Pak 40 75mm Anti-Tank Gun

Roden 1/72 Scale

Reviewed by Glen Porter

Summary

A Brief History

The Pak 40 was one of the outstanding anti-tank Guns, along with the British 17 Pdr, to come out of the Second Great Unpleasantness. With a calibre of 75mm, it could defeat any Allied armour at close to medium range and was so successful it was adapted for use in all later German Tanks except the heavies, which used the 88mm.

FirstLook

To my knowledge, there has only been one 1/72nd scale (Esci) and two 1/76th scale ( Matchbox and Heller) Pak 40s in plastic. All three are old kits and therefore lack detail by today's standards. The Esci kit has been re-released by Italeri in their German Gun Set, No. 7026 and the Matchbox by Revell. I'm not sure of the availability of the Heller kit.

The main problem with the Esci kit, apart from the lack of detail, is that the gun has been moulded in the recoil position. The barrel and recoil cradle are moulded as one and it will be very hard, if not impossible, to separate them to fix the problem.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

The Esci kit has a parts count of 22, not including the figures, whereas for Roden it is 67. All single major parts in the Esci will be five or six parts from Roden. Consequently, the Roden kit will not be one to put together in an afternoon but will require care, forethought and a delicate touch to get it done correctly. There is a small amount of flash, seam lines and ejector pin marks to clean up but the only sink mark I could find was on both sides of the breach. They are on flat surfaces and should not cause much concern.

There are a whole lot of other advantages to the Roden Pak 40 other than a high parts count and correctly moulded gun. The later model pressed wheels have separate tyres, two per side. This is a good move by Roden, provided they fit correctly, as it will allow the wheels and tyres to be painted apart and put together later. The gun shield is a two-piece affair (inner and outer) just like the 1/1 scale gun. All the bits and pieces that mount on the two trails are separate bits and although some modellers may prefer to replace the handles with wire, the plastic is not noticeably over scale and will allow the gun to be built in the firing or towing position.

When Roden were planning this kit, someone must have gone to sleep on the job and added a sprue “F” into the parts plan. This sprue is NOT for this kit and no parts from it are mentioned in the instructions. It is in fact from the Sd Kfz 234/4 Pakwagon, kit No.709 and the first kit I bought had this sprue in it as well. However, the sleeper must have woken up because the second one I got didn't have it. So when you get one of these, if the sprue is there just put it in the spares box and if its not there, don't worry, its not supposed to be.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Another superb kit from Roden that makes all the Braille Pak 40s that came before look a little second hand. Remember though, it will require a little effort and patients but a magnificent model should ensue.

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to JB Wholesalers for the review sample.