Bill Cross reviews Cyber-Hobby's Sturmgeschütz III (Fl) flamethrower tank.



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Thanks!

Interesting variant! One I must add to my collection.

Thanks for the review Bill.









~ Jeff

My pleasure, Jeff.

Another good and interesting review, Bill!

Hooo-Kay... It's another somewhat different variant on a mainstream thing in a CH white box!

For those deeply into the diversity of the StuG III, this one is actually an interesting departure from the norm - even if it never apparently saw real action. If one buys and builds all of them already out there, you'll need funds, time and space for, well, dozens of StuGs, I'm sure. For someone looking for a representative kit of the StuG III pre-G, this one won't be it.

For those of us with limited budgets, shelf-space, and time, and already-overgrown stashes, this is maybe a bit frustrating! ANOTHER kinda-odd subject / kit! And I like odd things. Decisions, decisions... I'm sure that it is a pretty nice kit (far as I know, all of the later DML StuG III kits are pretty nice kits bulging with detail and even with some interior) and would build into a sharp-looking model.... and hey! It IS different from all of the gun StuGs out there. I mean, heck - it's a flamm.

Hmmm. I wonder... DOES it have any of the "correct" interior such a "flammpanzer" should have? Or do you get the same old gun stuff?

I'll probably get one. And, who knows... maybe even build it. One thing I think is pretty certain - there are likely to be few of these showing up on contest tables, so if being a little out of the ordinary helps...!

Thanks, Bob, that means a lot to me.



My suggestion for that would be the F/8 with Winterketten. It not only is pre-G, but you get nifty tracks that are quite unusual, and the option to build either a Kharkov 1942-43 model or a Luftwaffe field division model from Norway.


I hear you, but the C-H business model is to publish oddities. Sometimes like the new Otto Carius Tiger that has been announced here, it will likely sell-out, then get pricy among collectors because, well, it's a freakin' Tiger, LOL. But mostly the C-H kits are meant to be oddballs - things that DML just wouldn't put out on its own because there probably isn't enough demand or interest.


That's a yes, there.


No gun stuff, but I don't have any photos of Schwade flamethrowers in tanks, so I can't comment on whether the interior is more than a suggestion. Frenchy, are you lurking?


I have pretty much retired from contests after going O-fer at the last one I entered. I'm happy to build for myself and y'all here on Armorama (this one didn't even get a bronze).

Bill;

Rather more reply than I expected! But better more then none!

I'd certes agree that the StuG III F/8 with winterketten would be a reasonable rep - for the long-gun pre-G StuGs, anyway! Whenever the D puts out a new-tool III ausf E, that'll be the rep for the short-gun versions, I should think! And that's a kit I think I would promise to buy!

I'm all with CH doing the odds - it's their avowed "mission" or niche, after all - and so the III Fl is really fair game. Actually, I am in no way carping about that! (On the other hand, CH doing a straight-up 4x2 Opel Blitz as a white box ... that's something I carp about!)

So... Interior-wise; I would expect that the Fl may have had some tank(s) inside for the fuel - and wouldn't it have had some sort of Nitrogen tank or rig somewheres as the propellent system (I'm thinking here of that Flammpanzer II-D "Flamingo" which had armored boxes on the fenders for those Nitrogen bottles)?

Shows... ! That Arado is quite cool! I'm sure that it should have, in most real shows, taken a prize. But I'm sure many of us have sadly been there. Blah. Now-a-days, I go, sell stuff, look at the contest tables, sometimes toss something up on one, sometimes judge, and chat with modelers. I build to please myself - the politics and undercurrents at some shows leave me chilled and often a bit angered at my fellow hobbyists.



My E-10... been burned a few times... I'm with you, friend!

Now, IF I ever get around to posting something here, maybe I'll develop a flinch about the lurkers here-on, too! Or not, as the case may be! I always remind myself at the end of the day that it's a hobby and I'm having FUN!

Bob

My third-grade teacher wrote in my report card "Bill is a good student but talks too much in class."


That WAS strange. Still don't know why, maybe their marketing folks thought with the Tamiya and Italeri kits still going strong, there wouldn't be enough demand for a regular run.


The boxes on the fenders are there, but seem to be for the radios. But the point is there is nothing particularly flaming about the interior as I saw it.


Thanks, I thought it deserved something, so I figure I lack the perspective necessary.


That's what it's all about.

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Rather more reply than I expected!


My third-grade teacher wrote in my report card "Bill is a good student but talks too much in class."

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Ah, another one of us! Why answer with a single word when you can create a paragraph?! My other half warns folks that I tend to speak in pages.

Bob