1/76 WWII - Airfix Stug III, Ausf G (#I!)

Having just posted a brief note about the second one of these I built (over the last couple of days), I thought I'd root around and see if I took any pics of the first one (built late Nov. 2014). I did. But, as with the second build, not many!

Above - During the build: running-gear assembled. In the background one of my Special Armour Nebelkraftwagen is also being constructed.

Above - This was one of the kits my dad and I made versions of together. On the left is mine, and on the right, my father's. I've placed two Caesar miniatures Panzer crew figures in the open hatches of my vehicle.

A close-up of the crew.

The same guys, viewed from the rear.

This pic clearly shows the coarseness of my

scratch-built spare-wheel retaining plates!

Above, the kit is undercoated in matt black, sprayed on. The tracks were over-painted, also in matt black, but with a brush using Humbrol enamel. Strangely, the enamel came out gloss!?

The above two pics really highlight the difference between the spare-wheel restraining plates, as modelled by me, on the left, and Revell, on the right. Mine have the high calorie high profile of Mr Bassett's edible confectionary boater!

The series of six pics of the Airfix and Revell kits together, shown both above and below, give numerous views of the paint scheme I opted for, based on an image (immediately below) from the very useful Panzer Colours series*. The Airfix model is shown alongside a Revell Stug, a far superior kit in almost every conceivable way. Having said this, I think I get nearly as much pleasure building the Airfix kit as the Revell one. And that's the most important thing for me!

I added a few bits of stowage to both vehicles. The Airfix Stug also got a white metal MG34 (I think all the white metal extras I'm currently using are from Sgt's Mess) . I'd also like to add a fire-extignguisher and some tools, etc. Also, almost all original archive photos of German WWII tanks and other AFVs show buckets hanging off the rear somewhere. Anyone know where I can get 1/72 or 1/76 buckets? I'd try scratch-builinding them, but I reckon someone probably already makes them (in resin, I'd imagine). And they'll doubtless be better than my efforts!

The camo' scheme doesn't look great at this stage, being rather blotchy and crude (painted with a brush, by hand!). But I'm hoping it'll look better when 'knocked back', with a dusting of dunkelgelb. We shall see!

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* Volume 1, if memory serves?

1/76 WWII - Airfix Stug III, Ausf G (#II!)

This is my second Airfix Stug III, Ausf G. It's not the greatest kit, suffering from quite a lot of flash, lots of missing elements (no tools or fire extinguisher, etc.), and with some fairly significant 'poor fit' issues (the upper and lower parts of the hull don't join particularly well). And of course there's the delightfully ungluable rubber band tracks!

Nevertheless, this is a venerable aulde model - vintage 1962! - and despite its issues, it's a pleasure to build. Picking one up for just £2.99, new, I just could'nae resist! It's funny: I'm posting about making this one before posting my first build of this olde model! Never mind, I'll hopefully address that in time.

Construction starts in the traditional manner, with the running-gear. The detailing of these parts is not particularly good, many shallow depressions around the road wheels, for example, representing what should in fact be holes. Then the lower hull goes together, and then - after beginning the gun assembly by attaching the gun to its mount and the mount to the casemate - you pop the (ill-fitting) halves together.

Detail is then added to the casemate and body of the vehicle. The hatches are supplied in such a way that suggests you can model them open or closed. Indeed, I did model them in the open position last time I built this kit. However, internal detail is non-existent, so I did them closed on this occasion. I also attach the spare tracks at this point, which is earlier than is suggested by the instructions. The instructions also direct you to attach these to the left and right vertical faces of the casemate. As this will obscure the vehicle numbers and the Balkankreuz, in both instances of making this kit I have instead attached them to the front and rear of the hull.

I cut off the rather too fat aerials (to be replaced with stretched sprue or wire later), and trim the two pillars that hold the spare wheels, adding scratch-built circular plates 'holding' them in position. This latter detail on my last build was a very early example of my recent attempts at scratch-building, and was executed in a rather coarse manner, looking at it now (esp. when seen against better quality kits from other manufacturers).

I tried supergluing the tracks, using both ordinary liquid superglue, and also a gel variety that I've recently bought. I believe I used ordinary superglue on my previous build of this kit, and I think that it worked on that occasion. This time neither type of superglue worked! The first, the liquid type, was left to set for about two or three hours; when I came back to the model, the tracks simply came undone as if no attempt to bond them had been attempted! 

My second second attempt, this time with the superglue gel, was left to set for approximately ten hours (overnight). Still no dice! The glue had set solid alright, but had in no way adhered to the plastic! The eventual solution was to heat the tip of a flat-head screwdriver, and use that to melt the male parts across the counterpart female openings. What a palaver!

Superglue (liquid) attempt #1: three hours, no bond.

Superglue (gel) attempt #2: ten hours, plenty

of weight to keep the joint still... still no bond.

In the picture shown above, the tracks are held in place with Blue-tack, in exactly the same manner as on the first attempt; then tweezers were laid across the joint, each 'arm' of the tweezer across either side o' the 'male' and 'female' nubbins and gubbins, and then finally weights were added to keep the whole shebang in situ overnight. Still didn't work!

I plan to jazz this vehicle up with some extras, such as a stowage frame with a whole load of junk in it, and elsewhere. But that'll be almost certainly be something that has to wait until after we get back from our Waterloo 200 jaunt!

1/76 WWII - Airfix Sdkfz 234

I got this model in my cache of much reduced Airfix kits from the local HobbyCraft store, and built it at the same time as the Kubelwagen and Sdkfz 222. Like those models it's really very primitive, and even has some real howlers, detail wise. But again, like the other kits, it's been fun to build, and perhaps even more fun thanks to the need to modify it.

A pal of mine has loaned me the above book. I've yet to start reading it (I'm in the middle of several WWII titles, inc. Anthony abeevor's new book, Ardennes 1944), but having been lent the book, and then seeing the reduced Airfix kits... well, I just had to get them! This is a very old kit, dating back , I think, to 1964. The rather attractive cover art dates from the mid seventies.

The kit contains two small and one large sprue, some simple decals, and instructions. I had a look inside all three boxes when I got home, and went with this as my first build, as the green styrene provided a kind of continuity with the rent AMC SturmTiger.

Unlike most kits this build started with the gun, not the running gear. As the pic below shows, a delicate detail of the gun mechanism was rather bent and misshapen, so the first bit of modification was scratch building a new metal replacement; something a lot sturdier! I also opened up the recoil groove and a hole in the muzzle, before assembling the pitifully oversimplified gun mount.

After putting the gun together and mounting it on the inner fighting compartment baseplate, the next step is to assemble the bodywork. This lead to a thoughtful hiatus, as I considered how to approach painting and detailing the internal areas. Having laid out the parts (pic immediately below), I then concentrated on adding bits and bobs to the baseplate and inner sides. 

Detail I added included a driver's seat, from a Plastic Soldier a Company kit (Pz. 38t & Marder Variants), some ammo (from a Hasegawa JagdPanzer kit), for which built a simple rack from plastic card, scratch-built door handles for the two lower mid hull exit hatches, a 'bin' type box on the left side (based on picture research of Sdkfz 234 interiors), some Whermacht personnel gubbins (another useful PSC part), and some structural stuff around the gun and as a frontal plate for the fighting compartment. 

I even spiced up the very dull floor with various bits and bobs, inc. a mechanical doodad (cut up from bits of another kit) which I think might be the top of the transmission housing, or gearbox (again based on photographic ref.). I have to say that I find this part of model building - even if there's a whiff of silk purse and sow's ear - extremely satisfying and pleasurable!

Once this detailing was competed I hand painted it all using Humbrol enamels. Various layers of different washes, and a bit of dry-brushing, helped weather it all a bit, and bring out the detail. I was pretty slapdash about this, I have to confess. But I feel it looks okay, if admittedly not up to the very high standards of many of the modellers whose work frequently spend ages admiring whilst making my own modest little models.

After taking rather too many pics of the resulting fighting compartment and gun - I guess this means I was pleased with result? - it was time to get back to the build. And, finally, it was the turn of the running gear. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I have vague recollections of reading somewhere that the development of wheeled vehicles of this sort, by the pre-war German army, was as a result of some clause in the Versailles treaty. By having wheeled armour sporting guns, the Whermacht could get around energies upon tracked tank numbers. Can anyone confirm this, or elucidate further, perhaps?

Whatever the truth of the above idea, it is certainly true Germany was the pre-eminent multiplier of military design ideas. I think this is a key reason behind my obsession with WWII German fighting vehicles; there are so many, and a lot of them, such as these '8-rad' types, also happen to look real,y cool. Below is the kit with wheels gluing in place. I used my kit-cleaning toothbrush to rest the model as the glue set. I have seen that many modellers build little rigs and formers for this sort of job. I'm cogitation slowly on how I might develop an adaptable approach to such a useful solution myself.

Pictured below is the stage of the build where one comes to the 'big mistake': the 234 variants, which include the popular 'Puma', actually had a single long mudguard arrangement on either side. The double pairings of sharply angular mudguards that Airfix went with - possibly the result of referring to an incomplete vehicle in a UK collection? - hark back to earlier vehicles, like the Sdkfz 231 series. Still, I don't mind this too much. As already mentioned, the multiplicity of designs, and the near Krakatoa-like continual eruption of innovations not German vehicle design, mean this could be a hybrid or experimental prototype. Whilst inaccurate to the informed eye, it still looks quite plausible, I reckon.

Pictured above and below are a few images of the drivers vision hatch, which I decided to modify a little and model in the open position. I had wanted to be a diver figure into the body of the vehicle as (and may still do so), but at present it's still a 'situation vacant'!

I quite like the trio of figures supplied with this model, and I might well use them. Though quite how I don't know! In the pic below one of the crew offers some fraternal support to another, who certainly appears to be a little off balance, perhaps on account of the unaccountable neat circular hole in his back? The commander stands atop the rear engine deck, scoping the field of vision with his binoculars.

And finally, for now, some pics with further added detailing, on the outer vehicle surfaces. The mudguards as spliced were way too sharply defined. Looking at pics of actual vehicles (be they Sdkfz 231 or 234) they all had a far more pronounced softness or curvature to these edges. So I filed these down a bit, using sandpaper and various files.

I also added width-indicators, modelled in three parts: plastic sprue was used as for the mounting points; stiff wire formed the length of rod; and tiny balls Milliput were made for the little white bobbles at the terminal points. Rather unfortunately, I lost one of these tiny little balls. I decided not to make another one, on account of one of the width-indicators being rather too short anyway. I may also bend this one a little, and pass it off as battle damage (the driver has obviously clipped a corner!).

In the above picture you can see that, on this occasion, I have opted to use plastic-card to make the jerrycan holders, having had such a painful experience using the photo-etched ones.

And last of all, the Kubelwagen and Sdkfz internal areas are masked off, ready for base-coating. This was done, as can be seen from the four small balls of Milliput in the Kubelwagen hood, before a I lost one of them, and before a I drilled tiny holes in them, and superglued them to the wire. In the background a Fujimi BMW with sidecar has had a scratch-built headlamp added, to replace (another) lost part.