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Hi Mike,
Thank you very much for the approval to copy some of your details & ideas, i am going to make an early stug IV so a couple of questions if you don't mind.
1) Would the drivers seat be the same from an early to late stug like you made.
2)How do you tell if the ider wheel is of the cast type?
3) Do you know of any kits that come with the Heckzurrung ( external travel lock) or is it better to try & scratch build one??
4) Does the early dragon kit come with the cast shield around the commanders cupola??
Once again thanks for the help & playing 20 questions
Cheers Mike
Hi Mike,
Sorry for the slow reply. I've been out of town and not able to check the forums as I would like.
1) I believe that the StuG IV driver's seat was changed from the Pz IV seat. The design that I copied was from the StuG IV in the Poznan Museum in Poland (the only one I know of that has been photographed on the inside).
It's possible that the seat design that I used was actually the same as used in the Pz IV by that time. (The Verlinden up-date set is for a very early Pz IV.) The StuG IV was a very poor design from the driver's egonomic point of view, and must have been very uncomfortable to drive. The driver was seated to the right of his periscopes, and so he must have been forced to lean over to his left continously between looking at where his was going and reaching the controls.
The seat design in the museum StuG was adjustable forward and aft and the back rest was also adjustable forward and rearward.
The 75mm ammo stowage box that is to the rear of the driver's seat is different than that used in the Pz IV. The Pz IV ammo stowage box will not work in the StuG IV because of the design of the StuG's fighting compartment.
2) The only way to tell if the ideler is the cast type is to look at a photo of the vehicle in question. Most photos do show the the "tubular" design, so I belive that was actually the most common type used on the StuG IV. However, both types were used at the same time.
I went with the cast design just because I thought it was more interesting.
3) I believe that there are a couple of StuG III kits that have the external travel lock. I found it easier and more economical to just scratch-build the thing rather than pirate it from another kit. The new DML StuG IV Late kit comes with it.
4) The DML StuG IV Early kit comes with two styles of shot deflectors for the commander's cupola. One is slightly more angular (almost "faceted") and the other slightly more rounded. My research suggested that both designs were used at the same time, and I actually think that they represent just slight sub-contractor or manufacturer's variations (possibly variations in the molds used to cast them or the dies used to stamp them - as I'm not entirely convinced that they were all cast).
My research also suggested that the rounded variant was more common, so that's what I used. Note that in either case, the welds attaching the deflector to the hull roof and cupola are missing.
The very early StuG IV's (the first 15 or so built in Dec 43-Jan 44) were built on Pz IV chassis diverted from regular tank production (not re-built tanks - but on entirely new chassis). The DML StuG IV kit can be built into one of these using the alternate front fender parts and by adding Zimmerit.
Check out this page on our AMPS club website:
AMPS Central SC::Group Builds & Demos There are several sets of building notes for the StuG IV right up front. We discuss just about all of the building options for the DML StuG IV Early kit, but if I can help with any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Happy modeling!
