Have a Dragon Pz. Bef.Wg. III Ausf K and want to make it an Ausf L or M. What would have to be changed? Gun mantlet and the exhaust (for the Ausf L). Would the turret itself need modifications or changed? Would prefer to do the Ausf L, want to have the escape hatches in the hull.
Thanks for any help
The K had all kinds of modifications done to it to incorporate the additional radio and communications gear. The turret front plate is different with a modified mantlet and added armored visor. The hull side plate on the right side has additional ports and antennas that wouldn’t be present and the fender tools/gear were all re-arranged as a result of that. The K was built on M hulls complete with the exhaust and other arrangements/features unique to the M, so it’s not really possible to backwards modify the K to an L without a lot of serious work.
Since you say you want an L with the escape hatches in the hull, you’d be better off IMHO getting the Ausf J 3-in-1 Smart kit as the “L” designation was applied after the fact to the longer-gun 5.0cm Js and what you describe fits to what is in that particular boxing. Plus you will have the added benefit of much better molding quality as the K is an Imperial series kit and needs a lot more TLC as a result. HTH! [B]
I don’t pretend to know a lot about panzers, but wasn’t the PzKpfw III Ausf K the variant that was created by mounting a PzKpfw IV turret to the PzKpfw III hull?
If so, you’d need an entirely new turret; a regular PzKpfw III one.
WBILL - Great info. So the L is out but sounds like turning it into an M would not be to difficult. May go that route. If all else fails will just build the K but I have already built the Imperial series K so wanted to make this one into a different Ausf.
ROB G - Yes the K did have the larger turret lucky for me happen to have an extra Pz III turret that can use for a replacement. If I remember correctly the imperial series K came with both turrets either way have an extra. Thanks for the info.
See if you can scare up a copy of Squadron-Signal PzKpfw III In Action Lots of war time black and white reference photos.
[:)]
Thanks for the tip, I’ll look for that one. Did just order “Panzer III & its Variants” by Spielberger. Hope it provides some good info.
The Spielberger texts are good to have handy. I would also recommend the Panzer Tracts series if you want to get more specific info on the different variant characteristics…the Pz III family of vehicles is 2nd only to the Pz IV IMHO in terms of their variety. [B]
WBILL - Looked up Panzer Tracts, they look to be a great resource. They will be going on my list of things to get. Was also recomemnded Achtung Panzer which also looks to be very nice.
They are all three good resources to have. I have them all in my reference library and each one serves a different purpose. I have more money in books than I do kits. [;)]