¹⁄35

Recycling Your Old Kits

Adding the tracks is a private competition within me. In my opinion there is nothing more boring than adding individual track links and I have to motivate me to overcome this. I set myself a timeframe as target and within that period the tracks must be released from ejector pins, seams must be sanded off and the tracks added to the tank. It is rather easy with the Dragon Pz III tracks, as most of the ejector pins are raised, so no filling is necessary, one can sand off the ejector marks easily. Target was 2 hours and I made it in 1 ¾. Once the glued tracks were dry I sanded the outer parts of them.

I then added a fragmentary interior, using the parts Tamiya  provided in a de-motorized version of the Stug III. It is basically a very crude gun mount. The rest is scratch and from the parts box.

I then put the model away until I received the new issue of Tamiya's Stug III G. Looking at the crisp orange kit I asked myself why the hell I wasted so much time on the oldie satisfied myself with the explanation that it was right because most of the fine details would be buried under the Zimmerit and concrete armor.

Then it was time to compare the kits in relation to the dimensions. The wide was identical, (hehe - Karl watch out!!) BUT.. The old Stug is 6mm too long, the fighting compartment is too high and a bit too long and the angles are incorrect (Karl--) Aware of those news I blamed myself for one week or so and thought of throwing away this little piece of...

I put it aside again but got new motivation when I joined a model exhibition where a guy rebuilt Tamiya's old Panther (which is not accurate also) into a Bergepanther and I had to look twice to find out that an oldie was the basis.