Bronco 35079 – Sd.Ah.52 AmmunitionTrailer For 37mm FlaK 36/37
Around a year ago the Sd.Kfz.7 wars began between Trumpeter and Dragon with both offering versions mounting the various 3.7cm FlaK guns. One of the things that became a focus of the discussions on the various merits of each brand’s offering was that the FlaK bearing halftracks were always seen towing an ammunition trailer and that the Dragon Models kit had no trailer and the Trumpeter kit did but it was a non-existant trailer that never existed, being rather an amalgam of two different trailers. So that left those who cared still having no proper trailer for either kit. Now we do, thanks to Bronco who have finally bought to the market an accurate Sonder Anhanger 52 trailer with ammunition box.
This kit comes in a large tray and lid style box ( surprisingly large when you take into account that the kit is just one small trailer ) on three largish and eight small dark yellow sprues. There is also a small and a smaller photo etched fret, a length of thin cord, a length of fine chain, a sheet of decals, and the instructions printed on high quality glossy paper. All this builds up into one trailer plus a bunch of ammunition boxes as well as jerrycans as stowage accessories.
The mould quality is excellent with almost completely clean parts and almost non existant mould seams, very sharp detail and some particularly fine and delicate detailing. I did say almost, as you will still need to remove the mould seams even though they are very faint. For what is essentially a simple piece of equipment, and not a huge kit when complete, there is still plenty of parts to this one. Construction is very simple and the instructions are easy to follow being the clear line diagram style with well thought out breakdowns of the assembly sequence.
The ammunition box is a simple and straight forward assembly being basically a big box with internal dividers and lids with the detailing on all the various panels being superb. All the various lids can be modelled either open or closed though the very nicely detailed handles are all moulded in place. These look very good but if you model the lids open you don’t have the option to position them hanging down as gravity would dictate so unfortunately in that case you need to very carefully remove these and build your own.
The Sd.Ah.52 Carriage which carries the ammo box is the same trailer frame found in Bronco’s 3.7cm FlaK 37 and 2cm Flakvierling 38 kits. It comes on the largest sprue with the wheels and smaller fittings on two of the small ones. The main frame is moulded in two halves – top and bottom – which allows for maximum detail and minimal seams with full detail underneath as well as above.
The wheels and tyres are a single moulding with an internal centre piece that holds the centre disc in place allowing them to then rotate. Full detail of the brakes is included though to be really accurate you’ll need to add your own brake lines from the drums to the carriage. The tread detail on the tyres is very well done.
The tool boxes mounted on the wheel guards are moulded closed and include very nicely moulded in place padlocks and pin retaining chains. Even though these are moulded in place they do look very good ( though I must admit the option to have the toolboxes open would have been nice ). The correct brake lever is included and the mudguards even come with mudflaps.
One thing that does seem odd to me is that while the instructions show where and how to place the wire for the brake lines, and even give you the size to use, it isn’t included in the kit. When they go to the extent of even including cord to tie down the stowed items on top it does seem odd that they don’t include such a prominent part.
The accessories you get with this are twenty jerrycans, eight ammo cases and eight ammo cans. There is also a length of soft cord included with which to tie these down when stowed on the back of the trailer. That’s a very nice inclusion and makes the exclusion of the wire for the brake cable even odder.
The jerrycans are a mix of styles with some being for water, some for petrol, one a prewar can and a couple SS cans. They come in two ways, with ten being the usual single jerrycan made up from two sides, handle, cap, and photo-etch centre ( watch your filler caps as they aren’t all the same ). All of these are very well done. The other ten are moulded as two blocks of five cans with seperate caps and handles and no end detail as they are intended to go between two of the single cans and then be tied down.
The ammunition cases come as two halves with a six round clip moulded in place which allows you to model them open, though for better definition and more flexibility I would have prefered the cases to be empty with seperate ammo clips that could be used in them or beside the gun ( this trailer after all is designed to be used with a kit bearing a 3.7cm FlaK gun ).
The ammuntion boxes are three piece parts with some excellent detail, though there is no option to model these ones open. Again I think that would have been a nice touch as it would have added extra value to this kit while at the same time giving Bronco the option of releasing a stand-alone 3.7cm ammo accessories kit. I for one would line up for that.
The decals included are mainly for use on the ammunition cases with two on each. There is one unit insignia also included for 1st SS Division Liebstandarte ( LSSAH ) which oddly aren’t identified, possibly due to the SS connection. So if you want to do it as a diferent unit you’ll need AM decals.
Painting guides are included for both standard dunkelgrau ( dark grey ) and dunkelgelb ( dark yellow ) with rotbraun ( redbrown ) and olivgrun ( olive green ) camofalge and there is also a paint guide supplied indicating which number paints to use from Mr.Hobby, Hobby Color, Humbrol and Tamiya.
Conclusion. I love this kit, it’s a beautiful piece of model engineering and it fills a very much needed void. I do have a few niggles with it, mainly the missing brake cable, the lack of seperate handles on the box lids, and the inability to have the wheel guard boxes open. I also would have liked to see more ammuntion for inside the box as well as the option to pose the boxes open and have the ammo clips seperate. Hopefully Bronco will do a 3.7cm ammunition accessory set that will address these issues and this shouldn’t be seen as a downside to the kit, just something that would have made it even better, because all in all this is a damn nice kit.
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