review1

Okay, so it took me twenty years to get around to building a Puma; get off my back already. As a service to
younger modelers to whom this may be a “new” kit, I’m still gonna review this baby. You older guys who are certain
you can’t learn anything can tune out now. One item of note: You won’t see the word “brass” mentioned a lot in this
review, if at all. I still do a lot of things the old-fashioned (and cheap) way. I don’t believe that sticking a lot of
after-market doodads on a kit necessarily makes one a master modeler. My approach is to take a good kit and
then decide where and how I simply must add details or make modifications. Some things I decide I can live with;
other things I’ve just gotta change. The point is, I don’t think you’ve always got to go “all the way” to make a
decent model. You can make a pleasing model by picking and choosing where you’ll make alterations, and after all,
the ultimate goal should be to please yourself.

‘Nuff said. We’ll start from the bottom up. Turning the Puma’s wheels is a must. This only involves cutting on the
model and breaking things, so it should not be approached with any trepidation. Cut the ball mounts on the
suspension arms and turn the axles. The front and rear wheels will be turned at about twice the angle of the inner
wheels. The smaller angles pose no problem, but you’ll probably break at least a couple of the front and rear arms.
You can cut the arms immediately behind the balls; you can try to gently flex the arms as you turn the axles and
balls; or you can try to heat the arms to flex them. I used the second method and repaired breaks as best I could.
The secret here: You really won’t be able to see a lot of the suspension once the model is built. That’s a shame,
since it’s the best part of the kit. Some of the linkage arms will need to be cut and reangled also. With some
liquid cement and gap-filling super glue to reinforce things where needed, you’ll have no fears that your suspension
won’t be strong enough. The wheels themselves require filling and sanding via Dremel to remove their seams.

My biggest deviation from the basic kit was to scratch-build the large stowage box found on the left rear fender
of some Pumas. Detailing the latch for this box involved the only use of “brass” in this project. Immediately
forward of this box is the scratch-built box for the command antenna mount for my particular vehicle. Continuing
with this fender theme, it’s essential to add longitudinal brackets for the jerrycans carried on the forward
portion of the fenders. If you do this, beware those two cans with the inexplicably hollow undersides—the added
height from the brackets will make this weird feature all too visible. Another must is to damage the fenders at
least a little. Photos of derelict Pumas invariably show badly mangled fenders. I cut one corner of a fender
stowage box door open and bent it inward—simple but effective; others I dented with the Dremel tool. Oh, and
break off or seriously damage those driving guides. You know, the “curb feeler” thingies. I added a waffle-plate
pattern to my jack’s base with styrene strip and a tow cable with white metal ends and a twisted solder middle on
the right fender. New exhausts for my mufflers came from smoke grenade dischargers from an ancient Tamiya Pz
III kit—about all that old thing is good for. Bosch headlamps from a Dragon Stug III (praise the Lord for all
those extra parts) and a horn from the Tamiya Pz IV detail

Set make up for parts that were passable in the 80’s but not up to snuff now. The upper and lower hull halves fit
together really poorly, so it is nice that the fenders conceal a lot of that.

Now, for the turret and most Gosh-awful flaw in the kit—a flaw that is so easy to fix. If you build your kit as is,
Grasshopper, the crew of your Puma will only be able to direct their main armament if the commander sticks his
head out of the turret to eyeball the shot! You gotta have a little slot just to the port side of the gun mantlet.
That’s your gunsight. The Puma’s smoke grenade launchers require some work. Their mounts need correction and
they must be wired, and why is it that manufacturers in the olden days never put those little cutouts in the smoke
grenade tubes? The turret hatches are quite nice. The loader’s hatch needs just a bit of detail added to its latch.
Do not install the hatches backwards. Don’t laugh—it’s been done, in what was at the time a prominent military
modeling magazine, complete with periscope guards on the wrong sides of the hatches. Don’t insert the coaxial
machine gun, as the instructions tell you, “as far as it will go.” Insert it as far as it needs to go. I reinforced my
coax by linking it to the breech of the main gun with a bit of styrene sheet. I had trouble attaching the mantlet
assembly to the turret front, but others who have built Pumas tell me they had no trouble here. After a couple of
dozen swear words and some sweat, I got that problem solved, however.

Other turret improvements include adding a weld seam to the port side of the mantlet using gap-filling super glue,
sanding down the funny protuberance at the business end of the muzzle brake, and drilling out the little vent hole
doohickey (technical term) aft of the commander’s station and backing it with a bit of plastic screen. Do all this
stuff, and you’ll have an 80’s vintage kit that’s not too shabby for way less than the cost of festooning your Puma
with brass parts.

I finished my 234/2 as vehicle “111” of Panzer Lehr, somewhere in the depths of the Falaise pocket, 1944.

Weight 11740kg
Max Speed 80kmh
Armament 50mm KwK L/60 MG 42
Armour 5-30mm

SdKfz 234/1      200
SdKfz 234/2     101
SdKfz 234/3      88
SdKfz 234/4      98