I know enough about armor to make myself sound stupid to those who know a lot about these things. Such it is with this beastie. Here is what I found out about this sub-variant from an internet search:

"In June of 1942, Ausf L tank entered production. 653 were produced by Daimler-Benz, MAN, Alkett, Henschel, Wegmann, MNH and MIAG until December of 1942 (chassis numbers 74101-75500). Ausf L was armed with 50mm KwK 39 L/60 gun and two 7.92mm MG 34 machine guns. Externally it was almost identical to late model Ausf J as it was developed by modifying it. The main difference was new torsion bar gun counter balance, which replaced the original the coil spring gun recoil mechanism. Armor protection of the front turret was increased from 30mm to 57mm and 20mm spaced armor was installed on the superstructure front and in many cases on the gun mantlet. The design of the vehicle was simplified as rear deck was modified (air-intakes and hatches) and early in production hull escape hatches, loader's vision port on the mantlet and turret side ports were removed. Ausf L was also mounted with new special system to transfer heated engine coolant from one vehicle to another. A Single Ausf L was mounted with an experimental 75/55mm tapered-bore KwK0725 gun and was designated as PzKpfw III Ausf L mit Waffe 0725. Vehicles sent to North Africa were equipped with additional air filters, modified oil filters, a different cooling fan reduction ratio and were designated as Ausf L(Tp). Ausf L was also first to be mounted with anti-aircraft machine gun mount (Fliegerbeschussgerat 41/42) on commander's cupola. This became standard on al new PzKpfw III tanks and was mounted on older models during service. Many were mounted with 5mm hull and turret armor skirts (Schurzen)."

The kit is molded in a nice tan plastic. The detail level is really superb and though I did find some sink areas in a few of the thicker pieces, the overall condition of the parts is excellent. The kit has been lauded as being super accurate and an excellent build, so I bought one. From what I can figure out, there are darn few parts not used. The kit comes with a combination of separate links and link runs. This works fine with me. There are also a zillion road wheels, which makes for some rather tedious clean-up and painting, but that is the way these thing were. The turret is able to rotate and while there is no interior, the upper hatches can be posed open in case you want to put a figure in there.

Basic construction of the hull is with a single lower piece, two side sections with the suspension already molded in place and an upper piece. There are a number of lights and hatch covers and other bits and pieces to stick on the hull to give it that nice busy look. All in all a relatively simple construct once any clean-up and pre-painting is done.

The instructions are in Revell AG's near newsprint quality paper. The colors are all Revell paints with some mixing to be done for what should be common shades. Fortunately, those with a few kits under their belts pretty well know how German armor is painted. You have your standard overall Panzer Grey, overall Panzer Yellow or Panzer Yellow with brown and green swaths. This kit shows one of the former and one of the latter. The small decal sheet provides turret numbers and looks good enough, though some may wish to use an aftermarket sheet for more number combos. Both vehicles are listed as being used in Russia.

It certainly looks impressive. The molding is nice a crisp and test fitting a few parts shows that the build will be tight without the need for a lot of fussing to get bits to fit. I'm sure it will be a real treat to build.

January 2006

I found this kit on my hobby shop's shelves. You can find yours there too, I betcha!

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