So due to a head cold I'm not spending the day on a roof as I should be, but home drinking neocitroen and rum. I decided could be a good chance to clear something out of the stash. Something simple, quick to build and not needing to many scratch built extras or texturing, preferably no real interior so the M10 and halftrack were out, The sturmtiger still needs that sweet resin barrel. Dragon wagon? no. Then I noticed the DML Stug III early smart kit, perfect, still lots of small parts but if its anything like the panther g it would fall together. So pop the box top and away I go!... except I cant see out of my right eye 'cause its watering so much... and I feel dizzy...


And after an hour or so


Wish me luck!

This looks like it's gonna be a cool build. I always liked the prospect of this vehicle. Keep us posted!

Hope you get better soon too.

Richard

"Building is easy. Painting is hard. Weathering is harder. Not going crazy doing the above is hardest."

Now that's a f*&^$n work bench!!! Does that box art depict a stug 3 that rolled off the assembly line about 60 feet behind it, having just knocked out a t-34 ?? wow I bet those pesky Russians didn't notice that secret German underground tank factory! Man I knew that Germans were clever but... ahem.. anyways that's a perfect kit to do with one eye, and a belly-o-rum. To bad it's time for you to sit at your Xbox 360 console and play some Call of Duty 5 withe me ... your damn stug can wait talk to ya soon


p.s. Bronwyn wants you to man up and make your own damn pasta sauce ( classico... ppffffT )

So I'm just charging the camera, painted the bottom hull/running gear. Might add some pigment mud and sludge before the tracks. Going to go get some dayquil or some such.
Oh, am I correct in assuming the interior would be the panzer buff found in other tanks? Dont think It calls it out in the directions. Thanks.

nice to see
a) a vehicle I'm going to build soon ( if santa got my mail )
b) to see another modeler who has the same spartan attidude , has the cleanness of a Japanese company builder,...I'm not alone


but good luck,all eyes on you now

looks good so far , kep up the good work !

OK sick day Version 2.0
A little better today, can see out of 1 1/2 eyes now.
Main upper structure is about 80% assembled, its starting to look like something now which is inspiring.
I'll post a few pics as soon as I find the camera.

Hey Eric, Looks good iam about 90% finished with the same kit. I took a break from it because i was haveing fit issues. The upper/lower hull and rear deck where not fitting properly. I intersted to see if you have the same issues.

So I have the upper hull sort of assembled, not a great way of attaching the sub-assemblies but I guess it will do. I do have reservations about fitting the upper and lower hulls. The gun was an interesting problem. not sure what I did but the gun was to long for the cabin, the barrel and mantlet fit perfectly over the main gun body but the entire unit was to long and the guard around the breach hit the rear wall. I tried everything I could think of to no avail, the mantlet/gun join was exactly like the cad drawings on the box. So a little surgery on the breach guard and it fit like a glove... ish.
A quick spray and some chipping followed by a quick oil was and its ready to be hidden away inside.
I'll try to find that darned camera and post some pics.

looks like it may end up that way. Did you have any trouble with the fit of the gun?

Gun ready to be hidden away

gun deck fitted into lower hull

Dry fit of troubles to come!

Hey Eric, I did the opposite. I attached the entire gun assembley to the upper hull. I just slide into the channel in the lower hull. It fit good. Its only when i tried to attach the upper/lower, rear engine deck and fenders.

Well I would reply to this,but I can not see somebody staying home to build a model and using a sick day to do it so no reply a real bummer

Just kidding

Looks great so far for a sick person.

Does that gun assembly come in the kit? Does it have a detachable roof?

Please ... keep us updated with more pictures. Hope you're feeling better.

Mike thats what I tried to do as well, the pic is just to show it in place in the hull. I must have somehow turned a piece around in the assembly or something because It would end up hitting the back wall of the cabin. strange. Probably cold medacine related
Jeff the gun comes in the kit, and no detachable roof... unless you just didnt glue it down. The problem is no driver compartment or tranny/ final drive up front. Im just opening the hatches for some crew doen the road hence the soft detail and basic paint job. I actually went a little heavy on the chippin and wear and tear down there because It will be harder to see when closed up. Kind of the same idea as stage makeup.
Tracks are on one side as of last night, post a pic this evening. Now its time to go sling plywood onto a roof, and see if I can actually cough up an entire lung in one go.
Thanks for the good health wishes

you sure picked a nice day to go back to work. It's a damn monsoon out there. anyways, your model looks good, shame about the gun fit. maybe just cut the breech off and just use the barrel, then just use some fat panzer crew members for the hatches... jk. take care buddy,


p.s. when you get home you know what time it is

I think i am going to put this kit on the Xmas list. Any build problems? I tend to like kits that go together without a hassle. (i usually skip the gun breach assemblies anyway)

Makes me want to use a sick day or two lol.

Darryl

Eric,
Thats really good progress for a couple of days with a head cold (or is it flu). When I did mine the gun breach unit was a very tight fit against the rear wall of the fighting compartment, I think they were on the original vehicle. BTW I note that you have painted the recuperator housing. I found that the gun barrel & mantlet were very tight fitting over that, you may need to shave it down a bit.
Mike- take it from me it does all fit, in fact it's pretty tight, almost snap together. DML would have you fasten all the superstructure sub-assemblies together & then try & fix them to the chassis. I found this didn't really work, because the whole breech assembly is only held by a small contact area on the rear wall so it all waggles about, & then you have to try & get it into a slot moulded in the chassis. It's easier to install the interior first, then build the superstructure, you're not trying to get everything to match up at once then. Note however that as you put the fighting compartment on you have to install the mantlet at the same time, or it won't fit past the side plates. This probably sounds clear as mud, but it will make sense when the pieces are in your hands. You may also find that the PE below the mudguards are catching on the hull as you lower them over, you need to spring them slightly then it all just snuggles down. When I first tried it, I thought it was never going to fit, but then I saw the light....

Thanks Steve for your advice and time. I will give it another try,it is a beautiful kit.

Thanks Steve, I'll be the first to admit it's not my best but I'm just trying to have fun and throw something together quickly. Going to try the dark art of salt weathering on this baby, the dreaded "weathered whitewash of DOOM!!!" with out the doom. I hope.
Tracks are together, what a joy these magic tracks are, used a lenght of masking tape on balsa sheet to hold them in place while I glued and painted them, all said and done tracks took about 20 min's of actual construction time, let them set up until just plyable and bingo! easy as pie, assuming you find pie easy. If not then be assured it was easy and leave it at that.
moving on...
I'll spray the white in the morning, then tell you all how horribly it went, how some got in my coffee, eye or cat etc.
I am feeling better but still have a horrid hacking cough so It still counts under the sick day column.
cheers.

Couldn't sleep in this morning so whitewash it was. Went well, some spots seem to have had to much water and not enough salt, created a brighter white stain but dosent look to bad.
all in all it was a success, looking foreward to starting the weathering, going to try some white oil washes on the snow cammo to try to give it a metalic "sheen" should be fun.

Nice work so far, I still remember that technique when posted at FSM...works very well. One piece of advice, try to combine the titanium white oil plus raw umber and raw sienna "light washes" here and then and you will be impressed with the result....=)

Will continue to follow....

Nice job..

mirko

Nice job! looks very good so far!!!
I have a little question? How do you put salt onyour model,and how do you getit off? Im realy interested
good luck!