Darren Baker provides an In-Box Review of Tamiya's 1/35 German 38cm Assault Mortar Sturmtiger.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Buyers should also be aware that the Tamiya individual track links have solid centerguide teeth, and will need to be replaced (or the teeth will need to be tediously hollowed out by hand), for accuracy. Of course, one could always clog the suspension with a lot of scale mud (the saving grace of armor modeling). Seriously, the kit would benefit from aftermarket tracks, and the workable styrene set of Late Tiger I tracks from AFV Club is the cheapest and, in my opinion, the best available. Just two large parts per link, and no fiddly pins to insert. And the guide teeth are molded hollow.

I will be honest Gerald it was a toss up between the Tamiya and AFV offering (Italeri one didn't get a look in), and it came down to the look of the plastic when I purchased it. Thanks for pointing out something I missed., I still say it's a damn fine kit for its age.

Darren,

I've got this kit.
Granted it could use some AM makeover like the tracks and interior add ons, but the overall kit was excellent for an "out of the box" build without AM kits. The only down side that I found was the front drive sprockets, there was no way of securing them and they'd work themself loose. (I may have overlooked that in my build.)

Overall, one of the better Tamiya kits that I've seen in awhile.
Now if we could just get them to reissue some of the Japanesse tanks........

Darren, I purchaced this kit some years ago. I have never finished it for some reason. I purchaced barrel rifeling from ON The Mark Models TMP-3526-F and The Tank Workshop interior set TTWG2003. Their may be better items available now since I got my AM parts in the early 90's. At least now I know I need new tracks.
Joe

Thank you for the comments. I have done some more investigation on the Sturmtiger due to a PC fire on New Years day; it would appear the differences in the lower chassis were restricted to two designs of drive wheel. If you are going to build a specific Sturmtiger please bare this in mind.

I am by no means a Sturmexperten, but I thought the projectile was rocket powered on the sturmpanzer. Would this mean that no rifling on the barrel would be accurate? I also noticed on the box artwork that the vehicle has zimmerit, yet the sprueshots seem to indicate no Zim in the kit..

Nor am I Jim but if you look here: link

You can see that the projectile was "38 cm. R high-explosive grenade, rotation stabilized, 9 grooves"

The barrel is rifled as I have seen one of the barrels at Bovington, Jim you are correct that Zim needs to be applied and is not in the box, as I stated in the review Tamiya do point out it needs to be applied and where.

I'm in the process of building this kit (also the AFVClub after this one..).
Yes there is no zimmerit, the instructions point out where it should be applied, the tracks are a little nightmare.. tons of cleaning to do.
The interior is not perfect and full of details but since there are so many few hatches to be opened. Also have a Tamyia set of 6 metal aluminium rockets with great detailing..and heavy too.

John I must have been lucky as the track links in my box, and as I hope the pictures indicate don't look to be in need of much prep work.

Darren,the first dry fit test I did with the tracks (with about 6 to 9 links) wasn't a very good fit, after 2 or 3 links the height alignment wasn't the same, maybe 1/2 mm more, after 100 links it would look like a staircase not a tank track. maybe some more clean up to do.
I'll try a different approach next time, I can be a little clumsy sometimes...

Sorry John I misunderstood your comment, I will have a crack at them as I do not intend on using the tracks with the kit and let you know. The problem you indicate would not become known to me until I start the build and thanks for pointing that weakness out.

No problem Darren,
This weekend I planned to do some work on the Sturm, and while some parts were drying I rebuild the track part I was working on. Restarted the whole thing and until 5 mins ago it was working quite well, better than my Panzer I Magic Tracks.
Very happy with the results so far.
The aluminium ammo is very detailed but i'll have to leave all the hatches open since the interior is painted too.
I will post some pics on the Big Cats Campaign next week.

Thanks!

I've built the Italeri kit, and well it had some really nice internal detail, the external detail was soft, the tracks were fragile, and lacked positive contact areas for gluing. It did come with zim but the conical bolts were molded rounded.
My tamiya kit is much better molded, but the tracks need to have raised mold release pin marks removed and as Gerald has mentioned, needs the centre guide teeth hollowed out. I took the easy way out and bought the Atak zim for my Tamiya sturmtiger. The vehicle is just a cool looking vehicle
Thanks for the review.
Darryl

Darren,

Hope the Sturmtiger build is going well. Here's some photo's of the beast 95% complete.
I did have an engine comp. in this one, but took it out. Looking into better AM kits.
It was the engine comp. Tamiya put out sometime ago.

Anyways, Enjoy.

Darren,

Just found out AFV Club has come out with the Interior of this kit. Kit #AF35103. 200 parts in OD, 16 parts in light cream resin, 19 P.E. parts and one clear part w/ small instuctions.
Something to look into.
MSRP: $58.00, alittle on the high side price wise I think for what it shows on the box art.

Anyways, figured I'd let you know if you did know already.

The AFV interior is about £30 over her and I have been told it is no good for the Tamiya kit, I have looked into getting it though.

That's roughly around the MSRP over here.

Cool, let me know how it fits. I might want to build a second with the interior.

Here's a review of the AFV club interior set on PMMS. It doesn't come with a firewall, so you'll have to use the Tamiya part or scratch one.

Scott

here is a list of the items I have ordered to go with this build, I have decided not to upgrade the interior as not enough of it can be seen.

Aber 35-043 STURMTIGER (38 cm RW61 Assault Mortar) - Part 1 [exterior]

Aber 35-A43 FENDERS AND EXHAUST COVERS FOR STURMTIGER

Aber 35 L-70 Set of 2 barrels for German machine guns MG34

Sturmtiger Fruil tracks

Cavalier zimmerit for Tamiya Sturmtiger

Royal Models RM069 38cm Ammunition

Darren,
Just pulled my sturmtiger kit out. It seems I have the cavalier zimm set and not the atak set. The cavalier set is very nicely cast with hull rear and sides, plus lower and upper front sections and includes front fenders. Should look great on the kit.
Darryl

Darryl and Brian as you are both building this LITTLE tank I have got a copy of the Osprey modelling manual 13(published 2001 ISBN1 84176 206 7), it covers the Tiger and Sturmtiger including some scratchwork to improve the overall accuracy. The book covers work on a Tamiya Tiger 1 and a long oop Verlinden conversion set, it would also appear that the reason for the Zim is because it was already on the chassis of the recovered Tiger 1's so it would not be in the best condition one would assume.

I have one of these in the stash and I remember doing a bit of research when I got it. James Blackwell (I think) published a list of all the Sturmtigers he could find references for over on ML. IIRC there were one or two that had no Zimmerit. If you do a search for SturmTiger list on the KML Axis forum you should find it.

Darren, before buying the ammo 38 rockets, even with all the hatches open the interior doesn't sho much detail, so if you're not planning to do some dio or get the rockets outside of the tank, save that money... I have the Tamiya ammo set (beautiful detail..) but it's barely visible, the plastic ammo provided is enough I guess.

It's just a warning, do as you see fit ! take care