Thanks Chuck!

If you ask for commander cupolas side armor-I sticked some Tamiya masking paper on kits organic side, then cut the masking paper with a sharp knife at the weld line. Transfered the cutout on 0.5 mm styrene and cut it to shape. Rolled the styrene cutout using my Excel knifes handle till it bent and used CA to glue it in place.

Thanks too, Gary!

All the subassemblies on the stug are done. I'm going to need an aftermarket muzzle brake, so a whole barrel I guess. I've found that aber make aftermarket antennas too, so I'll probably get those. The front piece of shurzen is a little different than what came with the kit. Not sure how to modify that.

I'm thinking about starting a separate thread about the kit. There are lots of things that I had to tweak. I didn't photograph them all sadly, but I did write them all down.



The almost completed roof. I added the folded down gun shield and the open hatch. The commander's cupola is already in the paint shop.

I glued the floor into the hull too. It's needed to mount the gun. I believe the next step is to paint the interior. Not sure any of it will be seen ever, but still....



Regards,
Phil

Nice progress Phil!
I had the luck to stand beside a StuG III and it is a mean machine!

I switched over to building some smaller details on my BPA Su-100.
Built the Infantry Communication Port:


Added an Elf headlight and built the horn.The horn consists of 12 styrene bits and a copper bracket a build of its own.Still need to add some wiring though:


Built both towing brackets and the saw with its mounts:


Added details on the roof of the casemate, incl. hatch spring rods:


Filled some gaps in the figures with Miliput.
And built a tank driver too:


I'm not sure I'll use the tank drivers figure though- it leaves the large empty interior visible...
And although I can 'borrow' some parts from the Su-122 and T-54 interior kits I have in my stash, building a partial interior will come at the expense of my progress in other Campaigns I participate.
So unless I find some elegant solution, the tank driver is out.

Some full view pictures follow:




Take care!

Angel your Russian tank destroyers looks spectacular, you have put in so much work on this kit so far but you are right with regards to filling the drivers area. if you don't stop at some point then you will be forever adding things and tweaking items an you will never finish the kit or the others you are working on.

Some amazing detailing with those scratch builds you've added throughout that kit Angel, it's a shame it has to be painted and then all the fantastic work gets hidden.... But at least we will all know... Great work.

Norman, the TD is looking good, will it be getting the huge amount on mixed external stowage seen on other images ??

Olivier, you have done a great job with the AMX, nice to see the missiles on it now.
Stugs coming along nicely Phil, keep it up.

Thanks David!
I don't feel like building partial interior now, but...
I can delay gluing upper and lower hull together- even till the painting stage.
And then we have another 4 months till Campaign ends.
Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Thanks too, John!
I'll be back to the GAZ-66 radiotruck soon!

Take care!

Looking fantastic as usual Angel.

Thanks John. Working on the crew and the external stowage now. There is a thread on here on chipping which happily has the best photo of M-10 Turret stowage on it which I plan to replicate, and the hull stowage will have various boxes, Jerry cans, etc. One thing I am not short of is spare Sherman wheels as I recently built 2 Dragon M-4 and they basically give you 2 sets of wheels in each kit, and a couple of them may feature.

Your metal work is incredible, Angel. Is there a thread somewhere on handling metal? I need to cut a corner off my shurzen which are photo-etched something, and I don't want to b******s it up.

Thanks Peter!

And thanks too, Phil!
To your question- I'm not aware of a dedicated thread here, but cutting off a corner of a Schuerzen is not that difficult at all.

All you need is- a scriber, a scissor and some files.

Usualy the PE material is not too thick and hard, if it is quite the opposite I advice you to anneal it(heat it on a gas stove and let it aside to naturaly cool).You can also anneal just the corner you want to cut.Annealing takes away the stiffness of the PE, makes bending easier but also makes it easier to break along bend lines.

Measure and mark where your cutting line should run.Run the line with a scriber(or some sharp object) until it is clearly visible.

Then using a scissor(I have an Italeri one, but also use very often a common household scissor) cut the line.

You might also cut so, as to leave some material on the waste side of the line. Then you only need to file the waste material off.

File to smoothen the cut and you're ready

HTH,

More work on the stug. Assembly was ... interesting.





I guess assembly isn't done. I still have to build and add the fenders. I stopped when I realized I should put the skirt supports on before adding the equipment to the fenders. I put enough of the fenders together to dry fit them and made sure they fit before I glued the assemblies to the hulls.

I think I made a mistake. I should not have glued the roof onto the superstructure yet. It was the last thing I put on in the assembly knowing I might need to fiddle around with the gun mount as I tried to attach the gun mount, the mantlet, and the superstructure. I forgot that I might also want the roof off as I work on crew. I'd like to do crew like in the original photo I have if I can find figures that are close enough.

I have also not yet attached the gun.



I found a muzzle brake that matched the one in the photo. It's from a Border Model Panzer IV G (late). Should I be surprised that it fits perfectly on the dragon gun barrel? I am still thinking about getting a turned metal barrel. This one looks ok, but has some imperfections in it. I decided to paint it and take a look at it before making a final decision.

Thanks Angel for the tip on cutting the metal. I'll experiment on the sprue that the whole thing came in before trying it on the skirt itself.

Phil, well done.
I follow your work with interest and look forward to the next step.
Kalin

Thanks Kalin. This is a great campaign. All the builds in it are so interesting....

So on the vehicle that inspired this, the commander's cupola has plexiglass in front of the periscopes. I tried to cut some sheet protector and shape it to the openings yesterday but gave up. I couldn't get the size just right. And, it always folded rather than just bent. So I gave up. But I'm still thinking about it and since the cupola will be about the last thing I do, I may get back to it if I can figure out another way.

Phil,
Nice work on the STuG.

Jumping in on this campaign. I'm going to build Academy's Achilles II.


Jesse

Hey y'all, I was thinking about the Swedish S-tank, the Strv.103. Forgive me if this has already been answered, but is this an acceptable subject for this campaign??

Looking good there Phil.

Hey guys I thought I already asked this, but is the Swedish Strv .103 S-tank considered a tank destroyer in this campaign???

Obviously one for the campaign leader, but it was designed to replace the Centurions the Swedes were driving and fulfilled the role of MBT.

yeah it's a tricky one for sure but I think the Swedes would have to have deployed them at range due to the fixed barrel and sniper the enemy where as an MBT has the ability to engage at all ranges. Also on the Swedish tech tree in world of tanks a similar type of vehicle is listed in the tank destroyers branch, so I'm gonna let this one in.


Jesse where did you get that academy Achilles, I was wanting to build one but couldn't find one anywhere.

Aloha All,

Angel: fantastic metal work and nice detailing!

Phil: looks great!

I've completed my major sub-assemblies, done a little pre-shading, and put the base color on the interior sections. Next will be some detail painting for the interior and gun, followed by some light weathering.









Happy Modeling,
Zon

Good effort on that classic frame, Zon. I have a huge soft spot for all of the Marders.

"Jesse where did you get that academy Achilles, I was wanting to build one but couldn't find one anywhere."


I really don't remember! It's been in my stash for a while now and waiting it's turn to get built.

Jesse

Probably a silly question David, but why not build the Tamiya Achilles instead, as from the reviews I have read, it seems to be the better kit

Thanks Zon!
Your Marder looks awesome!

I finished construction on my SU-100 from Bulgarian People's Army.
There are some small parts(periscope covers and towing hook stops) that I'll mount once they're painted.
Some pictures:









Next will be priming and painting,

Take care all,