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, as of writing, along with RFM and Miniart, one of only a few Pz.IV Ausf J kits releases since 2019. I thought it would be interesting to do a side by side build comparison.
I’ve built a few Dragon Pz.IV variants 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, my set was extremely durable and easy to assemble. Beware though, quailty does not seem to be consistant, but thats another story!
I’ve written a fairly lengthy SBS build log and tweak list to illustrate both kit’s highs and lows. A list of incorrect and missing parts, processes I figured best to avoid, my fix list to resolve fit issues and ultimately which kit I felt came up trumps. The full construction build log can be found here: Which one is best? Dragon #6575 & Border Models #BT-008
Border kit on the left. Dragon on the right
Dragon kit 6575 fully built with T-Rex resin tracks
Border Model kit BT-008 fully built with T-Rex resin tracks.
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