I have been wanting to build this partiular Stug for some time now. With Dragons new release of kit # 6593 It's now possible to build it straight out of the box, almost.

I just can't resist getting this one out and starting on it. It’s not gonna be a fast build as I really want to take my time on the paint steps and plan things out.

The inspiration of this build is a late war Stug III Ausf G that was captured and shipped to the US. It’s been in storage at Fort Knox and has recently been transferred to Fort Benning. It still has its original paint.












After studding a good part of the night. I have come up with a conclusion of how I perceive this stug was painted.

Being this Stug was built on or after December of 1944, it would have been painted as follows. Primed in Red Oxide RAL 8012, on top of that patches of dunklegelb RAL 7028, olivefruen RAL 6003, and rotbraun RAL 8017 were sprayed in a soft edge pattern. Rotbraun being the most predominant color used. Especially from the fenders down. The only Red oxide I see exposed is where paint has been worn or chipped off.

Ahhhhhhh...there she is!!! Love it!! Great subject and great references pics BJ!! Keep tempting me I might just break that kit out!!! LOL!!!! Count me in on this one buddy!!!

I think I hear that kit talking to you.............build me......build me.............build me (((LOL)))

OH YEAH....Bring it on my brotha!!! This is gonna be SHAWEEEET!!!

Gary

Looovee it! This Stug is in the Squadron Walk around too! Its a wonderful example of a late stug and it even has the original paintwork.... Looking forward to seeing this build.

chris

And so it begins. Not much accomplished, but at least its an update. I started working on steps 1 and 2, step 1 is road wheels and I can only take so much of them at one time, LOL. So I started with parts from step 2 which deals with the torsion bars and suspension.

I also spent some time test fitting the upper hull components to make sure every thing will line up nice. I am experiencing some warping of parts on this one, so a little filler will be needed here and there, but nothing to complicated.

Well John, i expected tracks at least by now Mr.! Gonna be a good-un brother!

Thank you brother Gary!! Been staring at it all day trying to decide on a few things.

Hmmmm, beautiful choice in the Ausf.G version.

Makes me think we need another StuG Campaign later this year.



~ Jeff

Should be a good one John,great reference pics you got there.

Not a lot of bench time lately, But I did manage to get most of the parts in step 1 cleaned up and assembled. A small section of the MK tracks were assembled to insure they would fit the drive sprockets. Now I’m going to skip forward and turn my attention to the interior so I can get it painted and the major hull components assembled.

It's got me in the StuG mood!

Let's see some more!



~ Jeff

Hi John,
beautiful choice there dude, the StuG III G has to be the
best looker of them all and your´s will belong to them too.
Those Dragon kits are just so pristine in detail and you should have no Problems with the build.

@ Jeff: what´s with the # 2 on the StuG campaign?
I´ll be there straight away, I have found a new subject
for some more scratch building on a III G.



Paul

Thank guys!!

Here are a couple of shots of the major hull pieces and fenders dry fitted together. The kit has some minimal warping and wanted to test fit all the major player to see if I was going to have any problems. Every thing fits well and will only need some putty work on a few seams, mainly on the front plates.

Now I can take it back apart and start on the interior.

Tonight I continued working on the gun mount and assemble the RB Barrel. The Mantel had to be drilled out to accept the brass sleeve that comes with the RB Barrel.

This is going to be a real puzzle to get all the sub assemblies together once they are ready for final assembly.

very very nice - looks a lot more menacing than my StuG E

In order to get the mantlet installed, it has to be slid into place with the interior floor loose and angled up in the front while the front hull is slipped into place at the same time.


Part of the gun mount is visible behind the mantlet and it would be difficult to get good paint coverage in all those tight spots, so I mixed up some Tamiya Rot Oxide and gave the are a coat incase I miss some spots while spraying the cammo colors.

I know with all the back and forth test fit pictures that this thing doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. But I assure you, I am making progress. In the pics below, all major hull components are glued together and I’m starting to get some detail parts on.

The front plate had sink marks all the way around the edges, so I filled them in with putty. When I started sanding the putty, I realized the entire center was sunk in also. It took about 3 coats of putty to get it flat.

wow...now that's what I call a sink mark!!

Holy Crap Brother, never saw one that bad before. Looks like ya got it all sorted though....nice job my friend!

Hi John.
I'm following this with much interest.
I'm more of a figure/bust painter and do the odd plane so I hope this may inspire me to perhaps buy my first Armour kit.

Chris

Hi John: Nice and interesting projects.I will follow with interest.
There are guesses that the Ft. Knox Stug is febr./march 1945 production.
The last known change between Dec1944 and later production was the addition of a "nose" on botton of front towing eye.
The muzzle brake you are using is not late version. The last one had a big round flange at the muzzle side

Regards from Vienna/Austria
Robert

Hi Robert, thanks for the information! I'll check into the towing eyes, I know I have the wrong barrel, I still have to order the correct barrel for it.

Howdy, nice build going on. I just reviewed this kit here and it's interesting to compare builds to see if it was just me or whether others are having the same issues.

Kimmo

Nice work