Bill Cross shares some pictures of his completed Bronco Pz IIIA.



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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Hi Bill
Looks great, especially the excellent detail with the crew man peering out of the hatch.
Jacob

Hi Bill,
This is extremely well done!

It's nice to see that this Pz III hasn't succumb to the fate of being run through the paint chipperator, the rustomatic, the track over-saggerator, and general product layer overload. The subtle wear-and-tear and weathering tones you've achieved really look the part. And the figure peering from the hatch is just added bonus!

Cheers!🍺
—mike

I love PzIII's and this is a beautiful rendition of an early war vehicle. The decals lining up over the open hatches is very fine work!

Thank you all for your kind words.

These tanks do not show much wear & tear in photos, and those that did serve in combat were not in action long due to the "lightning war" nature of the Polish and French campaigns. So heavy weathering seemed a bad idea.

The crewman is from MiniArt's set, which is appropriate, since the molds are from the same series as the MiniArt Panzer IIIs (B-D).

Boy those were some whopping big wheels. Great build, I like clean builds

Nicely done! How was the kit as a build as compared to the MiniArt kit(?) I've heard that all was not well during one review and I wondered where you stood on it as I've been wanting to build one of these for YEARS!

Great build. You really caught the look of an experimental panzer of the Blitzkriegs.

HelloMr. Cross, I like your model very well and the painting is breathtaking. However, I have a question to you. "What do the highly sedate elastic bandages serve on the casters for?" These are known to me even from this model. No other tank of the Wehrmacht has been such a construction. May you can clear this "miracle". I thank you in advance for the answer of my question.
Yours sincerely
mausibaer

Are you referring to the large springs on the suspension, behind the road wheels?

Those were basically load absorbers, like spring-leaf plates in back of an old pickup truck.

Thank you all for your enthusiasm. Here are the answers to your questions:

While distributed by Bronco, this kit is essentially in the same family as the MiniArt kits. In fact, you can interchange parts like the cupola episcopes (thanks to Georg Eyerman for clarifying they aren't really periscopes). The rear engine deck problems are the same, too. The tracks are identical down to the assembly "jig" that's included.

Moritz, I'm not sure what you mean by "bandages." Can you upload a photo with the part in question circled? Do you mean the round covers at the center of the roadwheels? They are like hubcaps covering the attachment bolts for the wheels. Overly ornamental? That criticism could be applied to much of Germany's AFVs during the interwar period: excessively-complex manufacturing and fabrication that required heavy equipment that was both hard-to-make and easily destroyed by air raids.

Overall, the road wheels with their leaf springs, shock absorbers, etc. are a direction German armor explored between the wars and abandoned in favor of torsion-bar suspensions from the Ausf. E onward.

Hello Mr. Cross, you are right, I mean the bandages of the roadwheels. On your first big picture you can clearify this rim on each roadwheel. I ask myself since I got the kit: Why should you drive a tank on rubber bands with a bump?

Moritz, I must be dense, but I don't get your meaning at all. Perhaps someone else here can help? If you mean the rubber tires on the road wheels, all German AFVs had them until late in the war when oil shortages prevented the production of synthetic rubber. The intention was to absorb some of the vibration from the tracks.

If you mean something else, let's talk privately and perhaps in German so I can understand your question better.

I think he is saying there is an issue with the rubber portion of the wheels.

Hello Mr. Cross, I mean the rim on the roadwheels of the model. I´ve made a few Pictures of the wheels and I hope you´ll better understand my question. Best regards. Moritz

How can I put in the pictures?

Moritz: E-mail the image to me and I will add it for you.

Bill: Here are the images Moritz wanted to display the issue he has.

There is some kind of lip on the edge of the rubber road wheel, that shouldn't be there if one goes by the illustration.

Is that supposed to be there, I guess is the question?

Never use an illustration to determine historical accuracy. I went to Panzer Tracts 3-1 and checked there. I couldn't find anything verbal about it, and the photos were limited, since there were only a handful of these vehicles built. But the photographic evidence seems to suggest some kind of "lip" on the rubber road wheels that might be a production seam or something for installing them on the metal rims. In other words, I don't see any convincing evidence the kit maker was incorrect, but no evidence supporting their parts, either. I doubt the lips lasted very long, so if you feel uncomfortable, sand them off.