Verlinden Productions: 1/35th Hummel
Details, Ammo and Stowage (no. 2067)
by Daniel Lewis
Scale: 1/35
Media: Resin, photo-etch
Released for those wishing to add just a little bit more
to the relatively new Dragon ‘Early’ Hummel kits, this is
for the most part an excellent addition for a subject for which not too
many accessories have been released.
My first impression was “How did they fit so much
into such a small box?” Packed inside the box are 84 resin pieces
and 45 photo-etch pieces. You will find a jerry can rack, spare wheel
racks, rear ammo box improvement parts, fire extinguishers, jack block
brackets, jerry cans, a new gun barrel and breech, new mud flaps, charge
shells, propellant bags, shells and much, much more.
For the most part the detail is crisp, but occasionally
a little bit soft. Some of the detail is so delicate (jerry cans; ammo
boxes), that it had disintegrated in some places in transit. There is
little flash. As usual from Verlinden, the crew gear is a little bit closer
to 1/32nd scale, but some is closer to 1/35 than earlier offerings. From
what I can see there are no seam lines, as in some resin castings. I have
found no air bubbles. If you wanted to show some of the supplied boxes
open, you would have to thin down the sides quite considerably.
In my update set, the supplied MG 34 was badly warped. I
deduced parts 28 to be the propellant bags. Unfortunately the propellant
shells are attached to the resin carrier at the bottom so the necessary
detail here is not present. The carriers are rather hefty on some parts
so I would pity someone lacking a rotary tool.
The photo-etch ammo box updates are superb (lids, shell
holders and front flaps) and really add a lot to a Hummel kit. The gun
barrel is a step up from the plastic one, but an aluminium one would still
be better as the resin barrel still comes in sections. Some detail parts
are quite flimsy.
The instructions are adequate, but the bare minimum and
some of the photo-etch parts are notably too small for the job. I replaced
them with some parts from the fret to which no reference is made in the
instructions. (Parts 27 were supposed to hold the spare barrel container
but I replaced them with Parts 22). I cannot find any photographic reference
for the MG mount on the top of the front superstructure.
I opted to use this set as part of a conversion and detail
project based on Dragon’s old ‘Late’ Hummel’.
(This was all that was available in my price range.) If you opt to use
the update set for this kit, some rather heavy modifying or all-out scratch-building
is in order to use the rear ammo box updates. I ended up scratch building
the basic boxes altogether.
Despite a few shortcomings, this update set will add a
lot to a Hummel, for those not wishing to tackle a full photo-etch set.
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