While I was sequestered in a two week hotel stay due to some home renovations, I brought along my first Trumpeter kit. Turns out it’s a lot harder than expected. This kit was incredibly detailed, which meant it took far longer to build than I’m used to with other kits. This isn’t a bad thing, but it was a good build. For the same price of some the latest Tamiya kits, it’s a hell of a great value. (Seriously, $69 for a decades old mold kit without any photoetch or anything else of additional value???)

Perth Military Modeling has a great review of the kit, so I’ll let them have at it. It’s worth a read before you start this build.

Review

Overall the quality of the part production, the part design quality, location of sink holes, location of sprue attachment points were all pretty well done. That said, there was a LOT of cleanup to be done. A lot of parts had that fine amount of flash that is almost easy to miss, but sticks out like mad when you prime the model. Mold lines were present on most parts and significant on a few. Fortunately, these seams were always intelligently located, so cleanup was relatively easy. But most parts needed attention of some sort. And with as many parts as are in this model… woof.

I’ve added a couple photoetch add-on sets:

• Eduard 36104 – this is actually the kit for the Flak 37 vs. the Flak 43 that this kit uses. I swiped a few things from this to add details.
• Eduard 36109 Late Engine kit – this is a simple, but important add-on. Trumpeter kit has a really nice engine in the kit, which I added a few extra homemade details to. This was a nice way to show off the engine with nicer grill and engine panels
• Friulmodels metal tracks

http://www.modelarmour.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1849:griffon-premium-sdkfz72-37cm-flak37-detail-set&catid=37:kits&Itemid=60

Research

• “Sd. Kfz. 7 in detail” book
• Armorama walkaround

Jake’s Photo walkaround