Subscribers’ Gallery Armour: ‘N-P’

The subject of this project was the DML 1:35th scale Nashorn.
When the German Army encountered Soviet KV and T34 tanks during the early stages of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 it became obvious that there was an urgent need for mobile anti-tank guns.
The Hornisse (later renamed Nashorn at the insistence of Adolph Hitler) was designed by the German arms firm Alkett. It carried the powerful 88mm Pak 43 anti-tank gun on a chassis which used components from the Pz.Kpfw. III and Pz.Kpfw. IV tanks.
Like the similar Marder series of vehicles the Nashorn had an open topped fighting compartment which provided its crew with some protection from small arms fire and shell splinters, but not from armour piercing rounds. This made it unsuitable for direct engagements with enemy armour.
The Nashorn first appeared at the battle of Kursk in 1943. It was eventually replaced with the fully armoured Jagdpanzer IV, though production continued until the end of the war.
I believe that the Nashorn was one of the first kits released by DML back in the early 1990s. This retooled version of the kit was released about ten years later and was far more accurate, and easier to build. The kit has been periodically upgraded with new parts in the following years.
The instructions in this release of the kit were a ‘photographic’ type which were thankfully only briefly used by DML. I found them rather difficult to follow.
The model represents a vehicle which still carried the early pattern drive sprockets, but which had been upgraded during its life. The early vehicles had a gun lock which had to be released by an intrepid crewman from outside the vehicle leaving him dangerously exposed. The later vehicles were equipped with a cable mechanism allowing the gun lock to be released from inside the vehicle. This cable was added from thin wire as it is not supplied in the kit. The later vehicles also dispensed with the rear-mounted exhaust muffler, the rear fenders and the right-hand headlight.
I added some machine gun mounts and crew equipment from the spares box using some drawings from the old ‘Panzers At Samur’ book as a reference.
The model was painted with Tamiya paints over a coat of Alclad’s Black Primer. The initially bright finish was toned down with oil paints worked into the paintwork followed by some shading using pastel chalks.
These vehicles frequently carried foliage to break up their distinctive ‘boxy’ outlines. This foliage was often secured behind lengths of wire which I added, based on period photographs, wrapped around the ‘U’ shaped hangers on the sides of the fighting compartment.
All in all, this was an enjoyable project and I’m glad that DML has now reverted to a more ‘normal’ format for its instructions!