¹⁄35

StuG.III Ausf.G Late Production Dec.1944

first things first

The ubiquitous StuG III seems to hold a special place in the hearts of modelers, particularly those of a Finnish bent, and manufacturers alike. It served from the early days of the war right until the end, on all fronts, in many roles and with many different nations. To date, Dragon has kitted practically every version of this vehicle in 35th scale, although the earlier models haven't been fully brought up to modern standards yet, with kit number 6593 being the penultimate version. I say penultimate because we have yet to see the inevitable “Final” version released. What you get in the box is a reissuing of various familiar sprues from previous Pz/StuG III kits, along with some new “late” sprues, a few frets of photoetch, decals, metal tow rope and Dragon's DS tracks.

When Jim called out for help with reviewing kits, I hesitantly sent off a mail. I had just returned to the hobby after a lengthy break, and had one partial build and a few comments here and there to my credit posted on the site. Not exactly the greatest credentials for a new reviewer. I offered a slightly different approach; building a state of the art kit by a returnee (my last new kit was Tamiya's StuG III back in 1995 or so), with the added perspective of using acrylics, brush painted no less. Happily, he liked the idea. Therefore, this review will be an out of the box experience focusing mostly on the merits of how well the kit goes together, and the challenges of brush painting acrylics. I am by no means a StuG expert, and will not comment on the overall accuracy of the kit, but will add my 2 cents worth where appropriate and will forgo the usual sprue and kit content shots.