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Stug III at Rest

Piet Siegel has been working on a model of a Stug III strictly based on a photo of a Stug III slowing breaking down where it was destroyed during the dark days of WW2; it is not known where in Eastern Europe this Stug III is beyond it being in Eastern Europe. Piet’s attraction to modelling this Stug is due to the heavily weather worn paint finish and the desolate look of the Stug III’s remains. Due to the limitations of the reference Piet has he does not believe much of the interior could be seen, but he has done searches online and added details that he felt need to be added and that added attraction to the finished diorama.

Piet started with the basic Dragon kit with Saukopf blende. The top roof screws were drilled out and roof bent up to replicate that seen in the photograph. Shell penetration holes from hits were made by drilling and using a hot drill of 1/35th scale matching 105 mm rounds. The vents on the rear deck and interior vents were constructed and painted in my favourite rust colour mix: Tamiya Interior Red with added Buff, black or Red as needed. After that clear Humbrol was used to create a seal for the hairspray. Finally white with very little rust was sprayed and washed with window cleaner. I found this a little more aggressive and provides a bit of bite on the top layer.

On the hull the final gear was removed and holes from the bolts were drilled using the housing as template. The interior of the fighting compartment and transmission are made by using an old gear housing, some gismo for the deleted driveshaft and the base for the gun is added. The gun mounting was made from the same resin set and damaged as seen from the interior photo (gun brake, do not know what the English name, is made from plastic and brass).

Finally the top plate was sawn away and filed to represent the damage made by other impacts. After that I could spray all of the assemblies in my favourite rust colours, change colours by spraying again with different rust shades and using oils to get the right faded results. After that the saukopf and gun barrel, as with other parts, were treated with previous mentioned hairspray technique to represent the old faded sand colour. The only thing now it is finished is make it look duster and worn and place it between Bushes as with the photo.