Wade’s World Build Review & Rating
I’d looked forward to building this kit for a very long time and was delighted when it arrived from Cyber-Hobby.
4 Price - Cost $43 via Cyber-Hobby slow boat order and $75 via Sprue Brother’s for my two copies of the kit
2 Instructions - Lot’s of mistakes by Dragon. It’s a pity in my opinion Dragon doesn’t address this consistent weakness with some basic quality checks.
4 Mold Quality - Uneven, some is outstanding state of the art like the MG42 and some is lackluster. Overall is pretty good. I’m happy with this aspect of the kit.
5 Plastic Quality - Excellent, high-quality, holds up to Tamiya Extra Thin and easy enough to clean up.
4 Parts Clean Up - Lots of nubs meant less punch marks on parts. Overall pretty good.
3 Ease of build - The PE roof plate was annoying as hell to securely fit in my experience.
Hull assembly is complex. Good part clean up is critical. Add interior parts plus a turret and interior, this makes for a fairly complex halftrack kit to my eyes. It all comes together reasonably well. Overall, PE is only used when it’s needed and that’s very good in my opinion.
There was stowage locker issue that was my fault and had no bearing on the rating.
5 Accuracy - While a paper panzer etc for all practical purposes seems very good.
4 Fit - Due to complexity of subassemblies that make up the hull. Every thing fits well enough if due diligence is taken in parts clean up and assembly there shouldn’t be major issues.
5 Doesn’t Require Aftermarket - All of the parts in the box are perfectly suitable for most modelers and useable. The headlight is weakest link in this chain in my opinion.
4 Details built Out of the Box - tool clamps level detail is sometimes missing. Overall excellent.
**40 out 50 possible **
40/50 => 80%
Highly Recommended, most especially if the modeler has something like an old Tamiya 251D halftrack in the stash as this kit has many potential hand me down extra parts. Example seats, squad, squad weapons, entire extra set of tracks etc.
