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!