I have been looking through my FSM’s the past few months and have seen some advertisements from Dragon. In those ads were some 1/72 scale AFV’s. I was wondering if any has built, seen, or heard anything about them. Are they actual kits, or are they just a diecast model toy with some assemboly required? Any help would be appriciated. Thanks [:D]
[8D] Dean [8D]
I have not made any, but they do exist as plastic models. There are many varieties at this point. Dragon is going to put out many more in 2004. From what I’ve heard they are very nice models.
I read a review by Cookie Sewell about the 1/72nd M1 by Dragon on Hyperscale or rec.models.scale. He did like the kit and recommend buying it, but he did say the tracks were too long and need to be trimmed in order to fit them onto the tank. I have one sitting on my shelf, but have only looked at the sprues and they do look good.
I’ve bought the Abrams and the Panther G. Have not built them yet. Was a bit disappointed though. They are nice kits, no doubt about them, but there are toy-like features that I do not like. Those are because the hulls are common to the R/C models. Some like the Panther G have metal hull, which will make it hard to remove molded details. I’ll use parts of the Abrams to ‘upgrade’ my Matchbox/Revell kit. The Panther G, despite what I do not like about it, is way better than the Hasegawa kit.
I bought the Dragon Elefant, M1A1 and M1A2. I was initially impressed with the Elefant, but after dealing with the tracks, I have reversed my opinion. Also the photo instructions are difficult to see where kit part placement is. I had a heck of a time finding a couple of pieces in the photos and installed a couple of front hull pieces upside down.
The Abrams tanks have nicely (although incorrect) molded tracks. The rest of the kit betrays its motorized lineage. The lower hull had a big bulge on the underside and the turret has big holes in it where motoriation features needed them.
Mine will be used to update the older (but excellent) Revell M1A1.
My daughter also has the Panther. Nice little kit with a hefty weight to it due to the diecast upper and lower hull. Bad part here is that she’ll have to mess with CA glue to affix all the fitting to the hull. I don’t like the idea of her messing with super glue.
Oh yeah, the Elefant, Ferdinand, M1A1 and M1A2 are all plastic. The Elefant and Ferdinand (my friend has the Ferdinand and it is the same as the Elefant with a small parts swap) are not from a motorized version. They are all plastic with vinyl tracks.
The Panther doesn’t look (at first glance) like it was motorized, but I have not taken a close look at it.
Ive also bought the M-1A1 and M-1A2. Major Rob’s right about the hull. If I may add, the biggest disappointment was the turret basket which is molded onto the bins. To my mind the Revell kit edges out the DML offerings in this respect.
Btw, Ive seen a list of DML 72nd kits slated for 2004 release. This includes Humvees, an M-3 Bradley (ODS) and AAV-7s (3 variants), among others.