ACE 1/72 7.5cm PaK 41

The PaK 41 was one of the last German anti-tank guns brought into service and used in World War II. It was built on thesqueeze-bore principle (Gerlich in German, from the German gun-designer Hermann Gerlich who developed the principle in the 1920s, reportedly for a hunting rifle) to deliver a higher muzzle velocity and there greater penetration in relation to its size.

These guns were made by the Rheinmetall factories. The barrel was in three distinct sections: the rear part was parallel-sided and conventionally rifled; the central part was unrifled and tapered down; at the muzzle end, the last 27.6 inches (700 mm) it was parallel-sided again but remained unrifled.

The weight of the powder charge fired is 95 percent of the weight of the projectile. With an estimated velocity of approximately 1200 m/s (4,000 f/s), and a penetration of 15 cm (5.94 inches) of homogeneous armor at 900 m (1,000 yards.) The reinforced breech is of the vertical wedge type, with a semi-automatic action. Compared to the PaK 38 and the PaK 40, the appearance was long, low, and sturdy. The carriage was a split trail type on metal wheels with solid rubber tires. The gun cradle and shield is, in effect, on a spherical universal joint. The cradle was cylindrical, covering the whole of the rear half of the barrel. The gun is sighted up to 1,500 meters; the sight has four scales for use according to the actual muzzle velocity of the gun. The barrel is provisionally estimated as 500 to 600 rounds.

Nice to see all this small scale military equipment. I've just finished building an Ace kit of recent vintage and have to say that while it was more work than I'd initially thought (due to the small parts and need to clean seam lines), the overall build was quite pleasant. This kit should be equally as nice and quicker as there are but two sprues to have to deal with.

The grey plastic is about average softness and so no worries about taking huge gouges out of it if your hobby knife slips. There are several parts that are not shown in the construction sequence. These appear to be ammunition rounds and cannisters. The molding on the parts is quite good. Not as crisp as on, say, a Tamiya kit, but not bad, either. Aside from the usual mold seams, there are no molding glitches. I did notice a couple of small parts that had broken from jostling around in the bag, but a quick glue should make those right. I did not see an option to build this in the towed position but perhaps that is just a matter of gluing the trails together at the rear.

The instructions are well done with several exploded views showing where all the parts are to fit. The sprue guide is a bit different in that it shows the sprues from the 'back' side (at least according to the engraved sprue label). This took a bit of getting used to with the other Ace kit I built, but isn't a real problem; just different.  There are no decals with this and your painting guide offers grey, tan with a white wash (though since it is a drawing, it could be purple for all I know), and a mottled camo option. Basically, paint it any way you think would be appropriate.

IThis is not an expensive kit and will make a not particularly large model. But it will make a very nice one that can be used in a number of diorama scenes or as a small stand alone display

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.5_cm_PaK_41

Thanks to www.scale-model-kits.com for the preview kit. Get yours today from the link and at a discount.

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