Sd.Kfz.234/3
8 Rad Heavy Armoured Car

Roden, 1/72

Reviewed by Rob Baumgartner

Roden's 1/72 scale Sd Kfz 234/3 is available online from Squadron.com

The Sd.Kfz 234/3 came about as a result of the success of mounting the 7.5cm K37 in the Sd.Kfz 233. In the case of the former, the 7.5cm K51 (L/24) was used and in all, about 90 vehicles were completed.

Roden’s latest release focuses on this popular armoured car

There are 106 parts in total and these were found to be well moulded and essentially flash free. The detail is good although a small sink mark appears on the superstructure front plate. Its position locates it on an access hatch which will require some careful filling.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

While sprues D and B are in a user friendly tan colour, sprue A isn’t. Its plastic is black which makes it very hard to see what needs cleaning up. Two are provided and these take care of the running gear. This area is quite well detailed and the instructions give a good idea of where everything should go.

All of the parts used to represent the boxed variant can be found on sprue D, the other items being common to previous releases in the series. Some ejector pin marks can be found on the shields but thankfully they are raised and can be easily removed. This will also give the modeller an opportunity to thin these items as well.

The decal sheet contains only one option which is a vehicle from the 116th Panzer Division. The white cross surrounds have been printed separately so there are no registration problems. A weights table is included, which is nice, but a few different number plates would have saved your model from being the same as everyone else’s.

This is a nice addition to continue ones collection of the 234 series.

A simple sanding stick can add some finesse to the upper areas but make sure you have some good lighting before taking on the two evil coloured sprues.

Recommended
 

Thanks to Squadron for the review sample.

Review and Images Copyright © 2005 by Rob Baumgartner
Page Created 22 August, 2005
Last updated 22 August, 2005

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