COBI Marder III Ausf.M (Sd.Kfz.138) Set 2282

COBI's Marder III Ausf. M (Sd.Kfz. 138) is a 1:35 model built from 367 blocks, 15 cm long, with working tracks, rotating wheels, a movable 7.5 cm gun, a machine gun on a rail and a place for a figure in the fighting compartment. A figure of a German tank destroyer commander is included, plus a printed nameplate. All markings are printed.

Twenty-seven rounds

That is the entire ammunition capacity, and it decides how the vehicle was used.

A Panzer IV carried around 87 rounds. A Tiger carried 92. The Marder III Ausf. M carried 27, because the fighting compartment had to hold the gun, its recoil travel, three men and whatever else there was room for — and there was not much.

Twenty-seven rounds is perhaps twenty minutes of firing at a realistic rate. It is enough to fight one engagement properly and then withdraw, and nothing more. Which means the Marder was never a vehicle that could hold a position: it fired from cover, and when the ammunition was gone it had to leave and find the ammunition carrier, wherever that was.

The Ausf. M did fix one thing the earlier Marders got wrong — the rear of the crew compartment was closed, so the crew were no longer exposed from behind. The top remained open, and it stayed open on every Marder ever built.

Around 975 of this version were built in 1943 and 1944. The full designation is Sd.Kfz. 138, Panzerjäger 38(t) mit 7,5 cm PaK 40/3 Ausf. M, which is a reasonable summary of how it came about.

In the COBI range

Set 3131 is the earlier Sd.Kfz. 139 Marder III with the captured Soviet gun, and 3050 the same vehicle from the Company of Heroes 3 range. Set 2666 is the Panzer 38(t) this chassis came from, and 2665 the Grille on the same Ausf. M hull.

Specifications

Pieces: 367 · Figures: 1 commander · Scale: 1:35
Model dimensions: 15 × 10 cm (5.9 × 3.9 in)