Dragon Nashorn and Hornisse

Introduction

I started building the Dragon Nashorn after finishing the Revell Nashorn, in order to compare both kits from different manufacturers. Somewhere during the construction of the Dragon Nashorn, I realized that I hadn’t chosen the optimal approach and had been rather sloppy in places, even though I was following the instructions. In hindsight, I could have planned the build more carefully and achieved a better result. That’s why I started building the almost identical Dragon Hornisse in parallel: to learn from my mistakes and to share those lessons with our readers. For that reason, I will explain how I built the Nashorn and afterwards how I tried to improve the process with the Hornisse. For the latter, I will only point out the differences in approach.

Version
The Dragon Nashorn kit has the features of a Nashorn built from May 1943 onwards. In that respect it is almost identical to Revell kit 03148.
The only difference that I spotted was that the Dragon kit offers both early and late drive sprockets, which can be correctly combined with the other features of the kit. However, the instructions don’t tell you which marking option uses which drive sprocket, so checking photographic references is recommended.
The extra radio in the fighting compartment is probably indicative of a Befehls (command) vehicle and would thus be an optional feature, something Dragon doesn’t specify, even though it mentions the extra antenna and MG swivel mount as optional. (See more about that below.)

The Dragon Hornisse kit has the features of a March 1943 production vehicle. See the review of the Revell kit for details.
In this kit, the instructions mark the extra radio and extra antenna as optional, but not the MG swivel mount. As the swivel mount is close to the radio, this might indicate an error in the instructions for the Nashorn.

Instructions

Pictures from Henk of Holland website, used with permission.

Scans of the sides of the box of the Nashorn kit

Scans of the sides of the box of the Hornisse kit

A comparison of the sprues of both kits can be found here.

Note that both kits were later re-released with "NEO" tracks.

Kit 7626 - Sd.Kfz.164 Nashorn w/NEO Track
Kit 7625 - Sd.Kfz.164 Hornisse w/NEO Track

Construction

The hull (Nashorn):

There is some damage to the top of the nose plate and front fender flaps in Part I. As this part comes without a sprue, it might be due to the removal process performed by Dragon. I’ve checked against other copies of this kit (including the Hornisse), and it’s not an isolated case.

Damage indicated by yellow arrow
There are mounts on the nose plate just inside those for the barrel lock that should actually be lifting hooks. PE lifting hooks from the spares box were installed after the mounts were removed.

PE lifting hooks
The nose has a strange V-shaped depression. While there is a subtle panel line there on the real vehicle, it is nothing like what the kit has. I filled it in, but only after assembling most of the hull, which wasn’t ideal, as the necessary sanding was difficult and resulted in damage to some rivets. These were re-instated using stretched sprue. For the Hornisse, I followed a different approach (see below).

Purple arrow: original mounts replaced by PE lifting hooks
Blue arrow: V-shaped depression
Green and orange arrow: repair due to misalignment
Red arrow: hole for return roller filled in

Picture on the left: start of the work on the V-shaped depression
Picture on the right: progress on the V-shaped depression and comparison with original
I removed the spare tracks from the rack on the nose to replace them with Ostketten, which I wanted to fit to my vehicle. This is not necessary if you go with standard width tracks.
When installing all the hull parts, I ended up with a small ridge between Parts C1 and C2. I am not sure if it is supposed to be there. I ended up removing the bolts in that area to make sanding easier, and added them again later from stretched sprue. When building the Hornisse later, I took more care to align this part.
I had a lot of trouble with the rear plate (Part B9). There is no real guidance due to the lack of locating pegs and the kit instructions are vague at best. I ended up installing it too high. At least, I think I did. The triangular supports for the tow hooks don’t line up with the hooks, but this is how the instructions show them. The supports were removed and replaced with plasticard items lower down. When installing the upper rear hull, trouble struck again, and I had to remove close to a millimeter from the top of the lower plate to make it fit beneath the upper plate. For the Hornisse, I placed the lower rear plate about a millimeter lower and removed excess plastic at the bottom, where this is easier to fix. (No, it’s not simply a matter of positioning it lower; the part will otherwise protrude either at the top, the bottom, or both.)

Picture on the left: position of triangular supports for tow hooks when lower rear plate is aligned with bottom of the hull
Picture on the right: attempt at fixing the issue

Further progress (?). Also shown is the area with rough casting at the front of the fighting compartment (sanded down - grey area)
Another area where I missed the ball (and where instructions and lack of locating pegs don’t help) is where the sidewalls meet the fenders. I know that there is a step between the front fenders and the rear of the fighting compartment (which is shown in the boxtop and which gave me a headache in the Revell kit), but I installed them too low down, regardless. This meant removing material from the bottom of the radiators to recreate the step and from the top of the triangular supports inside the fighting compartment. As the radiators didn’t look good to me after the surgery, fine mesh (and a plastic support strip) were glued over them. Some vehicles carried this mesh, and while I got inspiration from a real vehicle (see below), I didn’t plan on matching it to the last detail. As an aside, it is interesting to note that very late Hummels had armored covers for these radiators, but there is no evidence that the Nashorn ever had them.

Picture on the left: incorrect alignment of the side plate
Picture on the right: after removal of some material at the bottom of the side plate. The radiator is now less accurate

Attempt at hiding the radiator
Speaking about radiators, you have the option of doing these in PE, using 7 parts. I think the plastic parts are good enough. Well, put differently, they look better than what I could probably pull off using the PE parts.

Close-up of the radiator glued to the side plate in pristine condition
I also ended up with a slight misalignment between the side and rear plate. More care is needed with these plates than I applied during this build.
However… If you raise the sidewalls, which will solve many of the aforementioned issues, I am afraid they will not line up with the armor at the front of the fighting compartment. For the Hornisse (see below) I followed a different approach to find out.
The upper rear corners of the fighting compartment armor should be a bit more rounded.
A strip of plastic (including rivet detail) was added where Parts C14 and C15 meet the driver’s compartment.

Reinforcement strip
There is some detail on the inside of the kit part for the driver’s visor, but there is no interior for the actual compartment. If you fit in a figure for the driver, this might actually work, however.
Note that the driver’s side visors should be installed with the thick side on top and at the correct angle. Use photographic evidence for the latter; the kit part has some play. I assume that they are given as separate parts due to casting limitations. (They cannot be opened on the real vehicle, or in the kit, for that matter.)
I damaged the lifting hooks on the outside of fighting compartment walls and replaced them with fine copper wire. Not that the representation in the kit is that convincing, but next time I’ll be more careful, regardless. More importantly, the kit gives you hooks at the lower edge of the fighting compartment, which I haven’t been able to identify on real vehicles and which should thus be removed.

Lifting hook(s) that need to be removed (all three at the bottom)
I also replaced the small loops to hold camouflage material with stretched sprue, as these also got damaged.
There is a small recess at the rear of the splash guard (C22) on the roof. The instructions don’t refer to it, but it needs to be drilled out to let pass the barrel lock release mechanism. The kit part for that mechanism (C21) was replaced by solder wire, as I was unable to make the kit part fit the hull snugly. It seems to be too thick anyway.
A cable was added going from the end of Part C21 (or its replacement) over the cradle (Part C19) to the gun. It is part of the release mechanism.

Replacing the release cable
A cable was added for the left headlight. This production variant of the Nashorn didn’t have a right headlight (and the kit is correct in that respect), but the plastic base is still present. As it is on the anti-slip portion of the front fender, it is very difficult to remove without damaging that pattern. Fortunately, the vehicle I based my work on had a storage box exactly there, allowing me to hide it. I probably should have removed the outlet for the electric wire on the glacis for the non-existing headlight as well, however.
A nice touch is that the brake vents are open, even though you can’t really see anything inside.
There is a nice jack, but no holder, at least not one that goes down to the fenders. One was built from sections of plasticard.
A tow cable is missing from the glacis. I have spare tow cables, but making them fit in a nice coil shape was beyond me. I believe it should have been offered by Dragon.

Various stages of assembly

The hull (Hornisse – differences with respect to the Nashorn):

The V-shaped depression on the glacis was filled in before the part was added to the hull. This was still a delicate operation, but much easier than doing it after assembly.

New approach to fix the the V-shaped depression and removal of remnants of the release mechanism
I used the kit-supplied DS tracks for this build, so didn’t need to modify the spare track holder. More about those later, though.
I took much more care with Parts C1 and C2. It helps if you bevel the rear of Part C2 a bit.
This time, no tedious remedial action was needed.

Different assembly sequence compared with Nashorn
The tow hooks at the rear of the hull were removed as per the instructions. I believe Dragon could have given us a hull without tow hooks and provided separate tow hooks for the kit that needed it (i.e. the Nashorn), instead of requiring us to remove them.
To avoid the issues I had with the Nashorn kit, I built up the armor plates for the fighting compartment, starting with the front, and placing the side plates a bit higher this time, to create the distinctive step.
I removed between 0.5 and 0.75 mm from the bottom front armor plates of the fighting compartment so that the cut outs touched the roof. I also beveled the bottom, to make them fit the fenders better.
As expected, this resulted in front armor plates (C14 and C15) that sat lower than the side armor. (It also didn’t help that I had already removed some material from the bottom of C14 and C15.)
I added a strip of plastic to the top of the front plates after installing them. In hindsight, I should have done that before installing them. It would have made it more difficult to match the correct height, but it would have been easier to sand.
It might have been even easier to add a strip of plastic to the cut-outs before installing C14 and C15. Perhaps next time.

Different assembly sequence

The height different between front and side plates is clear

Material added to the top of the front plates. The lifting hooks on top of them now actually sit a bit too low
I noticed that the inside of the radiators within the side plates interfered with the fenders. Some scraping solved the issue.
I installed the upper rear plate before fitting the lower rear plate, to make sure it aligned well with the sidewalls.

Different assembly sequence

Installing the upper rear plate first, required me to place the lower rear plate a millimeter lower and remove excess plastic at the bottom. I noticed that the triangular supports for the tow hooks still wouldn’t line up, but as this kit doesn’t need the tow hooks, it also doesn’t need the supports. Interestingly, Dragon doesn’t tell us to remove them.

Different assembly sequence. Material needs to be removed at the bottom of the lower rear hull plate, but this is not that difficult.
I didn’t damage the lifting hooks on the outside of fighting compartment walls this time, but still removed the ones at the lower edge of the fighting compartment.
For the Hornisse, there wasn’t a release mechanism for the barrel lock, so the recess at the rear of the splash guard (C22) doesn’t need to be drilled out. However, part of the release mechanism is still present on the glacis part and should be removed, which Dragon fails to mention.
The jack for this build was damaged and repaired.
Note that the supports for the barrel lock are different from those in the Nashorn. However, Dragon doesn’t point out that the Nashorn parts (C19) are “not for use”. D10 are the parts that you need to use.
I broke the barrel during the build, but believe the fix doesn’t really show. Speaking of which, I suspect that support E4 should go where support E5 is shown and vice versa.
It took me a while to figure out what Part D3 was. It’s not mentioned in the instructions. I believe it is a protective plate to ease access to the fighting compartment over the (hot) muffler.

Fighting compartment interior (Nashorn):

At the bottom rear of the fighting compartment there is a wedge where the lower rear hull needs to go. I am not sure which of the angles this allows that plate to be installed at is correct. What is sure is that this rear plate gave me a cluster headache (see above).
I noticed too late that my upper real plate isn’t perfectly centered. (Man, have I been sloppy with this build.). It shows most when looking at the triangular supports. I tried to mask it with stowage.
The anti-slip plate pattern is missing. I added it from very thin (and fragile) JK resin sheets, but after installing the floor plate. This obviously complicated matters tremendously and should better be done when the floor plate is still on the sprue. Some bits broke off the plate in the process, which I hid with stowage.

Original floor (left). Resin sheet that will be added on top of the original floor (right). This sheet is very fragile and got damaged in the process.
On the floor are two cylinders that represent the necks of the fuel tanks. Adding lids would make them more convincing, but I decided not to, hoping that the crew figures or stowage would obscure this area.
The side of the basket (Part A 13) were thinned down.
Lift hooks from a Revell Nashorn were added to the interior. (Yes, those pesky Revell lifting hooks.) The Dragon kit has none.
The rear of the engine compartment (Part C1) that can be seen below the gun mount has some casting irregularities.
The mounting hole for the rearmost return roller goes straight through the hull and will be visible inside the fighting compartment if you don’t close it. Adding a disk made with a punch-and-die set solved this, but required shortening the mounting stub of the return roller a bit.
The instructions sometimes show detail on the parts that are not present on the plastic parts, due to overzealous copying from the Hummel instructions - or vice versa.
There are some ejector marks on the triangular supports for the sidewalls (Parts B5 and B6) that are rather difficult to remove due to the presence of rivets. Having placed the sidewalls a bit too low, it also meant that these parts protruded above the side walls. I removed some material from the top, to make them look better.

The triangular supports sit too high

The triangular supports have been sanded down. The periscope mounts will be added again later. No prizes for elegance here.
The rear storage box (Part C6) has a very indistinct shape. I added a lid and a latch with padlock.

Different stages of assembly

Conveniently, the box hides two prominent ejector marks
While the kit gives you two MG supports, there is no MG. An MG42 was sourced from the spares box. Unfortunately, one of the supports fell and was then crushed when I put one of the legs of my chair (supporting my full weight) on it. To be sure that I ended up with two identical MG supports, both were built from scratch. I actually feel that the base of the support looks better than what the kit originally offered.
I guess that the radio (Part C7) and antenna (C17) are optional. The radio blocks the position of an MP40 holder. (The instructions don’t show the holder, but the kit part has it.) Based on photographic evidence of the vehicle preserved at Aberdeen, the radio should be mounted higher and the antenna just above it. I replaced my antenna base with a part from Master (GM-72-020). The kit antenna itself is far too short.
Part B10 has two pegs just outside the doors. I suppose these are meant to represent grab handles, but if so, they are not convincing, and should be on the doors themselves anyway. The latter have recesses to help you with that. I made mine from copper wire. It’s a detail, but the latch on the rear door is in the “open” position. If you glue the doors closed, it should be upright, if you care for these things.

The upper rear hull plate. Arrows indicate features (grab handles ??) that need to be removed

Adding handles to the rear doors
That same Part B10 also only shows one MP40 rack. While you can indeed only install one MP40 when you install the radio, the rack is present on the kit part. I don’t know if you need to remove it for a Befehls vehicle, but if not, I assume that it should stay where it is. Parts B5 and B6 also have an MP40 rack, which I haven’t been able to assess as accurate. It would make sense to have three MP40s for the crew (or two and a pistol), but a total of four seems unnecessary. The MP40 are not bad, but I believe the ones in the Revell kit are better.
What is shown as Part C11 is actually Part C12 and vice versa (these are the ammo lockers). Not that it matters much, as both are identical, except for the interior arrangement, where Part C11 is shown holding three rounds and some space for a fourth (as it should), but due to the alignment of the rack, that fourth round will never fit in. Part C12 holds four rounds, however. It is anybody’s guess why both parts aren’t done in the same way, even if Dragon wants you to have one locker partially empty. A completely empty rack will also allow you to see ejector marks inside the locker, so I would recommend installing at least some ammo.
While it is nice that the ammo lockers can be installed either closed or open, the walls are far too thick to be acceptable (in my opinion) when the open option is chosen. Furthermore, I fail to see why the closed ammo locker door needs to be in PE. A complete PE locker would make more sense for the open option, while the closed door would never really warrant PE. I scratchbuilt an open locker for all of the reasons above.

Original ammo lockers. Very thick sides and different interior

Attempt at scratchbuilding a better looking open locker
Speaking about ammo, you get some individual rounds, which is nice. I decided to use the ones from Tracks and Troops for consistency with the empty shells in that set.
The gun barrel has some strange flanges at its base and has an oval shape. I recommend replacing it with RB Models 72B22, as I did. The barrel lock that is attached to the gun barrel (and which the boxtop doesn’t show) was gently recovered from the kit part. Note that this part stayed with the gun barrel, and that this means that the kit can be built with gun unlocked, even though reviews at other sites claim otherwise.
The gun shield was slightly bent in my kit and had casting irregularities and prominent ejector marks on the inside. The real vehicle might have a small tube on the inside [1], which the kit lacks, and which I didn’t add.
While it might seem nice that instructions tell you that the gun can be moved in elevation, even after assembly when not gluing some parts, it actually doesn’t work, as at least one part on each side (F36 and F37) needs to be glued in place that blocks all the rest.
The gun assembly is a very fiddly build, even more when following the sequence in the instructions. Making the gun shield fit the gun mount and conform snugly to the armor plates of the fighting compartment at the same time, was extremely difficult. I ended up doing the assembly over a couple of times and even then had some puttying to do around the gun shield and front armor plates. For the Hornisse, I followed a different approach.

Dry-fitting the gun shield didn't indicate any trouble ahead

Left: gaps around gound shield. Right: after fix
I am unsure whether Part F9 and F35 need to be painted brown entirely (or even partially). As the Hornisse instructions specify this color for the gunner’s seat (Part F27), but not for Parts F9 and F35, and as the seat is colored brown in the Nashorn instructions without a color call-out, I assume this is another error in the Nashorn instructions.
I lost Part F35 (the gun sight) and rebuilt it from scratch.

Fighting compartment interior (Hornisse – differences with respect to the Nashorn):

Following the approach described above, and taking more care, I didn’t have trouble with the centering of the upper rear plate and with the triangular supports on the inside, which I added to the side plates before adding the latter to the hull.

Triangular supports added to hull sides before adding hull sides to hull. No alignment issues this time.
The anti-slip plate pattern was now added to Part B4 before adding that to the fighting compartment. Still challenging due to the various cut-outs, but much easier than before. It didn’t get damaged this time.

Smarter approach at adding the anti-slip plate and lids for fuel tank necks.
I added lids to the two cylinders that represent the necks of the fuel tanks.
Lift hooks from a Revell Nashorn were added to the interior again, but more to the rear as was the case in the earlier version.

Lifting hooks more to the rear than in the Nashorn
Not only does the mounting hole for the rearmost return roller go straight through the hull, but this time also the mounting hole for the exhaust pipes.
I didn’t damage the MG42 supports this time. However, I didn’t add the swivel mounts, as the unit of the vehicle that I wanted to represent (from 2./s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.560) seems not to have carried MG42.
I didn’t add the optional radio and antenna. I removed the mounting pegs for the radio.
I used the kit parts for the ammo lockers, but chose to build them closed.
This time I built up the gun assembly, starting from the lower frame and gun shield, test fitting it against the armor plates. I discovered that the supports between frame and gun shield were too short, especially the lower ones, which goes a long way explaining my earlier trouble. I replaced them with scratchbuilt items. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves regarding the build sequence.

Partial gun assembly. This will go on the hull before progressing further

Further progress to ensure a tight fit.

Further progress to ensure a tight fit.
The joints of Parts F36 and F37 remain extremely weak, however.
I didn’t fill in the ejector marks on Parts F17 and F18 this time, as my previous build had proven that they would be invisible anyway.
I did fill in the recesses to mount Part F16 which isn’t needed in the Hornisse.
Even though I took much more care, Part F33 again interfered with the inside of Part F3. The latter was thinned down.
Dragon provides a PE part for the redundant sight in the left side of the gun shield and which was welded shut. I replaced it with plasticard as I found it easier to do.
Again I lost Part F35.
Interestingly, the instructions in this kit would have you install the forward part of the gun barrel below its real position. The Nashorn instructions show the correct position. Either case, I used a replacement barrel as with the Nashorn.

Running gear (Nashorn)

Preliminary note: Most of the issues with the running gear were only discovered when it was almost completely finished, meaning that I had to disassemble most of it to be able to perform the necessary modifications. I also decided to use the MACO Ostketten on this kit. Ostketten are rare for a Nashorn, but I found one picture (below) that intrigues me. The DS tracks were badly warped anyway. More about them below.
The things that I discovered:

You get an early and late drive sprocket. The instructions let you choose, but all the marking options show the latter. Nevertheless, check your references (and the discussion below) to make sure you choose the right option.
It is difficult to align the bogeys due to play in the parts. The bogeys are handed, but the instructions don’t tell you if Part e4 (or e5 for that matter) goes right or left. Take a close look at Step 2 to make sure.
Dragon offers separate hubcaps, which is helpful when painting the road wheels. My kit came with more hubcaps than needed, and more than mentioned in the instructions.
Some hubcaps also have a deeper depression where the axle goes than others.
All hubcaps are of the early, cast type, which is correct for most vehicles offered in this kit.
The holders for the spare road wheels on the back of the vehicle are made from metal wire and nicely pre-bent to shape.
There is a small casting deficiency on the drive sprockets.
I shortened the axle of the rear return rollers to fit the recess that was blanked off in the fighting compartment.
The MACO tracks come as individual links and short sections and while they are nicely cast, they are a pain to assemble as the large number of short sections doesn’t help with alignment. The recesses also don’t line up exactly with the teeth of the Dragon drive sprocket making partial removal of the latter necessary to ensure a correct fit.
There are two main issues with this kit, however. The first is that you need to move the drive sprocket, idler and road wheels inwards, to have the tracks align with the return rollers and fenders. In this kit this was done after assembling everything a first time, thus creating one fine mess.
The second issue is that the road wheels themselves almost touch each other. This throws off the look of the kit.
There is a swivel arm for the idler that comes as a separate part. In reality this was used for track tensioning and in a kit it can serve the same purpose, avoiding to and up with a track run that is not a partial track too short/long. However, due to the alignment issues mentioned above, not much of this swivel arm was left after surgery.

Running gear (Hornisse – differences with respect to the Nashorn)

Forewarned, I removed material from the sides of the hull before assembly so that idler, road wheels and drive sprocket sit closer to the hull. It is quite an amount that needs to be removed, especially for the drive sprocket (around 1mm).
As the Revell Nashorn road wheels are slightly smaller (6.45mm in diameter) than those in the Dragon kit (6.70mm) , I decided to use the former to create a bit more breathing room between the road wheels. (See pictures below to see if you can spot the difference.) It only helps a little. As the size of the Revell road wheels is fairly accurate, I am starting to wonder if the entire Dragon hull isn’t too short.
In this kit, I decided to use the Dragon supplied DS tracks. Between my Nashorn and Hornisse kit I had two tracks that weren’t warped beyond recognition and seemed usable. However, the tracks turned out to be too short to go around the running gear, even with the idler in the foremost position. As I had two spare tracks from the Nashorn build with some unwarped sections, and as I was going to put the vehicle on a diorama base, I could fix this by adding the necessary length to the bottom. It was actually easier than I anticipated.

Painting
I normally do not comment on painting, but I noticed that the geometry of the Nashorn, with all its nooks and crannies resulted in half-dried (enamel) paint ending up almost everywhere, and especially where it is difficult to sand, resulting in a very rough texture in my paint job. For the Hornisse I decided to paint subassemblies first, which resulted in a far better overall paintjob.

Markings (Nashorn)

The kit offers markings for seven vehicles:

Pictures from Henk of Holland website, used with permission.

A plain yellow one from an “unknown unit”, devoid of any markings except for the Balkenkreuze.
“231” from 2./s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.560 in 1943. A picture of “231” on page 35 of [1] (with matching camouflage pattern) shows it on a train. While the vehicle can only be seen partially, it shows rear mud flaps, indicating that it is most likely an earlier production variant than what the kit offers. Other vehicles on the same train are also early vehicles, some of which show appliqué armor, a box on the right fender, spare roadwheels in the early position and modified (early) mufflers. Based on pictures in [1] it seems that vehicles of 2./s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.560 often didn’t carry any MG on the swivel mount that Dragon offers, or had it in a different position. Also, see the discussion below.
A whitewashed vehicle (“Tiger”) from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.519 in the winter of 1943-1944. This is a sister vehicle to the one in the Revell kit. At least Dragon offers the unit badges, although pictures in [1] would suggest that a smaller badge (decal 9) was carried at the front (Dragon suggests the larger decal 11) and a larger (decal 11) at the right rear (where Dragon doesn’t put anything). The unit is also known to have added a spare roadwheel to the side of the driver’s compartment, which is confirmed by a picture of this vehicle on page 43 of [1]. The unit also often added logs to the bow, which the kit doesn’t provide. For a representation of this marking I refer to the construction review of the Revell kit.
A white/yellow vehicle from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.88 in 1944. Worthy of note is that this unit often fitted a MG42 on top of the main gun, which the kit doesn’t provide. This unit is also known to have used playing card symbols to denote companies. While marking option 7 takes this into account, this marking option doesn’t. However, based on the picture on page 45 of [1] this seems to be correct.
“131”, a three-color vehicle from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.525 in 1944. This is probably the vehicle on page 39 of [1]. The unit is also known to have added a spare roadwheel to the side of the driver’s compartment which the kit doesn’t provide and which seems to be correct for this particular vehicle. The unit often also repeated the tactical umber on the gun shield, which the kit provides.
“214”, a three-color vehicle from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.525 in 1944. Same remark regarding the extra roadwheel and tactical number. I didn’t find a picture of this particular vehicle.
A yellow and green vehicle from 3/s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.88 in 1944. This unit used playing cards to denote its companies and often fitted an MG42 on top of the main gun, which the kit doesn’t provide. If the vehicle is the one on page 46 in [1] this seems to be correct. If the vehicle shown on page 30 and in the color profiles in [1] is indeed also from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.88, then this unit might additionally have used tactical numbers on the rear of the fighting compartment, which the kit doesn’t offer.

Of the above, it seems that inspiration for 4 of the marking options are taken from color profiles in [1].
The kit offers spare decals and individual numbers in different styles.
I built my kit loosely based on a picture on page 30 of [1] (also to be found here), showing a vehicle without markings and equipped with Ostketten.

The vehicle was put in a diorama, using figures and accessories from Tracks and Troops.

Markings (Hornisse)

The kit offers markings for six vehicles. The description is markedly more concise than in the Nashorn kit.

Pictures from Henk of Holland website, used with permission.

A three-color vehicle from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.525 with only some Balkenkreuze.
“A2” from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.560 (probably the Stabskompanie). Dark yellow with green blotches. See discussion below.
“131” from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.525. Strangely it has the exact same camouflage pattern as the vehicle above, which is from a different unit. This might be the vehicle shown on page 39 of [1], but then it needs its number repeated on the gun shield (standard practice in this unit) and the numbers would need to be black. It uses the early drive sprocket and I believe it uses the early barrel lock. I can't see the muffler arrangement.
“211” from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.525 in three colors in almost exactly the same pattern as “131” in the Nashorn kit. This vehicle is shown on page 37 and 38 of [1] and on page 48 of [2]. The placement of the markings seems to be correct and the camouflage pattern might be as well. However it uses the late barrel lock and early drive sprockets, and it seems to have a late layout of rear fenders (and thus probably of the muffler), which means the modeler would better build it using the Nashorn kit.
“233” from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.560 with wavy brown bands on a dark yellow background in exactly the same pattern as “211” in the Nashorn kit. See discussion below.
“302” from s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.525. Dark yellow with green blotches. This vehicle is shown on page 37 of [1]. The placement of the markings seems to be correct and it also seems to be an early vehicle, but the camouflage might have been different.

The kit offers spare decals and individual numbers in different styles.

Incidentally, the Dragon decals didn't adhere very well, even after the use of setting solutions and are very fragile.

2./s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.560

Dragon offers three options of 2./s.H.Pz.Jg.Abt.560, as follows

231 (Nashorn kit) – brown wavy bands
A2 (Hornisse kit) – green blotches
233 (Hornisse kit) – brown wavy bands

The pictures that best match these, and that I could find, are on page 34 and 35 of [1] where the vehicles of the unit are entrained. Looking closely at the pictures, the following features could be identified of the individual vehicles:

Code ? A2 ? ? 2?? ? 211 232 231

Spare roadwheel Front Front Not at rear ? ? Not at rear Front Not at front ?

Drive sprocket New New New ? New ? New Old ?

Muffler ? ? Old ? ? Old ? ? ?

Mudflaps ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Box with mudflaps ? ? No Yes No No No Yes No

Barrel lock new new ? ? ? ? new ? ?

Appliqué armor on gunshield ? ? ? ? ? ? No Yes ?

All vehicles had a box on the right front fender and all seem to have had mudflaps, even the vehicles with the late exhaust and without the boxes under the rear fenders. Presumably, this is a field modification.
This means that at least the following should be considered when building the vehicles that Dragon offers:

231 (Nashorn kit): add mudflaps. The camo matched the instructions.
A2 (Hornisse kit): start from the Nashorn kit and add spare roadwheels. The camo is roughly in line with the instructions.

I decided to build my Hornisse as 233 which I didn’t find in the pictures to give me some margin for maneuver.
Compared with the Dragon instructions I

painted thicker wavy brown bands. The camouflage on the vehicles seems to have been quite variable and the nozzle of my airbrush was getting too worn to paint them any thinner.
I didn’t use the symbol of a self-propelled anti-tank unit on front and rear. Basically, because I forgot.
I added kill rings to the barrel (from the spares box). Not that this is a typical feature of the unit.

Compared with the features of other vehicles of the unit I didn't add the box on the fender.

The figure is from Preiser.

For details about other units that used the Nashorn, see [1].

References
[1] Greenland, T., & Terlisten, D. (2001). Nuts & Bolts Vol. 14: Nashorn – Pz.Jäger Nashorn & 8.8 Pak 43/1 – Sd.Kfz. 164. Nuts & Bolts Verlag Gbr.
[2] Ledwoch, J. (2010). Nashorn (Wydawnictwo Militaria No. 334, Tank Power Vol. XCIII). Wydawnictwo Militaria.
[3] Jentz, T. L., & Doyle, H. L. (2006). Panzer Tracts No. 7-3: Panzerjäger (7.5 cm Pak 40/4 to 8.8 cm Waffenträger). Panzer Tracts.
[4] Feenstra, J. (2017). Panzerjäger on the Battlefield (World War Two Photobook Series Vol. 15). PeKo Publishing Kft. ISBN 978-615-5583-07-0.
[5] Ellis, C. (2011). PzKpfw IV at the front, Vol 5: Variants. 8wheels-good. ISBN 978-0-9563655-4-5.

Review samples purchased by the author.

			www.onthewaymodels.com	Sd.Kfz.164 Nashorn Sd.Kfz.164 Hornisse
Kit #: 7292 and 7234				Review by Rob Haelterman

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Article Last Updated: 24 May 2026	Back to Home Page