Without a doubt, the 2nd time around has brought back memories of earlier times with this kit nearing completion.  It was and still is a straight-foward and for the most part, simple build.  

This PAK 40 offers the later style 1 piece solid wheels as opposed to the earlier models which has spoked wheels.  The kit offers 3 figures to boot and what appears to be an ammo box that can be modelled open or closed.  Live rounds as well as spent rounds are included as well especially since one of the figures is supposed to be handling a round as if to slide it into the breech for firing. The other 2 figures are posed to represent a commander figure who actaully fires the gun and another manipulating the wheels for traverse, etc. while looking into the gun's sight.

During construction, it was first noticed that if you have a choice, you should opt for scrapping the kit barrel and opting for a more up-to-date 1 piece barrel for ease of construction.  I attempted to cement the 2 halves of the barrel with less than satisfying results and reclaimed that loss by sawing off the barrel instead for a Jodi Rubio barrel. The cost more than made up for the time and aggravation that I did not want to spend puttying and sanding the offset halves in an attempt to have a "round" barrel.  I am not saying that it is necessary to go buy an aftermarket barrel -your skills as a modeller may allow you to overcome what I see as an avoidable challenge.

All other construction went flawlessly and was simple to slap together - concerning the one piece wheels offered in this later version of the PAK 40....Tamiya, for whatever reason, decided to make what should be 2 pieces - 6 pieces.  Tamiya molded the outer pieces of the solid rubber tires for each wheel.  All that does is create more work where it is not needed and it does nothing to add to detail.

The ammo supplied is no good as far as being remotely accurate in its appearance.  I am not a rivet counter, but I do have limits as to what can be ignored and in my opinion these cannot.  Get the Tamiya Panzer IV Projectiles or likewise in order to update the kit.  Do it now!

The figures are, well, OLD.  The help of Warriors resin heads can bring the figs. into the 21st century with ease.  I opted to go with Warriors over Hornet as the Hornet heads appeared to be too small for these older Tamiya figs.  Do yourself a favor as well and be sure to ditch the kit's field gear and update it with sensibly accurate ones.  Don't go through all the trouble to retro fit those guys and put a square bread bag on their backside!  Keep in mind that unless you scrap the figures alltogether, their dress limits you to a time frame from 1941 (gun's intro) to 1943 (uniform redesign/simplification).  They all sport tunics with the scalloped and pleated pockets as well as jack boots.  To put these guys in a Normandy or Ardennes dio may be pushing it.

Overall, the kit is fine and I would buy it again and again. It being from the 1970's, should make one feel required to do a little re-working to bring it up to today's standards with out having to buy Photo Etch and get all caught up in "scale" woes.