Greetings friends!

I had impulse-bought Dragon's Panzer III Ausf J. (kit #6394). After playing a bit of online games such as World of Tanks, I kinda liked the spaced armor option on the tank. Looking at the markings available, it says that at least one tank in stalingrad both had the spaced armor on turret and hull along with the longer 5cm L/60 gun. My question is - how common was this variant? Can I do the same configuration and model a tank that participated either in A) Kursk 1943 or B) North Africa

I had also read that tanks armed with the L/60 gun were eventually renamed to ausf L. Did any early ausf L. exist with the additional vision ports on the side of the turret? Thanks guys!

I do believe early L's had turret vision ports. Later production did not.

Keep in mind the majority of crews in North Africa took the turret mantlet armor off for visibility's sake. Some did not.

Markings for Panzer Regiment 7 would be suitable for this variant in N. Africa.

Kursk sounds OK but I don't think any Schuerzen were shipped to Africa, as the Soviet a/t rifle threat wasn't really a problem there.

Not sure about turret ports - would need to check refs.

Yes, there was no schurzen in N Africa.

They did deliver the "vorpanzer" versions with the additional plate on the gun mantlet. That was what was usually removed.

Yes, very early L's had turret vision ports. It was essentially the late J turret on a newer chassis.

Thanks for the feedback so far guys To clarify - the spaced armor I mean is the one added to the front of the turret and hull (AKA: Vorpanzer and not schurzen). So I can basically build the kit OOB with the 5cm L/60 and the add-on armor on the turret and hull and produce a relatively accurate model? Thanks guys!

(One other thing: how common was this variant?)

The PzKfwIII is probably the most easy panzer to model as so many field modifications were done at different times. I've seen them(pics) with partial armor applied, brackets fitted for mantlets without armor, newer turrets on older chassis, ect.

And being one of the most common tanks one might encounter in WWII battles, almost any combination is historically a possibility. Kursk saw every possible combination of field modifications just to keep tanks in battle with spares.

A WOT line of models would be acceptable imho at this point. For no other reason then it's a awesome game. And a lot of kits showing up now seem inspired be WOT's tech trees.

I think I may have found another photo of the variant I want to make ) However, what is that bracket attached to the left fender? It looks like mountings for schurzen?

Yes, for schurzen.

Odd. If so - where's the rest of the schurzen and where's the mounting brackets for the turret?

It does look like it was there at one time on the turret, you can still see the welds where the brackets were once attached.