I was in the mood to buy a Stug lll or lV the other day and couldn't tell who's is better - Tamiya Stug lV or Revell-Italieri. Tamiya's is cheaper and probably older, but which is better? And as for Tamiya Stug lll (I wanted the older version L-48 with the squarish mantlet) is this the same as the original model, which was full of inaccuracies, or has it been retooled and improved? I believe the first model came with the set of Fallschimjager - this is not the one I want.

I'm not sure about the Stug IV's, but I know that the newer Tamiya Stug IIIis retooled, looks pretty darn accurate, and is a joy to build. If you want to build a Stug III, I highly recommend the newer offering from Tamiya, unless you want to wait a couple of months for Dragon's new Sturmhaubitze. The Dragon USA site says it's coming out in April with options for early or late production models and a metal 10.5cm cannon barrel. Just a thought!

Biggles2,in my opinion, you are better off buying the Italeri kit The road wheels on the Italeri kit are much better Also the side skirts on the Italeri are multi piece The Tamiya ones are one straight piece

Hi

The best Stug IV kits are those by DML. The Tamiya kit is OLD. The hull and running gear are not accurately scaled. Of course, if you want a clean easy build it'll work, I'm sure.

I'm not familiar with the Italeri kit, aside from comments I've read. The DML kits are better, but hard to find.

Tamiya has 2 Stug III kits. A really old one they used to sell with some fallschirmjager. Outdated now. The kit of the Stug III Fruhe version is excellent. Again, DML make a full range of Stug III kits. Italeri rebox some of those kits for Europe as do Revell Germany.

Cheers
Andy

Biggles,
When looking a Tamiya kits, the best rule of thumb is if the kit # is below 35100 it is probably and older (1970's) molding. The Stug III kit Andy is talking about is 35197, the early (frühe) version. This is a very good kit. Also, any of the Dragon/DML stugs are good.
Ya gotta remember, a lot of the early Tamiya kits were made to be motorized. Therefore the hulls were designed to take batteries and electric motors, not for accuracy.

I have an acdemy Stug, and I think its a knock off of Tamiyas stug. But it looks pretty good. Nice detail, and its pretty cheap to.

~Chip :-)

avoid Tamiya Stug IV. that's all I can say.

Thanks guys. I guess its the Tamiya recent early version. DML seems to discontinue a model after about a year's production run, and any stuff more than a few years old is almost impossible to find. It's very frustrating when I want a certain DML figure set (ie. Kampfgruppe Luch) and find out it's no longer available ( finally got it on E-bay, though).
If Tamiya Stug lV is bad I'll opt for the Revell/Italieri. The close-up photos on the box look promising.

I just finished the Academy STUG (minus paint & weathering). It went together very well and the detail is just fine. Good model.

I just finished the Academy STUG (minus paint & weathering). It went together very well and the detail is just fine. Good model.

If you can get one DML Stug, don´t doubt. For me it´s the better one.