Kit No. 6500
The Sturmpanzer IV was never actually known during the war as the “Brummbar”, that came later on. But that aside the Sturmpanzer IV was one of that small breed of assault guns that fell somewhere between the Sturmgeschutz and the Jagdpanther and Jagdtiger. It mounted a 150mm gun in a superstructure mounted on a Pz.Kpfw. IV chassis and used a four man crew ( increasing to five in the late version ) but suffered from being overweight, underpowered and underarmed. This version from Dragon is a Mid-Production version produced from December 1943 to mid-1944 and as such would have received a factory application of Zimmerit, so Dragon has included moulded on Zimmerit in this kit.
This kit comes in a tray and lid type box on twelve medium to large sized sprues, and another seven small sprues. All the sprues together with the separate hull tub, casement and engine deck are moulded in light grey. There is also two small clear sprues, one photo-etched brass fret, one length of picture frame wire for making the cables, one small bag of magic tracks, two photo-etched sets of shurzen, two DS vinyl single length tracks, a sheet of decals, and the instructions. The instructions can be a little confusing and require a bit of attention be paid to make sure everything goes where it should. You also get the 2-IN-1 option with the choice to build this as a command version so decide which version you’re building first and check the instructions thoroughly.
The moulding, as we’ve come to expect from Dragon, is extremely good with nice clean parts and sharp detail. Much use is made by Dragon these days of slide moulding to eliminate mould seams and give the greatest level of depth and detail. Cleanup is therefore pretty much limited to the location points with the sprues though there are some large injector pin knockout marks on some of the larger inner surfaces.
The lower hull is a slide-moulded one-piece tub which includes detail such as bolt head detail on the bottom and fine zimmerit reproduction on the sides. The suspension pairs have the spring and spring arms moulded as one piece so these would be quite difficult to articulate if you wanted to do so as it would require almost a complete rebuild of the suspension assembly.
The roadwheels are made of two halves with a separate hub, each and both they and the return rollers feature the CONTINENTAU brand name on the sidewalls. This allows Dragon to get around the CONTINENTAL trademark and the modeller to remove the last upright on th “U” to turn it into the correct name if desired. There are two optional sets of Idlers, one that represents the earlier cast version, the other the later pressed steel which include two photo-etched inner rings.
The tracks are Dragon’s DS ( Dragon Styrene ) vinyl one piece tracks and although these are very good looking tracks they do still lack the proper sag along the top run that is seen on German tank tracks. Personally I still prefer the individual link tracks for the right fit and the right look.
The upper hull is made up of the large forward casement together with the rear engine deck and separate fenders which attach to the lower hull assembly. The tools have moulded on clamps that still look very good, and the tow cables are made up using moulded eyes together with the included picture frame wire which results in very good looking cables. The separate engine deck includes separate hatches with photo-etched internal louvers and some very nice, delicate detail on the rear plate.
The casement again is a separate slide moulded part and is covered in very nice moulded zimmerit. The roof plate is a also a separate part and includes very bolt head and hinge details. The rear access hatches, commander’s hatches, and the loader’s gun shield and hatch covers are all separate parts, and the hatches include very good internal detail. The loader also gets an excellent slide-moulded Gen2 MG34 machine gun that includes a separate receiver cover. The commander’s hatch has the bullet deflectors in front of it as well as a full scissors telescope with its internal mount. The sliding periscope cover is moulded in the open position so you get no choices there, and the rails on this need the undercut detail scribed in.
The gun barrel is a single slide moulded piece and comes with a very well detailed breech, as well as a section of floor with tread plate to mount it on, that gives you a moderate degree of interior to be seen if you choose to leave any of the hatches open. Though with the hatches on the rear of the casement open the lack of any other interior is quite evident. Nice as the barrel is the size of it does also make the lack of rifling quite apparent too. The large ball shaped mantlet is also slide-molded and includes a very fine weld bead where the tube joins the ball.
The shurzen that is included is optional and you’ll need to open up the holes in the hull for the mounting arms if you choose to use it. The skirts are provided in photo etch sections, with the mounting arms, rails and hangers all moulded in plastic, so the rails look a little thicker than they should do but the skirts look very good, having a much more scale thickness appearance than injection moulded versions.
The decals and painting guide provide options for four vehicles – Stu.Pz.Abt.216., Italy 1944 ( Command Vehicle ) : Stu.Pz.Abt.216., Italy 1944 : Stu.Pz.Abt.216., s.H.Pz.Jg.Rgt.656, Ponyri 1943 : Pz.Div. “Schleisen”, Frankfurt 1945.
This is a first rate kit that can be built straight from the box into a beautiful model. It probably isn’t for beginners due to the high number of parts, but this is a very nice looking kit and the zimmerit is very well done and looks the part, so the finished result is well worth the time and effort to get there.
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