Andreas, I like your idea of the open hatches as it adds more detail and interest and is more likely the more routine position. I'm not sure if I will be making a diorama for this vehicle but a river crossing would make a nifty scene...and since my hatches are closed...hmmm...

thanks for the photos and descriptions Ken. going to take notes.
your weld lines and armor texture look great

Thanks much Dylan. You have probably already seen how smooth the plastic is on the lower hull and other areas. I also textured the exhaust to get a jump on the texturing and weathering and serves to completely eliminate additional work correcting the seam line.

Grate work here Ken. I was wondering what technique you used for the armor texture? It looks very well done.

Cheers
Todd

Thanks Todd, appreciate that.

The armor texture is done by taking Tamiya gray putty (basic type) and with a small brush mix in Tamiya extra thin cement to make a slurry and then stipple it on to taste. Less glue, the thicker and heavier the texture. I work in small areas at a time frequently remixing to keep the consistency I want. When dry it can be sanded and added to if needed.

Call out here to Martin Kovac, aka Night Shift Modeler on YouTube. I gleaned the method from his superb videos and I think the method has been around for some time.

Thanks Ken! I’m interested to try this technique on my Tamiya Panzer III Ausf N s.Pz.Abt.501 Tunisia. I have used the Testers liquid glue and an old brush to get a nice cast effect on an M4A1 but I have never done a rolled armored steel effect before. Your added texture looks excellent and I can’t wait to see it under some paint. Great job Ken.

Cheers
Todd

Interesting that a new tool kit has fit issues. Never the less, you are taking care of the problems magnificently.

As to the closed hatches, the Pz III had air intakes up under that rear overhang. They are traversing what looks to be a wheat field. Closing the hatches will prevent an undue build up of dust in the intake system thereby causing engine malfunction. That was the most common problem with the Pz III in North Africa and was never really rectified.

G

Todd, Anxious to see your III/N so make sure you post some pics for us. I love that gun on the N variant. The texture was a take a deep breath and go at it kind of thing. It turned out to be very controllable and hard to screw up, just took my time and worked small areas.

Right "G", I was a little taken back as well. However, many areas the fit was really good. Upper and lower hulls went together like a glove.

What really concerned me was the amount of clean up needed on the individual parts. I mean part lines where the halves don't even line up! That's something I would expect on a child's plastic kit! Lol. In the end fixable but good grief, Takom should know their market and who's looking to purchase their products. Obviously serious modelers will have a low tolerance for this kind of engineering execution.

Nice take and explanation on the vent hatch covers...in the end, either way would be perfectly legit!...Thanks for that.

Here is a prime example of what I'm dealing with...Takom is all over the board regarding the fit and finish on this kit. Note the gorgeous weld seams...love them...

Now check out the lift hook in the center of the rear deck. The cut out for this part is almost twice as wide as the hook!! There are gaps on both sides...I did not glue it in yet until I figure out the fix. This is unacceptable in my book as it's a critically visible area. I will probably fill the gaps with the part dry fitted and when the filler is almost dry take it out and sand it smooth and re-instal the part...good grief!

Is there not a base plate for that hook because as is, it is not
correctly shaped.

See here...upper image:

https://vodnik.net/pages/Voyager/pea35002-1.jpg

Cheers,

Right Joe that would make sense, the Takom part however does not have a base. Instructions call for mounting as shown in my picture. I think what I'll do is fill the slot and sand smooth then cut the tab off the bottom of the part and just carefully glue the hook down.

The lifting hooks on the M were apparently in transition from bolted to welded, with the welded hooks having the skinny base like the Takom kit ones. The illustration on page 49 of the reference text has the M with the skinny welded hooks. The bolted on hooks had the bigger base (reference Achtung Panzer No.2)...Takom got the part correct just not the mounting slot!

Not sure what's going on with the following:

Step #11, for those that have this kit, has the fire extinguisher going on and Takom is calling for it to be mounted at an angle including the holes in the fender as such. All my reference photos and sources (Panzer Tracts No. 3-3 and Achtung Panzer No.2) have the fire extinguisher in that location but NOT slanted or angles. It is mounted parallel to the upper hull. Can't figure out what motivated them to mount it this way?? At this point I'm inclined to fill more holes and mount it as my reference material shows...

Now granted, crews frequently put stuff in many different and unoriginal areas on the tank. However, Takom made a conscious decision to place it angled so not sure why. Looking for wisdom here and would be tickled if a Takom designer would respond! Lol.

Not sure if this is what you mean:



Panzer III Ausf. M in Munster

Right Carlos, that's the type of lift hook used on the M version and the type issued in the kit. They were welded on rather than bolted. The Takom kit had a cut out for the rear lift hook tab that was way too big. I filled it, sanded it, cut the tab off the hook and Epoxied it on in the proper spot...geesh...way too much work for one hook!Lol. Thanks for the nice picture...Ken

Have you thought about filling the hole for the lifting hook with a bit of epoxy putty, pushing the part in and then making the squished out putty look like weld seams?

Good idea Jason, would have saved me an extra step or two! I now have to go back and add the weld seam after I Epoxied the hook onto the filled spot where it resides. Very fiddly and would have been easier to just level out the squished out putty and add the weld texture as you describe...next time!

I was referring to the position of the fire extinguisher, that seems to be angled on this one (unless I am wrong and those remaining parts are for a different purpose)

Carlos, the picture you posted does not have a fire extinguisher, its on the other side of the vehicle?? Or was this just a picture of the tank and I needed to go to the site described?

My fault, I thought the parts on the fender could be the remains of where it was -but it should go on the other side.

Oddly, the straps and supports where Achtung Panzer locates the fire extinguisher are quite different on Munster vehicle. Hard to tell if it is because of a careless restoration.

BTW the whole walkaround is at http://walkarounds.scalemodels.ru/v/walkarounds/afv/before_1950/pz_iii_ausf_m/?g2_page=1

Thanks Carlos I will check that out. I found out why Takom put the fire extinguisher at an angle...with the brackets for the schurzen the thing doesn't fit if sitting parallel to the fender and upper hull as it contacts the bracket! So I can either leave it off, angle it, or move it somewhere else...we'll see...

The amount of flash and part lines to clean up is wearing me down!Lol...

My reference photos from Panzer Tracts No. 3-3 does not show an M version with the schurzen and brackets and a view of the fire extinguisher. However, there is a great illustration of an N with the schurzen and brackets and the fire extinguisher is parallel to the upper hull and NOT angled as Takom designed the kit including angled locating holes. So, this appears to be a design flaw in the kit resulting in not enough clearance under the bracket for the fire extinguisher. Only real life reason could be the bracket there was different on the M version (less clearance) than on the N version, but I doubt there was any change between the two.

Finished up the technical portion of my Takom Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M build. It has been primed with Tamiya Fine Surface Primer. Wheels, schurzen plates, exhaust, and a few other bits left off for final painting. As this post was somewhat of a review for anyone working up this kit, I will go through the good points of the kit and expand on the issues I encountered.

Positive Aspects:

The kit appears to be a very authentic representation, for the most part, of the "M" variant in the Panzer III series.

Despite the numerous shortcomings, it can be built up to a very nicely detailed piece worthy of adding to any 1:35 scale Panzer III collection.

The instructions are very good with few if any issues despite the small size of the manual. Color images of the markings and camo schemes are a welcome addition, including top down views!

Issues:

Unfortunately, there were numerous problem areas encountered during the course of this build. Some may have been my mistakes but I believe those are few as we will see.

Clean up of the parts seemed excessive to me. There were part lines on almost every piece which is not a big deal and just requires a bit of time to correct. What was concerning was the number of parts where the halves were "out-of-register" and did not line up. There is no excuse, in my mind, for a new kit to have this issue.

The link and link tracks in the kit had so much clean up I opted for a set of Fruilmodel metal tracks, which are on a slow boat from Poland as we speak!

The schurzen around the turret, when mounted correctly, contacts the tops of the rear deck vent louvers when the turret is rotated to either side. These vents have a unique water tight cover that can be raised and lowered. The kit has only one option and that is with the covers in the up position. The height of the cover retainer basket on each end is where the clearance problem is. If I would have noticed the issue before glueing the cover on I would have cut the locating posts down a bit to allow clearance for the turret schurzen.

As mentioned earlier the rear deck central lifting hook mounting slot was too big so this had to be filled and remounted.

Road wheel halves did not mate up correctly and had to be modified.

Poor fit of the rear plate to lower hull (described in earlier post)

Front turret armor plate (part E41) did not fit without carving out the opening with a #11 blade and making it fit.

Tool clamps had the rectangle openings filled with flash/plastic and had to be drilled and cleaned out.

Angle of the antennae cradle was too high/steep and it would not lay flat in the cradle without forcing it in.

The fire extinguisher is suppose to be mounted parallel with the upper hull rear deck. However, Takom provided angled locator holes that required the extinguisher to be mounted at an angle because it wouldn't fit under the schurzen bracket like it is suppose to.

There were no handles for the rear water tight hatches if you mounted them closed as I did.

Of minor issue was the lack of detailed weld seams around the hinges of the turret hatch doors and the brake ventilation covers on the front...to name a few.

This seems like a long list of issues but in the end it was all fixable and not too painful to deal with.

Next post is the things I did to correct or improve the vehicle to my taste.

In this post I will go over the things I added/fixed to bring the build up to where I wanted it to be with what was here to work with.

Sanded and filed down both front and rear fender flaps to a more scale thickness thus allowing me to bend and damage them as most end up.

Added weld seams:
Front brake vents, Font armor plate, rear hull where the rear plate joins at an angle, rear center trailer hitch, upper hull lifting hooks.

Wiring for the front lights, armor texture lower hull, wire turret grab handles, unfired smoke grenades, moved fire extinguisher, added handles for the rear water tight hatches, added chains for the rear tow cable pins, drilled out barrels of both MGs, replaced bolt/wire cutters with Dragon part (clamp orientation correct), replacing tracks with Fruilmodel tracks.

Fire extinguisher remounted parallel to the rear deck. However, had to move it out from proper position to clear the schurzen bracket. Rear center lift hook mounting slot was too big. Filled, cut off locating stump on hook and glued flush to deck. Damaged fender flaps.