Sunday 21 April 2013

Plastic Soldier Company Pak 38 (50mm AT Gun)

Background: 

For a long time I have wanted a German Pak 38 50 AT Gun to service that mid-war period, but shied away from buying an expensive metal model. Hence my delight at getting my hand on (a pack of) four of them from the Plastic Soldier Company at what I consider a very reasonable a 'reasonable price'. In fact it gets better as there are two variants to make: the standard 50mm AT Gun (serving from summer/late 1941 to 1943 as the prime German AT weapon) and the 1944 France upgraded version that used a re-barrelled French 75mm (circa back to the 1940 original gun stocks that the Germans had captured from the French) on the 50mm gun carriage. Hence my plan is to have three standards and one 1944 ex-French special , as per used in the Normandy campaign.

I could not resist seeing the arms race progression (see below) from:
  • Pak 36 and it 37mm calibre (aka the German Army's "popgun") [Far Right: Esci]
  • Pak 38 and its 50mm calibre  (which looks the part, but failed on the Eastern Front horribly) [Middle: Plastic Soldier Company]
  • Pak 40 and its 75mm calibre (which was a good gun even up until 1945) [Far Left: Esci]


The Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) one is fresh off the shelf, not even under-coated and is a 'mint' model, its crew are fantastic too. I am very impressed with the pSC craftsmanship :)

For the few remaining 'gaps' in my 20mm collection, where possible I will be using PSG  

5 comments:

Al said...

Excellent, I must have some!

Paul said...

A great buy Geordie! These look really good.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

They fit together like a dream :)

Next up that wacky "Ex-French" Normandy 75mm version

Whisperin Al said...

Interesting, I've been thinking about PSC for my move into later WW2 for my 15s as the cost of metal armour just seems to keep goin up!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

15mm Plastic Soldier Company stuff looks fantastic (I may even try and find an "excuse" to get some) as they are mini versions of the 20mm kit

Mix them with the expanding Zvezda stuff and you have a very good mix of late and early mid-war stuff

If I wasn't a died in the wool 200mm addict I'd be there!