Panzerjager IB mit 7.5cm StuK 40 L/48

Introduction:

Throughout WWII Germany showed an incredible ability to repurpose and reuse captured and obsolete equipment.  The humble Panzer I is a good example of this ability.  The original design was to be a training vehicle. This was then lightly armed and armored and served in the Spanish Civil War.  By the time Germany invaded Poland the Panzer I was largely obsolete.  The Germans converted these obsolete tanks into a variety of more useful machines.  There was a command version, a maintenance version, a supply version, a munitions carrier, several self-propelled gun versions, a flak version, and of course the original Jadgpanzer version.  I think the oddest version of the Panzer 1B is the variant in TAKOM's newest kit.  This is not a paper panzer.  It did exist.  There is not much information about this vehicle, however at least one photograph exists showing it deployed near a Flakturm in Berlin at the end of the war.  The internet forum belief is this was a one-off local field modification to a Panzer 1B hull and not any sort of an approved production design.  

The vehicle's 7.5cm StuK 40, was derived from the 7.5cm Pak 40 which was developed in late 1941 as a replacement for the underperforming 5cm Pak 38.  Preproduction models performed well against Soviet armor and by early 1943 the 7.5cm gun was the standard antitank gun in German service.  When mounted on a casement style vehicle the weapon was referred to as the Sturmkannone 40 (StuK 40) vice Kampfwagenkanone 40 (KwK 40).  The length of the ammunition was shortened for the StuK 40 due to the limited amount of storage space inside smaller vehicles such as the StuG III.  The 7.5cm gun was mounted, as shown by this kit, on nearly every conceivable vehicle type.

What's in the Box:

The kit arrived in a large sturdy box with the sprues sealed in the standard self-sealing bags used by all TAKOM kits.  The non-sprue parts were all placed in a zip lock storage bag. There were no loose parts present in any of the sprue bags and there appear to be no damaged parts.  There is a total of 43 sprues of which 30 are associated with the track links.  Also included is one small clear sprue for the headlamps, two small photo etch sheets, an aluminum barrel, a length of copper wire for a tow cable and a small decal sheet consisting mostly of red and black numbers.  An additional sprue is included for a figure of a crewman posed loading a round into the gun.

The total parts count for the kit is approximately 814 parts.  The parts breakdown is 400 parts for the hull and gun, 384 for the tracks and 30 for the figure.

This kit uses the suspension, tracks and hull from TAKOM's earlier Panzer 1B kits.  The upper hull has a few differences due to the gun mount.  The 7.5cm gun is provided from a collaboration with Das Werk.  The 7.5cm gun sprues are from the Das Werk Stug III kit.

The overall quality of the kit and detail are excellent.  The bolt and rivet details are well done and in scale.  The figure is well sculpted with a good but unexpressive face.

There are no interior details with the exception of a very basic floor in the fighting compartment.  I don't think this will matter because once the gun and mount are in place very little of the driver's area will be visible.

The 18 page booklet type instructions are comprehensive and easy to understand with vehicle and gun construction broken down into 30 steps with an additional step for the figure.  The sprue diagrams do not highlight unused parts.  The paint callouts are only for AMMO by Mig paints.  There are four paint schemes listed all showing the same hull number; 742.  I think the modeler can be as creative with painting as desired since there is an extremely limited amount of information available on this vehicle.  The only painting limitation could be the 7.5cm gun, it was fully introduced into service in 1943 so its base color should be dunkelgelb.

The Sprues:

Several sprues have large "empty" areas. These areas are not missing parts, rather they represent parts from previous kit versions that are not needed for this build.

Sprue C - hull parts. 

Note: there are two Sprues labeled "E".

Sprue E1- Tools and hull details - Note the two machine gun barrels at the bottom of the sprue.  They are not used in this build, but many builders of the original Panzer 1 models threw these away thinking they were excess sprue only to find out later - they weren't.  Keep them for your parts box.

Sprue E2 (Das Werk) - parts for the 7.5cm gun. The radios are not used for this build but they are a nice addition to the parts box.

Sprue G (Das Werk) - parts for the 7.5cm gun: 

Sprue H (Das Werk) - parts for the 7.5cm gun.  Note: a plastic two part barrel is included if you choose not to use the aluminum one.

Gun detail:  In the third image the bottom semi circle sprue protrusions, when removed,  should be covered when the recoil shield is attached.  The top ones look like they may need filling.  I'll address this in the full build review.