DML's 1/35 7.5cm PAK 97/38
Kit no. 6123

By Ray Mehlberger

History

I will not go into the history of the PAK 38, because I just reviewed the 5cm version of the PAK 38 by DML in the March issue of Internet Modeler. It can be seen by clicking on the archives or the link above.

The Kit

Well folks, here is where my gripe about the kit begins. The box has very, very little in it. It shares the same basic parts tree…letter A…that was in the earlier kit reviewed. The only difference to this tree is that DML snipped off the barrel parts from the bottom of the tree…just below where you see shields…and added a second small tree of new parts for the 7.5cm barrel and its recoil tray.

Gone are any figures, like in the earlier kit. There were 5 Falschirmjagers in that kit. Gone are the ammo cases, like in the first kit too. There was a lonely ammo round in the first kit too.

Don't get me wrong; I cannot fault the molding of this new kit. It is the crisp, well-detailed work that DML does, in their usual light gray plastic. It's just that this kit was $16.00 at the local shop and what is in it…plastic content…should not be that expensive!!

The box art is what appears to be a WWII black and white photo that the folks in Hong Kong tried to colorize. They did a lousy job of it by the way. It leads you to believe that there are crew figures in the kit. Where is the usual Volstad painting on the lid??? Did they lose him as their box art artist?

At 53 total pieces, the $16.00 price tag is way too much!!! The sheer void around the parts when you open the box is a real shock. Running figures through your handy-dandy calculator will tell you that you just got soaked slightly over 30 cents per piece part for this kit!!! To put it bluntly, I was very angry at the lack of more box content here for the money!

The instruction sheet is a 6-page gatefold affair. It has the box art repeated on page one, in black and white (probably the way the original photo was) and a parts tree drawing. There is no history of the weapon in the kit. Readers of my past reviews of DML kits will know that this lack of histories on DML sheets is my pet peeve with all their kits.

Page 2 begins with the international symbol explanations and the color number list. By the way, they only mention two colors for this kit: Flat black & field gray. There are then 13 assembly steps to follow and the last page shows a 4-view color guide drawing. No decals are in the kit, but I doubt these weapons ever carried any markings other than maybe some kill rings on the barrel.

With the very small amount of parts in this kit, I think that a modeler could have it together and painted in one evening.

For shame on DML for the price of this kit vs. what's in the box. There. I said it and I won't take it back.