It has arrived. I don’t know why I was eagerly waiting for this kit. I love StuGs for sure, but the B seems to have a lot of nice photos with them in action, and while the Tamiya kit was good with some AM, Dragon is still the king and this kit fills in the gap. I don’t know what the deal is but they first annouced 6919 with DS tracks and no trailer, but later this combo 6919x that came with goodies in addition to the trailer.
The goodies! The mystery “Tool to make realistic dent”, I’m dying to know!
But let’s check out the box first. It’s a bit disappointing that the box is non-standard size… the word “stash” loses its meaning if you can’t pile one box on top of another. I also got the Jagdpanzer IV 2 in 1 kit (that came with metal barrel) in this shipment, but this review isn’t about that.
So choke full of features! Bleh. I think there is only a new roof for this StuG B that is different from their A. But there are quite a few options for PE, such as the front clips and that crazy ribs for the observation port. They really ask you to remove the plastic ribs and add the PE ones… no thanks.
Why am I not surprised, two manuals. In fact the StuG’s manual prints 6919 with the DS tracks, which are not in this kit.
Magic tracks with different shades of grey for left and right! Plus the precious metal bucket and decals. I have to say, the bucket is really well-made and I love it. Now let’s finally reveal the secret of the “Tool for denting bucket”!
Actually this isn’t too much of an anti-climax. I didn’t think this would be the tool. I suppose you use not just the ribs on this part but more the pointy edges as well. And do a ton of them rolling the bucket around. Ok not too bad Dragon.
That’s it for now. The parts aren’t that interesting so I probably won’t do a sprue-by-sprue review, but may take a look at the decals and marking options later. The decals is strange with the famous “red skull” assembled from two decals. Wondered why…
Now I’ve started building the kit and researching Ausf. B, the kit’s options limit the vehicles you can build. Since the kit is based off their Ausf. A, they did not include the wooden antenna mount standard on Ausf. C/D. Even the Tamiya kit has that. Another thing is the tracks, while Magic Tracks are nice the given set are the 40cm tracks that are more frequently seen on Ausf. C/D onwards, but most of the Ausf. B photos I’ve seen were of the 38cm type. In fact I was considering building the Abt. 226 vehicles (with that train marking) but they all have the 38cm and antenna mount. Alas. The Abt 192 with that giant skull head on the other hand were correct in these respects for the kit. But the kit is still missing the cleaning rods almost every vehicle had. And since I always covered the front lights I didn’t realize the inside of the light housings were empty, whereas Tamiya has molded on Bosch lamps. In these regards the Tamiya kit is more complete OOB in terms of parts.