February 2022
After finally tracking down
Dragon’s elusive #6575 kit last year I thought it would be interesting to
see how this well-respected 10-year-old stood up to one of the new guns.
Manufacturer's seem to have moved the 1/35 armour game on to StuG kits for
2021/22 but Border Models 2019 kit BT-008 was, along with RFM and Miniart one of only a
few Pz.IV Ausf J kits released since 2019. I had heard some favourable reviews
so I thought it would be interesting to do a side by side build comparison.
I’ve built a few Dragon Pz.IV’s and although I was fortunate, I have since
discovered many turned out to be less than enjoyable to build. Their kit release heyday
seems to have been in the mid noughties and although their massive parts count
and busy instructions remained, they did produce some very accurate and well engineered kits. Many with huge
frets of photoetch, metal barrels and their very own magic tracks.
Sadly, my kit although
identical in box art and kit number, is from a later released batch. The
photoetch sheet has shrunk, and the magic tracks have vanished; replaced with
their much-maligned rubber band tracks. For this reason, I purchased and built
up a set of T-Rex’s 3D printed tracks. Although hugely expensive, they are extremely
good indeed.
I’ve written a fairly lengthy SBS build log and tweak list to highlight both kit’s highs and lows,
the incorrect and missing part call outs, processes to avoid, along with a fix list to resolve any fit issues. The build log can be found here: https://www.track-link.com/forums/site_blogs/51023/flat
Dragon kit 6575 fully built.
Border Model kit BT-008 fully built.
