 Highly Recommended

PE35163: WWII T17E1 Staghound A/C (for the Bronco kit #35011)

This set covers 5 photo etch frets, 4 resin pieces , 2 lengths of wire, 1 length of tow rope and 2 lengths of plastic rod.

Two well laid out pages of instructions cover 36 construction sequences and cover alot of the detail on the exterior of the vehicle. The photo etch, is very well done, with cleanly defined bend marks in evidence.  I was a little surprised that Voyager would release a set for the Bronco Staghound and my thoughts on this kit were “well it’s all here, no need for photo etch for this one”.  The etch in this set cover mostly the smaller fittings on the vehicle which are almost impossible to do with any degree of scale accuracy with injected plastic.  The only exceptions to this are the storage boxes on both sides of the vehicle. The resin covers the 30 cal machine gun body (with fine detail in evidence here) and the search lights (which are average)   

Overall, this is a good set and to be honest I had a fair degree of skepticism on the “worth” of this update when I started this review. After having a look at it, I can see definite advantages over the kit parts which would add a great deal finesse to  the excellent Bronco kit.

Highly Recommended

PE35254: PT-76 Russian Amphibious Tank model 1951 (for the Trumpeter kit)

This set covers  4 photo etch frets with 1 length of tow rope, 2 pieces of plastic rod and one length of wire.

Four well laid out pages of instructions cover 35 construction sequences and cover most of the detail on the exterior of the vehicle. The photo etch, is very well done, with cleanly defined bend marks in evidence. The highlight in this set is the mud guards, which cover both sides of the vehicle  and are rendered in no less than 10 pieces a side. The mounting brackets call for some tricky bends but will be well worth it when complete.  The engine screens (both large and small) are done in a very fine photo etch and are a vast improvement over the Trumpeter photoetch. The headlight guards are quite complex on the real vehicle and in this update are included as fine photoetch. While the etch in this update is a vast improvement over the photoetch supplied in the Trumpeter kit they are still “flat”. I guess this is the best compromise between the two. The last portion of this set is taken up with the splash guard on the front of the vehicle and consists of seven parts. This again, is an improvement on the kit parts but is somewhat compromised as the front face of the guard has the bolt heads as recessed items where the kit parts has them more accurately portrayed. The best solution here is to shave off the bolt heads from the kit part and attach them to the photoetch .

Overall, this is a good set but not a great set. It is nowhere near as good as their World War II photo etch updates. Nevertheless the set would add a great deal to the basically sound Trumpeter kit.

Recommended.

Thanks to Voyager Model for the Review samples

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