Wednesday, April 11

Bronco Models new 35th scale kit of the German Tactical Assault Glider DFS 230 B-1 w/ 4 Fallschirmjäger landing in April!

Bronco Models new 35th scale kit of the German Tactical Assault Glider DFS 230 B-1 w/ 4 Fallschirmjäger has been teased for a long time, & we are sure that it will sell incredibly well. However, what features does the kit have? We have the photos of the CAD features of this kit (rumoured for April/ May) including colours and markings in our preview...

German Tactical Assault Glider DFS 230 B-1 w/ 4 Fallschirmjäger 
from Bronco Models
Product No# CB35039 
1/35th scale
available in May from Bronco’s Distributors worldwide
A little about the DFS Glider before we look at the kit from Bronco...
In 1936, the German military put forward the idea of the direct use of the glider to transport and to launch an attack with combat troops. It put forward the concept of an "assault glider". DeutscheForschungsanstaltfürSegelflug, or DFS for short. 

By 1937, the Luftwaffe had three fully developed three prototypes to choose from, and it picked the DFS-230A to become the Luftwaffes standard light assault glider. The glider used a high wing monoplane with strong wing support hybrid structure. 
The rectangular fuselage used steel tubing structure and flax mix, which made the aircraft's costs low and production easy.

The glider could accommodate 8 heavily armed soldiers and 2 pilots, and it was towed by another aircraft, often a Bf-110. The glider dropped it's landing gear after take off, and to land, the glider used it's extending centre line landing skid. 

Type B-1 aircraft can be depicted in this boxing with the addition of a self-defence MG-15 machine gun. This gun was also supposed to be used when landed to suppress any enemy ground fire. 
DFS230-B final output numbers were a total of 1020. DFS-230 on May 10, 1940 raid Belgian Fort Eben-Emael opener successful, also has participated in the battle of Crete, and a number of other airborne operations.
Bronco's new kit in 35th scale.
This kit has been long anticipated and we were hoping for a similar quality to Bronco's 72nd scale teasers in this subject, from the CAD Drawings of this forthcoming kit showing internal and external features we think this kit will be good.
The heavy losses of Crete led Hitler to put large-scale airborne glider operations on hold, and after the ditching of the German airborne troop concept by the Germans, the DFS-230 operated only as a transport plane. One later, small-scale airborne operation using this glider was successful, however, the German Paratroopers of Operation Eiche (German of “oak”) was the raid on Gran Sasso by Otto Szkorzeny and his special forces troops to re-capture Mussolini from his prison in the Italian Alps.

The feature set of this kit - the written text is from the box art...
The inclusion of the four figures from the Dragon kit "#6276 1/35 WW II German 1st Fallschirmjager (Holland 1940 )" 2nd Gen 4 Figures plastic model kit
There are six colours included in this kit int he marking options which tell us that this may be the only release of this kit, sales will tell the tale...
This kit has been begging to be made for such a long time – the crossover between aircraft and Infantry modellers has long been obvious to me at least – it will be a great big aircraft and hopefully full of detail as well – this one will be a winner.

This kit will be available in September from Bronco’s Distributors worldwide