StuG III G *Finished 11-25-07*

Dupes, thanks for the comments and the note on the Tiger!

Zoran,

The stack of stuff slowly accumulated over time, the last piece of the puzzle was the Armorscale barrel and mantlet, it took the longest to get hold of due to the on-off supply they have with their distributors.

Tigerman/MR, one of the beauties of building German armor is that even within a specific vehicle’s production run there were constant improvements/tinkering going on and that ups the variation factor. My intent was to portray this while still staying within the reasonable limits of timeframe accuracy, took some doing to get all the parts in place though. No doubt DML will come out with newer kits in the series at some point but you never can tell what features they would chose to go with or leave out in the process. [:)]

…would like to see that Tiger—is it the initial?

MR,

Yep, done as #100 specifically.

http://www.bpmodels.net/Model/Album/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7

…wow…killer build and tutorial…I have the kit and the Archer drys for the same tank…what is your opinion on the side bustles? German or Russian origin?

Definitely German origin. Combat photos of #100 wearing the winter whitewash prior to capture by the Soviets clearly show the side bustles fitted as do factory production shots.

No rest for the wicked eh Bill, this is another favourite vehicle of mine (arnt they all) and its nice to see the pile of goodies you have goin on, it really makes for an interesting build, great job so far and keep her coming.

Thanks Ron! While I usually have only 1 project going at a time, as soon as one concludes another starts, sometimes even the same day! [:D]

That is a nice StuG Bill. The zimm is looking spectacular! I have a Gunze G in the works waiting for me to finish the F8 for the group build! Can’t wait to see this thing done!

Thanks Jester, ought to have some more progress tomorrow. [tup]

More progress today, I began with dealing with a couple of items left over for the rear engine deck from last week’s efforts. The kit supplied cleaning rods definitely show their age and I scrounged around in the spares box and found a set of more detailed rods from the DML Dicker Max/Pz IV kit.

The rods needed surgery to be usable since the StuG rods were stowed 2x2 on the rear deck. The same set had another cleaning rod pair with just the swab and single rod together, so all I needed was the underlying 2 rods from the 4 rod piece pictured above. These were carefully removed using a sharp knife point to score the gap and then carefully removed to preserve the detail. The rods had the molded on clamps removed and their grooves restored with a round needle file. The Lion Roar PE holders were installed without any issue and it’s possible to carefully slide the rods in and out so they can be detail painted off the vehicle when the time comes. I also added the spare antenna mount holders while I was at it to complete this area.

While the instructions in the kit would have you wait until almost the very end to attach the superstructure to the upper deck, I decided to go ahead and do that now to avoid possibility of breakage on some of the more delicate details later on. Sure enough, the fit needed some help in the form of both rubber band and finger pressure in different stages to get everything together.

With the superstructure in place, it was time to join the upper and lower hulls. The contact surfaces between them aren’t very large, consisting mainly of the front hull plate and rear plate and the top edge of the hull all the way around. The fit front and rear is pretty good but getting the hull to sit down properly on the edges took some work. I had to employ several heavy duty rubber bands to apply enough pressure to get everything to join up properly, so it’s a good thing I did this now and not later when everything would’ve been attached.

While that was setting up, I worked on the towing clevises and their mounts. Again using a set from the spares bin and the PE clamps, the spare parts were trimmed down to fit the PE brackets and installed. Previously I’d also installed the PE lifting hooks to the sides of the air intakes but after checking the reference photos I realized they were too far back and I repositioned them in the correct spot nearer the superstructure. The tool brackets are fiddly assemblies with very delicate and tiny parts, so it’s slow going to get them together but they look great once done. Tomorrow I’ll work on the rest of the brackets and fender details now that everything’s together in one piece.

One of the things that became obvious to me today with this project is that it’s very deceptive in that things I thought wouldn’t take so much time to complete ended up taking far longer. Which isn’t a bad thing, it just means that the measurable progress is less. I’d originally intended to start in on the fenders today but realized that I still had a lot of major construction still to do on the front and rear areas first. I didn’t want to run the risk of damaging fragile details with a lot of handling, so I detoured to the front hull first.

The front plates for the superstructure are provided as zimmed resin items in the Atak set and these were installed first after I’d trimmed down the superstructure panels. The driver’s side area has the bolted on extra panel and armored hood in resin that attached to the kit parts for the base. The vision port for the driver however is molded solid, so once I had all of the plates in place and the glue set, I used a drill bit in the Dremel to open up the port all the way through to the hull interior and then used a square needle file to smooth it out. The molded on lifting hook was removed and the Lion Roar PE replacement used in its place, same thing on the gunner’s side. The glacis and front hull zim panels were then fitted, the Atak set includes an option for a glacis panel that has only the Notek mount or the Notek and the gun travel lock depending on the version being built. I opted for the two cutout option. The brake hatch access panels have their zim as separate pieces, a nice touch IMHO especially if you wanted to open the hatches up and install an interior. A little putty work was necessary at the base of the gunner’s plate and also where the front hull and glacis panels met to round everything out.

Before installing the front fenders, I sanded them down at the front to get them closer to scale thickness using sanding twigs and a square needle file for the corners. The kit parts are slightly beveled at the front but still needed attention to improve their look. The fenders were then installed and their zim panels attached. Yes, the Germans really did zim the fenders front and back on the StuGs, I checked several reference photos just to be sure and the Atak set is thorough with them included as well.

The kit parts for the base of the gun travel lock were replaced with PE and a short piece of brass rod as the hinge point with the kit mount fully workable as a result. The kit Notek light’s base was also replaced and the kit part cut down and sanded to fit. Both kit provided mounts are solid vs. the open PE frames and the Atak cutout is designed to take the kit mount for the Notek light, not the PE mount, so some surgery was necessary. In the process some “damage” was inflicted on the zimmerit of the front hull and rather than repair it, I decided to leave it as is for some added character even if unplanned.

Turning to the rear, the Atak set includes a resin piece to replace the rear plate and has zim panels for the rest of the surfaces. The resin piece simulates the overhang with the narrow panel above it, at first I thought it was a casting mistake but the bare strip is supposed to be there. The resin piece has the crank starter cover turned at a little too sharp of an angle but there’s not much that could be done about it without damaging the pattern, so it is what it is.

The rear towing pintles were constructed and installed along with the mufflers and the Lion Roar included intake grilles for the underside uptake vents. These are a tight fit with the mufflers and I found it easiest to install the grilles first and the mufflers second. The kit also calls for the construction and installation of a multi-part tow bar for the lower rear hull but this feature wasn’t added until late 1944, so I left it off my vehicle and cannibalized the extra glacis strip for the zim pattern to cover this area with. I replaced the kit part for the sheet metal deflector screen with the Lion Roar PE item, annealing it first over a the kitchen stove gas burner and then using the kit part as a master to bend it to shape. This was glued to the kit side braces with CA gel then installed to the underside.

Now all of the big construction, at least as it concerns the kit parts, is finished but the fender details will have to wait until next weekend for their turn. [:)]

Tremendous, Bill, looking wicked-cool!

Yeah, the Brummbar’s got zimmed-fenders too; I decided not to use them, as the Samur Brummbar doesn’t seem to have them, and I’m pretty sure they’re orignal stuff.

This is looking awesome so far though…wow!

Thanks doog, just like with your Brummbar, I had to check photos of vehicles matching the same time period I was looking at to see if the zim was present on the fenders or not and some have it and others don’t. Given their somewhat fragile nature and tendency to get banged up, it’s surprising to me that they would apply it to them but then Germans are Germans when it comes to things like this I guess. [;)]

…I agree about the zimm on the fenders…I’d say about 15-20% had it on the fenders, based on my refs…this is looking sweet…can’t wait till you get to the paint…

Thanks MR, my main reference for this build has been Squadron’s Walk-around and a couple of e-books I have on the long-gun StuG variants and the trick had been matching up the different features with zim on the fenders or not. Fortunately there’s a beautiful shot of several in a depot setting in France of brand-new just delivered Stugs with the zim showing clearly and that’s what clinched it for me…of course the Atak set doesn’t include any instructions and leaves it up to your imagination to figure out where all the strips go and these had me scratching my head until the light bulb went on. [8-]

There’s only one thing worse than having no instructions…Russian instructions! Even the sparse and rough translations hardly help with the crazy arrows pointing upside down and telling you to put pieces that don’t exist into places that have no locating holes or pins, in places that don’t even exist. Yikes. That said, looks great to me! I like the look of the “squarish/upside down triangle” mantlet on the III G as opposed to the more curvy one on IV’s and other variants. I don’t know how you manage to make all your builds so clean, especially with PE. Mine always are covered in poorly filled seams, sanding marks and excess glue. Great job, I too, am eagerly awaiting the paint on this one.

This is obviously a KGB-funded plot to undermine Western Democracy, and intimidate and confuse futire would-be armor experts and advisors who might one day oppose the Russians opposite the Fulda Gap…we’d be like “Aim for the muffin hole on the bottom rear of the turret; its the weak spot!..What?! There’s NO MUFFIN HOLE!!! AAAHHHHGGGHH! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!!” [(-D][(-D][(-D]

Your on to something there, Doog. I think it actually makes me less intelligent when I read something like “insert large hole in small hole.” WHAT???! Since when can you insert a hole into a hole? Or how about trying to figure out what color “Темно - зеленый цвет” is! I’ve been taking spanish for three years and I can hardly tell you how to say “dark green” in that language!

Shaping up very nicely Bill and i concur with Ian about how clean you manage your PE, im looking forward to more.

Ian,

I feel your pain having been there with Russian instructions myself on more than one occasion! The Atak set does include a generic “how to attach” set of instructions but beyond that, you’re on your own. I guess they figure that if you’re attempting to use one of their sets you should already know where everything goes! [(-D] What I didn’t show in the photos above are the small pieces that actually go on the rear plate in around the tow pintles and between the mufflers…only way to see it is to actually flip it upside down, but then that’s how comprehensive the set really is.

Ron,

Thanks as always for the comments, the trick I’ve found with PE is patience and using lots and lots of toothpicks and CA gel vs. normal CA glue for most assemblies. I’ll put just a small bead of the gel on the point of a toothpick and use that to apply it to the desired location since the gel provides a little more control and work time vs. normal glue. That and a sharp knife point carefully used to clean up any excess helps too by scraping it off gently while still keeping the bond in place.