Dragon Imperial Series StuG III Ausf. G (2007)

[Bill Plunk]

Build Log for Dragon Imperial Series kit #9014 with Armorscale barrel/mantlet, Atak zimmerit, Lion Roar PE, ModelKasten SK-22 replacement tracks.

[Bill Plunk]

I started work today on a new project, one that I'd been wanting to get to for some time. The project is a Stug III G using the old DML kit #9014, Lion Roar detail PE, Atak zimmerit, MK tracks, and an Armorscale replacement mantlet and barrel. The StuG III G had many variations during its production run and the vehicle I'm building will feature characteristics present on the production line in May-June 1944. The #9014 kit is perfect for this as it has many of the later/final features but can still be built with zimmerit and not be inaccurate. So this vehicle will feature the welded rectangular mantlet without the coax MG, the remote MG station on the roof, and the close-in defense weapon as well as waffle pattern zimmerit.

To begin, I started with the lower hull and suspension. The hull comes with the arms molded in place so the only thing that needed to be added were the suspension springs for the first and last road wheels as well as their bump stops. and the idler mounts. The idler mounts are not positionable since they are molded as one-piece so I'll have to be careful with the MK tracks in terms of tension/sag when the time comes. The hull zimmerit was also applied using Testor's Window Maker glue for the larger sections and CA gel to tack down the sides once everything was in place. I've found this method works well since it provides some work time and avoids bubbles under the zim at the same time.



Next in line was the casemate and gun mount assembly. To achieve the variant I wanted, I needed to replace the kit-supplied topfblende with the Armorscale welded mantlet. This meant that the gun support needed to be assembled first and then surgically altered to take the replacement mantlet. The two halves were glued together and allowed to set then I used a razor saw to remove the un-needed front portion. The slot tabs on top were also removed with a sharp #11 blade. The supports and mount were then attached and the mantlet fitted and the entire assembly installed into the superstructure.







With the mantlet and mount installed, the superstructure received its necessary zimmerit strips. The Atak set included strips for all of the surfaces and after checking reference photos, some vehicles had them on the flanges protecting the mantlet and some didn't, leaving the door open to go either way. I elected to go ahead and apply them, starting on the left side and working my way around.





The Lion Roar PE set made its debut with the next step in the form of the commander's cupola. The kit parts have the periscopes molded into the base and they are solid blocks with no real details. The PE set corrects this by replacing the entire base with brass parts. The assembly was a slow process and involves 27 parts but provides etched grooves for the smaller parts to aid in their placement.



The Lion Roar set would, if you wanted, go so far as to replace the entire cupola with brass but I felt this was too far in terms of time vs. benefits and used the kit parts for the cupola hatches and top rim. The gunner's sight and the commander's rabbit ear scope had their openings drilled out with a pin vise since the gunner's sight was molded solid and the commander's scope had only slight depressions. The superstructure roof was then installed and some liquid glue and finger pressure used on the front and left joins to eliminate some slight gaps.

[Bill Plunk]

Work continued today on the superstructure, this time dealing with the rear plate. The Atak strip for this area has cut-outs provided for the exhaust fan cover and the radio antenna mounts but the antenna cut-outs were a little too small and needed some trimming to take the kit parts. Otherwise it went on without problems. Both of the antenna mounts had their stub posts removed and the bases drilled out with a pin vise to prep them for taking some brass rod antennae later on. I installed the plate to the rear of the superstructure and some putty was needed, especially on the left side, to get the side zimmerit strips to match up properly. The Lion Roar spare track holder will be used in place of the kit item and is dry-fit in place for now with some blue-tack poster putty so it can be painted to match the rest of the hull and the spare track runs installed later. The gunner's hatches were also installed in the closed position, a very tricky thing to accomplish since the right side doesn't have a support strip to hold the left hatch as on the real deal, leaving only the very narrow rim around the hatch itself to support both. Some liquid glue around the undersides and careful support until the glue held was necessary to keep it from collapsing under its own weight.



Next came the rear engine deck. The Atak set includes resin replacements for all of the vent covers in addition to the strips for the hull itself. The strips are very fragile and fit snugly around the hatches with one strip for the main deck and a second for the sloped rear with the smaller hatches and spare wheel mounts. The hatches themselves are a very tight fit into the hull, almost a snap fit, and some strategic trimming was necessary in different spots on the zim to get everything into the proper spot. The resin vent covers had their pour blocks removed carefully with sprue cutters and the nubs cleaned up with a sharp #11 blade. The spare wheels will be mounted later but test fits show the posts are an exact match to the kit wheels. Last but not least the air intakes were installed, again using the Atak replacements since these were also zimmed, and the Lion Roar PE screens added to finish off the day's progress.

[Bill Plunk]

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.

[Bill Plunk]

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.

[Bill Plunk]

I've made some headway yesterday and today but decided to consolidate it all into a single update because the progress has been generally slow in terms of qualifying for taking photos. That's not too unusual when working with PE details, slow and steady is the key!

Before getting too deep into adding fragile details, it was time to add the Armorscale replacement barrel. The barrel is like a mini-kit, the muzzle brake comes as several turned brass pieces that are designed to screw onto the threads on the aluminum barrel. To assemble the brake, the divider between the first and second baffled is assembled out of the brass base plate and two PE disks that are sandwiched together and then the base plate attached to the first half of the brake. The two halves then snap fit together, a very tight arrangement, but one that allows the baffles then to be carefully aligned using a slight twisting motion. Then the locking collar is installed and the barrel then inserted into the mantlet. I had to use a round needle file and a drill bit to widen the opening just a touch to take the barrel, my guess is the resin shrunk a bit over time, but it's a good snug fit now. The weight of the barrel is too much for the mount arms so the travel lock stands-in temporarily to hold it up. After painting, I'll put a touch of glue down in the mount arms that are still accessible and then secure it in place so the travel lock can rest in the disengaged position as I originally intended.





With that done, I started on the right fender tools and details. The kit-supplied tools for the sledge, starter crank, and axe had their molded on clamps removed and the kit items installed in their place. Due to the tight spaces, the axe had to be installed permanently while the others have their clamps still open to allow them to be painted off the vehicle and installed later. I also dressed up the jack block by removing it's molded on mounts and sanding down the vague representation of wood-grain that the kit part had. In the course of adding the details, I lost the belt portion of the straps and had to dig out an extra from the spares bin (never throw away unused parts of a PE set!) from an Eduard set, the belt originally belonging to a gas mask holder and just snipped off the portion I needed for this one. Below is the jack block after its makeover.



After all the tools had been taken care of, it was time for the real heavy lifting in the form of the Schurzen mount rails. The Lion Roar set uses a system of brass rod and drilled holes to simulate bolts and mount things together and, while tedious, I like the approach. It creates a very sturdy arrangement but you need to have your own source of brass rod as the one length supplied in the set isn't enough (unless you are capable of using only 0.2mm or 0.4mm lengths on demand consistently!). It took virtually the full day today to construct the one side rail, but it's worth it in the detail it represents vs. the kit item. It took so much effort that I'm likely now not going to mount the Schurzen plates but rather leave them off to show off the detail of the fenders and the rails.



Mounting the rail to the hull side was tricky, but eventually got it all in place. The lower post mounts for the plates were also installed along with the towing cable brackets to round out the day's activity. One side down...

[Bill Plunk]

I set out today to get the left fender done along with the schurzen rail and the first order of business was to get the tool clamps in place first. I replaced the kit supplied FE with one from the spares bin along with a pair of wire cutters. The kit does include a short handled wire cutter but the instructions don't indicate to install it, but there should be a pair on the triangular section of the hull right above the rear fender. I also replaced the rear Notek light with an extra from the spares bin since the Lion Roar option involved just styrene rod and a PE holder. The kit shovel got a makeover with the Lion Roar replacement shovel head and the clamps for the crowbar were also installed. Last but not least, the left side tow cable clamps were also installed. The crowbar and wire cutters are removable but the shovel is fixed in place due to the tight fit and narrow footprint of the feet on the shovel head retainer.



In the course of doing all this I managed to set the vehicle down just a tad too hard and the PE holder for the gun travel lock disintegrated and the two small PE hinge plates went flying into oblivion...so I used the spare strip of zim in the Atak set and patched over the slot in the glacis plate and the vehicle is now sans travel lock. The patch job required some very careful trimming and fitting to try and keep the pattern intact as much as possible...it wasn't perfect but unless you know it's there, it looks close enough.



The left side shurzen rail and support arms were then constructed same as with the right side and installed.



Tomorrow I'll work on the rear deck stowage rack and the remote MG mount and see how long those take.

[Bill Plunk]

The change back from Daylight Saving Time worked to my advantage today. I started in on the remote MG, reworking the kit part by replacing the MG34 barrel with a two-part replacement barrel from Armorscale. The cooling jacket is a separate piece and the actual gun barrel slides down inside it snugly, no glue required. The styrene barrel was removed with sprue cutters and I drilled out a 2mm deep hole to take the mount pin and secured it in place with some CA gel. The gun sights were added from the Lion Roar set along with PE shields in place of the kit item. The drum magazine that the kit includes needed it's slot tab trimmed down by about half to be able to fit properly, other than that the swap-out was pretty smooth.



Returning to the rear deck, I decided the best approach was to mount all the support arms for the stowage rack individually first and then attach the top rail to get things square. Once these were set up, I constructed the top rail and then glued it to the rear supports first, adjusting as needed, then glued the side supports. The two middle supports were a bit too tall, so these were cut down flush as they needed to be with the sprue cutters once the glue had dried. The rear hull has the foot-pads molded in place but doesn't include the rack itself, leaving PE as the only option. The Lion Roar directions on assembling the rack are a bit vague to the point of being incorrect in how the support arms should be attached to the top rail as well, good thing I had reference photos showing this area to help ease the confusion!



Moving ever closer to the paint stage, it was time to go after the items usually dealt with first in most builds but not this one, the running gear. The sprocket halves required some cleanup of minor flash and were assembled. The idlers required substantially more clean-up...since they are of the pre-slide molding era, they had gates between the spokes that had to be individually removed and cleaned up before they could be assembled. I also opted for the steel return rollers instead of the rubber-rimmed type, although both could be used for the period vehicle I'm building. These had to also be carefully cleaned up as each wheel half had 4 sprue contact points. Last but not least, all the road wheels themselves were removed from the sprues, some of which needed attention from the pin vise to clear out flash from the lightening holes in the rims.



Then to round out the day while watching football on TV, I started in on the Model Kasten replacement tracks. These are the same type as included in the kit but the kit links have sink marks and the small side shoes aren't molded open as on the MKs, plus the MKs are workable as well. Assembling them is a slow process but the results are worth it IMHO and I've always found it easy work to do while watching TV and today's games were perfect. I assembled 93 links for the first track run, one down, one to go. Might get the other track side down tomorrow night during Monday Night Football, have to see.

[Bill Plunk]

The weather today was just absolutely perfect, couldn't have asked for better painting conditions in the garage if I'd wanted to. To get everything ready, I mounted all of the road wheel halves individually on toothpicks using blue tack and stuck them into my trusty styrofoam worm box and masked off the corresponding circle for the hubs.



I also masked off the mount points for the sprockets and idlers as well since these will need to have a clean surface for gluing when the time comes.



Since this vehicle's primary color is going to be dunkegelb, I laid down a primer/pre-shade coat of Italian Dark Brown. I do this for three reasons: 1) to check all of the seams and putty work done previously to see if any corrections are needed and 2) to insure all of the plastic and metal parts get painted and 3) to provide a uniform color for the base coat application since enamels, as they cure, will "sink" into each other a bit and influence the final look as a result. This coat is laid down at about 25 psi and using a wide bore tip (yellow) on my Aztek to get solid coverage.



For my choice of dunkelgelb, I use Model Master's shade of Dunkelgelb mixed with 20% Light Gray to achieve the shade I want. The MM shade tends toward the greenish side and a little too dark as well IMHO, so I used an empty mixing jar and a brand-new bottle of Dunkelgelb to produce a good supply. The bottle below on the left is the original and the bottle on the right is the lightened shade.



This was applied over the previous coat using the same yellow tip and pressure.



Then I started in with the camo pattern. I use my own mixes for both the green and red-brown colors. For the green I use an 80/20 mix of Russian Armor Green and Panzer Gray and for the red-brown a 50/50 mix of Leather and Military Brown. These were applied using the gray tip and the pressure dropped down to about 15 psi for the red-brown and 20 psi for the green. Why the different pressures? Because the two batches aren't the same thinned consistency and trial-and-error on a scrap sheet of plastic is always necessary to figure out what each one needs to be before I commit to applying it to the model. Once I was happy with the pattern, I held the model out at arm's length and misted the dunkelbelb over the whole vehicle to provide a touch of fading and tie the whole scheme in together.

[Bill Plunk]

Worked today on the details, starting with the tracks. The MK set provides about 20 or so links beyond what I needed. Each track run has 93 links as per spec for the vehicle and with plenty of extras left, I decided to add some extra links to the superstructure angled front based on reference photos of some Stug crews doing this in the field. These areas only had 30mm of armor to begin with and I could see why the crews would want a little extra protection there...especially considering the area opposite the driver was used for ammo storage. I raided a couple of open-horn links from another MK set in the stash to add a bit of variety to the set over the driver's area. These are just dry-fit for now and will be glued down once the runs are painted and weathered.



Next up the running gear was installed with the exception of the sprockets which are left free to facilitate the track installation later on. The return rollers and the idlers had their contact surfaces dry-brushed with Steel followed by Burnt Umber to prep them for weathering. The suspension arms on this kit are molded in place directly to the hull, so installing the road wheels needed some careful tweaking to get them all to sit even and level on each side, but nothing major.



Test fits of the MKs with the sprockets showed just the right amount of sag.



And just enough links left over to put a run of 5 links in the rack on the rear superstructure.



Then it was time to set to work on all the details. The remote MG34 was painted and installed as were all of the pioneer tools. After looking through several photos, I decided to keep the rabbit-ears scope for the commander in the vehicle color but went ahead and painted the gunner's scope for a little variety. The periscopes on the commander's cupola were also painted as was the rear Notek convoy light. Last but not least, the hard-rubber bases for the antennas were also painted, but I'll install the actual antennas as the final step to avoid any accidents.