Grille Ausf. H

Manufacturer: AttackModels (# 72801)

By Augusto Versiani .

After I did the Pzkw 38(t)from the same source, I was anxious to do the Grille, a rareexample of open top armor in this scale. I had some problems withthe 38(t) (which you can see in the Gallery ) but in the end it was worth the effort, asthe kit went together well. But with the Grille, it wasdifferent; to the same problems, more are added and the finalresult was poor. Maybe this is a job suited to a more talentedmodeler, than an average modeler like me.

Lets start with the brightside. The tracks are nice, the plastic is soft enough to allowthem to be bent to shape over the sprockets. The external detailson the outside of the wall plates are ok, but I thinned the wallsto be more in scale. No internal detail unfortunately. The radiois nice, as are the internal bin drawers and the road wheels. Endof the bright side.

The problems start even onthe sprues. The tracks had a lot of attachment points and itmakes the job to cut and clean them tedious. The gun is simplyunusable; as I had no plastic rod available I made a new onecombining a piece of the sprue for the barrel with the loadbreach of the original piece. The tubular structure that supportthe gun on the transmission cover plate is far too thick, but Iconfess that I had no patience to do a new one. The sprockets andidler wheels must have the holes reopened due to the flash inthem, and the return rollers are again unusable so I made newones. The gun ammunition is a poor representation and I now thinkthat the better thing to do is to cut off the shells keeping onlythe empty supports.

Construction

The first problem is that,as in the 38(t), the joining of rear side walls and the enginecover left an ugly wide space between the upper rivets and thevertical walls, so as with the 38(t), I put some tools and rolledcanvas to cover it. But the main problem is that there is nospace between the upper tracks and the fenders. I thinned thefenders as much as I could and sanded the tracks too, but evenwith all this effort I ended with a large gap between thevertical part in front of the fenders and the transmission cover.I filled it with putty and sanded it smooth. But the problem wasnot solved as the tracks on top of the sprockets are almosttouching the fenders. I had the same problem with the 38(t), butthis time the vertical walls of the upper hull made the job muchmore difficult by interfering with the fenders' position.

I thinned the walls of theupper hull and they fit ok. The rest of the assembly went withminor problems; I hollowed the exhaust pipe and use awash/drybrush on the rear air-intake grill and added other minordetails.

I painted the kit withacrylics and washed with oils. A final touch was made with pastelchalks.

Conclusion

It was a hard task to putthis baby together, and I must say that I am not pleased with thefinal result. But I like this vehicle, and as Attack is the onlygame in town, maybe I will give it another try. But next time,although I am not a fan of photoetched sets, I will use the PARTset and some resin gun replacement to try and reach a betterfinal result.

Recommended only for thosewho are seeking trouble.