After finally tracking down Dragon’s elusive #6575 Ausf J kit last year I was curious to know how this well-respected 2012 kit stood up to a much more recent release in Border Models 2019 kit #BT-008. This came out around the same time RFM and Miniart both released Ausf J's, and although manufacturer's moved the 1/35 armour game on to StuG kits in 2021, I thought it would be interesting to do a side-by-side build comparison.
I’ve built a few Dragon Pz.IV variants over the years and although it appears I was fortunate, I have since discovered many turn out to be less than enjoyable to build. Dragon's heyday is very much perceived to be in the mid noughties where they offered not only great value, but produced some of their most accurate and well-engineered kits. Sadly, releases have been thin on the ground since, with what they do offer being re-packaged kits, often with a much-depleted parts count. The rest of the industry has since moved the game on but as we will see there are an alarmingly number of similarities that are proof that the Dragon recipe still remains the gold standard in many departments.