The MBT70 was a joint project between the U.S. and West Germany. Development started in the early 1960s, but, by the end of the decade, cost overruns and philosophical differences cancelled the project. Nevertheless, many of the vehicle’s features would be seen in later designs, such as the M1 Abrams and the Leopard 2. Three U.S. vehicles and two German vehicles survive in museums today.
Dragon’s new kit appears in its new Black Label line. The only other injection-molded model of the vehicle is a 1/48 scale Aurora kit from the 1960s.
Despite Dragon’s labeling, only the West German KPz 70 version can be built from the kit; the U.S. MBT70 had several differences in the engine deck and turret.
Molded in gray plastic, the kit features good detail. A small clear sprue provides lenses for the major sensors and the headlights.
Besides the instruction booklet, Dragon provides a four-page color brochure with walkaround detail photos of the vehicle at the Deutsches Panzermuseum in Munster, Germany. A small decal sheet provides markings for the museum vehicle.
Surprisingly, no photoetched metal is supplied in the kit. A set of screens for the rear deck would have been appreciated.
Assembly begins with the suspension for the one-piece hull. The suspension arms are given four different numbers, but I could see no difference between them. Rather than following the instructions and attaching the road wheels to the arms before mounting them on the hull, I attached the arms to the hull so I could leave the wheels off until after painting. The MBT70/KPz 70 was the first tank that allowed each suspension arm to be adjusted so the tank could “kneel” or “squat.” The kit allows you to replicate this posture by trimming the locating tabs off the arms so they can be mounted in other positions; there’s even an alignment tool on the A sprue to help true up the road wheels. I chickened out and built my suspension at rest, as it is in the museum.
The rest of the hull went together quickly. Despite the instructions, it made more sense to install the rear plate (A17) before adding all the details. Compared with photos, the telephone box (A4, A5) on the rear panel seems a little too large.
The turret also went together easily. I deviated from the instructions to add the lower plate to the turret before fitting all of the details. The crew hatches can be open or closed, but there’s nothing inside. The 20mm auto-cannon lack several details I saw in photos. You can build the cannon bay with the hatches open or closed.
With assembly complete, I gave the entire vehicle a coat of Tamiya olive drab. I then added a little Tamiya desert yellow to lighten it up. I wasn’t looking for a heavily weathered vehicle. I just wanted to break up the large areas of solid color and accentuate some of the details. The decals were added after a coat of Vallejo clear gloss and settled nicely with some Micro Sol decal solution. I made the white cross on the rear plate with white stripe decals from my spares box.
After a coat of Vallejo clear flat, I applied a flat black enamel pin wash to deepen details. I lightly dry-brushed the model with olive drab enamel lightened with yellow ochre artist’s oil to add highlights.
The DS tracks fit perfectly. Take care, though: the front idler attachment is very weak. I was a bit disappointed that the turret beacon wasn’t on the clear sprue, but once I painted Tamiya clear orange over a coat of Vallejo chrome it looked pretty good.
It took only 16 hours to build my KPz 70, less than normal thanks to the DS tracks and simple one-color paint job. The finished model matched dimensions posted on Wikipedia.
Certainly, the kit fills an important gap modern armor collections. Now, will Dragon bring out a U.S. version? Only time will tell.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the December 2014 FineScale Modeler.