Tristar 1/35 Sd.Kfz.38(t) Full Interior Set First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

If you've been impressed with the beautiful detail that Tristar puts into their armor kits, you're not alone. They've been working through a number of German panzer variants over the last several years, several of which variants of the Pz.Kpfw.38(t) light tank produced in Czechoslovakia. We reviewed the Mark E/F and Mark G versions previously here on Cybermodeler.

So what was the one major thing missing from these releases? An interior. Until recently, tank interiors have been the domain of the aftermarket community, providing details in either photo-etch, or a combination of both. This is one of the first times I remember a kit manufacturer offering a complete interior kit as an aftermarket accessory for its own kit releases, but Tristar has done just that.

This kit consists of two trees of parts molded in tan styrene and one fret of photo-etched details. Since the set is intended for their own Pz.Kpfw.38(t) kits, the parts are laid out to provide interiors for the three main compartments in the tank: 1) hull crew compartment; 2) engine compartmentl; and, 3) turret.

In the hull crew compartment (from the firewall forward) are drive shaft to the central gearbox and transmission. The driver and bow machine gunner seats are on either side of the gearbox. Ammo storage and stowage boxes round out the crew compartment interior.

Behind the firewall is a complete engine, radiator and cooling system, fuel tanks, and plumbing. Nice touches!

Up in the turret is more ammo storage, radio set, and turret traverse mechanism.

If you've been looking for a nice kit to model with everything unbuttoned, here is a nice kit to add to one of Tristar's earlier Pz.Kpfw.38(t) releases and render an AMS masterpiece without the need for resin parts (unless you just can't resist).

My sincere thanks to Tristar for this review sample!