Revell makes a nice 1/72 scale kit of the Marder 1 A3. Cold War gamers, however, are left out in the cold – they need the A1 or A2 version, both of which are visually quite different. It is however possible to modify the A3 kit to make it look similar to the A2 version. These are the modifications I made:

• The most obvious difference are the storage bins – just leave them off.
• The A3 has an MG on the left side of the turret. Leave it off and fill the hole.
• The A2 doesn’t have the cover above the driver’s vision blocks – once again, just leave it off.
• More challenging are the rectangular blocks and the hinges for the add-on armor on the front. I scraped and sanded them away, using 600 grit sandpaper. After sanding, clean out the panel lines with a hobby knife.
• The rear is rather hopeless. The A3 has a completely different hatch layout and does away with the firing ports. Luckily, there are plenty of pictures of Marders partially covered with camouflage netting. By using this trick, you can simply hide the rear.

The end result is not a perfect A2, but close enough for gaming purposes.