Italeri 1/48 Puma 234/2

In my previous post some of you may have noticed that some armoured re-enforcements have arrived for my Bolt Action Germans.

I love plastic, and I am completely unashamed by that fact. Paint doesn't chip, thing don't break off at a moments notice and I never end up super-gluing my fingers together. The fact that it is cheaper is an incidental bonus, not the driving force. Given my love for plastic I can easily deal with the scale inconsistencies between my 1:48 'Military Modelling' armour, and my 1:56 (28mm) 'Wargaming' infantry and transports

I have a Tamiya Panzer III ausf L that I brought many years ago, and doubt I will use much in Bolt Action games given that we normally play Normandy and beyond. I also recently tracked down a Flak-Panzer Wirbelwind, the German equivalent of the American M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage AKA the "Kraut-mower".

With the anti-infantry Wirbelwind filling my tank slot I had to find a suitable anti-tank option from the other slots, and this caught my eye;

 

When I saw the Price tag, only £12, I was concerned that someone had made a mistake with the scale. Tamiya kits in this scale, with their diecast lower hulls, normally retail for around £20-£30, but the scale was right.

So I thought there 'must' be something wrong with the model. Everything seems fine...

Well those steering rods are very flimsy. Does that count as a fault?

It even has seat for the turret crew.

They also went to the effort to provide a full gun breach, and sculpted the weld marks on the Interior of the turret!

The turret mount comes off, just in case I want to make a slot-on 234/3 stummel conversion.

 

Admittedly, if I wanted to convert the model to a 234/4 with PaK 40 I would have to cut away some of the hull above the rear facing driver's position, but that seems a small price to pay.

The Good

Cheap

Excellent detail - even has weld markings on the plate joins

Interior detail

Lots of conversion opportunities

Did I mention how cheap it is?

The Bad

Nothing much to say here, if you want to be picky; 

It is a 'Military Modelling' kit, so expect lots of fiddly details. Best to just leave them in the box like I have.

Apparently there are supposed to be some gun cleaning rods which are not included in this model.

In other news; my phone clearly serves as a better camera than my old camera, and I seem to be slipping into a once a fortnight routine for blogging.

~ Bob