Dragon Stug III Ausf B in 1:72 scale

This week's AFV is a 1941 Stug III Ausf B serving on the Eastern Front in 1:72 scale from Dragon.  The Stug III is my second favourite German AFV after the Panzer IV and I was looking forward greatly to this build. However, I must say that this Dragon model was a bit of a disappointment following last week's Sdkfz 231 build.  My biggest gripe was with the tracks and wheels.  These came into one single rubberised piece and was not convenient at all to fit onto the hull. Even worse, the tracks have no holes on the individual chain links and have whopping mould marks on the front and rear which cannot be removed. The model only consists of a single sprue and is made up only of a handful of parts - very few in fact.

            Only a handful of parts on a single sprue. Note the solid track assemblies in black at bottom

 The only way to solve the wheel and track issues was to resort to heavy weathering and try to 'suffocate' the lack of detail under the mud and grime. So I opted for a wintry look where some vehicles were rapidly whitewashed in a thin coat of white paint over the standard dark panzer grey. This frequently resulted with the grey showing through the thin coat of white. Furthermore as the crew would need to walk on the vehicle itself to enter and exit, most of the white paint would be rubbed off on the top surfaces with all the frequent comings and goings.

To simulate the weathered paint with the underlying panzer grey showing I decided to try out the 'hairspray method'. This consists of giving the model a coat of hairspray over the basic panzer grey colour and decals applied. Once the hairspray dries, a very light coat of white is airbrushed onto the model, decals and all. Once dry, a wet brush with shortened bristles (to stiffen them a bit) is used to reproduce scratches and worn out paint.  Hairspray is very sensitive to water and soon melted away together with the white paint, exposing the panzer grey underneath.  I had never tried this before but thank heavens for Youtube!  

Finally I applied heavy weathering and mud to the underside and lower hull to simulate the messy terrain these tanks must have operated in during the Russian winter.  Helped cover most of the defects I mentioned before too.

I must also include a word of thanks to Steve Jones Scale Modelling Site on Youtube which has an excellent series on building this particular model. It is a brilliant and helpful channel which served as a big inspiration and reference source.

 Now I am working on a much larger model, a 1:35 scale Panzer I Ausf A from Hobby Boss. This will take much longer to complete so it will be some time before my next post. However, I might put down a wip post at some point.

Stay safe and carry on hobbying!

Dragon Sdkfz231 in 1:72 scale

 As anticipated in my last post I am presenting a model of an Sdkfz 231 (8 rad) in 1:72 scale from Dragon Models. This is my second AFV in a row after the captured KV2 I posted a few days ago. I have to say this is a very nice model, with a great fit and quite amazing detail for a small 1:72 scale vehicle. It is in Sicily 1943 camo of wavy dark green lines over the classic German dark yellow.  I have to admit that the green lines should be much thinner than they came out but I am not yet too familiar with the more intricate airbrush techniques and my airbrush is a basic model so I doubt it is able to produce pencil thin lines anyway.

The model was weathered using a mixture of acrylic, oils, and AK weathering pigments. The commander is from the 20mm German Tank Crews set of Preiser's Military range. These are very well moulded multipose figures in soft plastic and with 20 figures to a pack they give a very nice range of poses and options to choose from.

The kit requires only minor modifications such as drilling holes in the exhaust pipes but I think it is well nigh impossible to get all 8 wheels to touch the ground simultaneously.  In fact in all the internet material I came across for this model there were always a wheel or two suspended by a fraction of a millimeter in mid air. This, however, should not be an issue if the model is mounted on a diorama base. Dragon give the option of choosing whatever number plates you want but the miniscule decals for this make it a challenging - albeit not impossible - task. I chose to compose my late dad's old Ford Anglia number just for laughs !

 

 

Top-down view.  The green lines should be thinner and more numerous

The cable attached to the front is moulded - one of the few things I didn't like

Loads of underside detail - shame it's all hidden from view!

Next up is a 1:72 scale Stug III in Russian front colours from Dragon Models

Operation Herkules Pzkpfw KV2-754(r)

Having recently been playing Rommel on Vassal with my pal Dave as well as some sessions of Conflict of Heroes with the rest of the gang my interest in WW2 Afv's has been piqued. So I recently got myself a haul of 1/72 and 1/35 scale models, chucked them in my war chest and started off by building what I saw as the easiest of the lot - a captured Russian KV-2 tank in 1/72 scale from Trumpeter. 

Part of my catch of AFV models with a B-17 thrown in for good measure!

 While researching the tank prior to the build I came across an interesting article that immediately caught my eye. In early 1942 the Axis situation in North Africa warranted the invasion of Malta. The operation - code named Herkules - was scheduled for July of that year and was supposed to involve a paradrop to secure the south eastern harbour of Marsaxlokk (that's Marsa-shlock for you guys) so that German and Italian armour and heavy equipment could be beached the following day. Among the German armour were a group of ten KV-1 and KV-2 tanks captured from the Russians during the invasion of Russia in 1941 and given Panzer designations.  So the KV-2's became Pzpkfw KV-2 754(r)'s and were physically modified by the addition of a commander's cupola and extra ammo rounds on the rear hull. They were given a fresh camouflage scheme of dark yellow and reddish brown (no green) to better blend into Malta's arid environment at the height of its hot summers. These freshly painted KV's were put on standby in Sicily awaiting the invasion plans to be given the green light.

As it were, Operation Herkules never materialised. Knowing full well the high number of casualties suffered during the 1941 paradrops in Crete, Hitler was never so enthusiastic for a second airborne invasion.  Furthermore, in North Africa, Rommel's troops broke out and rushed eastwards towards Tobruk, making the occupation of Malta largely irrelevant at that point in time since the front lines had moved hundreds of miles to the east. So it came to pass that the invasion never took place even though in July 1942 the defenders of Malta were on their last legs and would probably have been easily overrun by a well trained and supplied force. Not taking the islands there and then would eventually come back to haunt the Axis further down the line.

So it was the most logical thing for me to build and paint the KV-2 in Herkules colours.  As these tanks were freshly painted and never saw action in those colours (they were repainted and sent north once the invasion was cancelled), I chose not to do any weathering - just a bit of mud and rust on the tracks and inferior structures.  The kit itself is very good and highly detailed for a 1:72 model although I cut out and replaced the turret handholds with 0.4mm copper wire (with hindsight I think a thinner gauge would have been better) as well as carefully shape out the hooks on the sides of the turrets with my craft knife. The painted model was varnished in gloss, decals applied and panels lined with Tamiya black panel liner. Once complete it was given a finishing coat of matt varnish.

Overall the build was ok but the instructions were not always very clear. Especially annoying were the steel cables attached to the front of the hull - there was simply no indication how they were to be secured at the other end so I ended up fitting one to a hook which was on the sprue but for which no assembly indication was given and the other was just left resting on one of the toolboxes. This is the one that can be seen resting on the left side of the hull in the top down pic above. I also had to resort to Youtube video builds of the same model in 1/35 scale to get hints and tips.

All in all it was a fun build - next up is an Sdkfz 231 from Dragon Models also in 1:72 scale.