As promised I'm looking into this box here...
This is everything spread out- NOT counting the tan pieces in the middle and the various objects on the card, there are 17 sprues represented here. This is the instruction sheet highlighting what will NOT be used...
hard to belive most of this goes on a 8 inch tank. There are no crew members and NO metal barrel- though you can build the tank with the full barrel exposed and the tarping removed- the included barrel is side molded meaning the ends are complete- you just have to install the barrels center to build the gun- of course a full breach is included.
In the center are the vinyl pieces representing the cupola and the mantlet (sp) covered for the tanks submersion, as it was said earlier the Tauch Panzer was developed to crawl across a river's bottom- I need to look into where it was used though I did read somewhere several were used to cross the Bug river. I could not imagine driving a tank underwater across a river's bed...your a target as soon as you come up!
Everything from the card is represented in this pic- some of the PE are for the barrels on the trailer, note that for some reason the drive wheels are here as are the PE spokes to better detail the wheels, and the brass tube is the turrents snorkle- for me I can't believe Dragon went into the detail of this, a relatively unknown tank type, to the degree they have. Just amazing this was scored for 25 bucks!
Finally here is the fuel trailer- from my quick glance at the instructions all of the trailer seems represented here though there seems to be some pieces of the turrent. As with the rest of the kit everything here is crisp and flash free....
Suggested retail of this kit varies according to source- i have seen this as high as $65.00 and as low as $45.00. For me $65.00 is to much to pay for anything in this scale, though $50.00 could be a deal as this thing is jam packed with detail- some to delicate for most as some of the PE consists of tiny hooks and the barrels have PE sealing straps across the tops! Another note on the barrels is they are molded as cylinders- so NO side seams to fix! And the barrel ends are stamped with 'Krastoff feuergefahrilich 200 L' Superb
