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RSO Pak40 compact in size, excellent for armor ambushes. But with open fighting compartment, crew was vulnerable to light enemy caliber fire and could not engage in dueling match against tanks.  Two MP40 submachine guns and ammo clip poaches snug inside crew compartment for close-in defense. Water canisters on front hood from 1.35 Tamiya Sdkfz 232 kit. German Infantry Weapons Firing (MP40) - www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_CBiFaivT8
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MG42 machine gun mounted for anti-aircraft defense on swivel pedestal. By 1943, Allied airpower was major threat to daytime German armor movements. Although mobile FLAK batteries were assigned, there were never allocated in sufficient numbers due to wartime constraints.
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Hence, best stop-gap measure was to arm vehicles with machine guns to provide some group concerted defense against what Germans called Jabos (fighter-bombers) or other Tieflieger (low-flying aircraft). MG42 gun + pedestal stand from 1.35 Italeri SdKfz 234/4 kit. MG-42 Maschinengewehr 42 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp-rCZuIbyk
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Inset 1 : Water canisters on RSO front panel taken from 1.35 Tamiya SdKfz 232 8-rad kit, also gave area additional surface detailing such as small tie-down loops, tow chain from model ship accessories, step-up loops on vehicle sides to readily embark-disembark from crew cabin, storage poach, map case, etc.
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Rollover : RSO top view, 7.5cm Pak40 anti-tank was taken from 1.35 Tamiya German 75mm gun kit. Although this Italeri RSO kit came with its own 75mm gun, it was previously scavenged for another German model, hence the Tamiya gun was used as replacement. Note that the Tamiya gun is set in recoil position (gun recessed to rear), rather than firing position. Story has it in 1970s, Japanese Tamiya associates went to United States Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen-Maryland to inspect a captured German 7.5cm PAK40 gun on its display grounds. Gun was set in recoil position during transport back to US after WW2 and was never reset into firing position, the Japanese folks copied the artillery piece as-is some 30 years later. United States Army Ordnance Museum - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Army_Ordnance_Museum
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Inset 2 : Wartime photo of RSO Pak40, license plate "WH 695 405" was  vehicle ID marker used for wheeled, half-tracked, and tracked vehicles (tanks, tank destroyers, self-propelled assault guns did not carry these plates). WH referred to Wehrmacht (German Army) and the sequential vehicle number assigned thus far. In this instance, it was the 695,405th vehicle allotted to Germany Army.
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Other German WW2-era plates include WL (Luftwaffe - German Air Force), WM (Kriegsmarine - German Navy), SS (Waffen Schultz-Staffel - Armed SS), OT (Organization Todt, armed construction unit), DR (Deutsche Reichsbahn - German railway), IA (Berlin district civilian), (IE Brandenburg district civilian), SAAR (Saarland region civilian), etc. License Plates of the World - www.worldlicenseplates.com/
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