1:35 MG-42 with Half-Track Mount and Bipods

MG-42 with a half-track mount and bipods, 1:35 (AMMO of Mig Jimenez)

The accessory in 1:35 scale contains a rendering of the German general-purpose machine gun of 7.92 mm caliber together with the mounting typical of a half-track and with bipods. It is a separate armament set for finishing a model — not a kit of a vehicle, not a figure and not a finished model.

What the accessory represents

The MG-42 was an air-cooled machine gun with a quick-change barrel and a perforated jacket, used both on a bipod and on mounts. On armored personnel carriers it was fitted to a folding or fixed bracket above the forward part of the hull. It is exactly these features — the barrel jacket, the sights, the folding bipod and the mount — that tend to be the most simplified in injection-molded kits, because a mold cannot draw them out finely enough. A separate casting is a clear step forward here.

Fitting and painting tips

The parts are slender and break easily. Cut them off only just before gluing, with a sharp blade and supported by your fingers, not with nippers. Leave the holes in the barrel jacket alone — cleaning them out with a drill usually ends in a crack. Start the painting with a dark blue-gray, not with black: pure black swallows the shape and it gets lost in a photograph. Suggest the edges with a dry brush and a drop of silvery paint, and tie the rest together with a thin wash. Underpaint any wooden parts of the stock the casting may have in ocher and draw a brown glaze over them. Glue the assembly on only after the vehicle has been painted.

Who the accessory is for

• Builders of German half-tracks in 1:35
• Modelers for whom the simplified armament from the box is not enough
• Makers of dioramas adding armament to a scene
• Detail enthusiasts working with small castings

The accessory is supplied unpainted. Paints, glue and a vehicle are not included in the package, unless stated otherwise.