Tamiya Stug III Ausf.G needs some modifications: Saukopf mantlet, concrete front casting, zimmerit, extra armor plates and logs.


Not much done yet, next I´ll try sculpting that Saukopf mantlet and concrete casting...
Great kit, fun to build so far!


Toni

looking good, keep it coming stug

Are you going to the do Sturmi as the one of the early batch that saw action, or one of the later ones that didn't face the Russkis but saw a little action in the Lapland War?

NICE WORK - CONGRATULATIONS

ROBERTO

JimF,
This beauty is restored to same condition it was during/after battles late summer 1944. So yes, it did see some action.

Just noticed, my kit has rubber return rollers and this tank would need all-steel ones...
Anybody have spare ones? You could have mine. I checked out those parts of the kit and they can´t be "adjusted" to look like all-steel rollers.

By the way, that black plastic is from a T-shirt price tag, it just happened to be the right thickness...


Toni

Update!

I sculpted Saukopf mantlet and concrete shielding using Milliput and it worked very well. It took half an hour to sculpt it last night, today I took off excesses using x-acto and just a bit sanding. I tried to leave some roughness in the concrete surface, we´ll see how it works after priming...
I´m not sure about the measures, I just trusted the feeling and stopped carving when I felt it was ready. The Saukopf was tricky in a way, the shape does not offer too many "checkpoints" and because of that I added Milliput layer over the models mantlet to get the shape approximately right.






Next comes the zimmerit...



Toni

Love watching the progress on this, Envar, thanks for sharing!

Stug has now some zimmerit. I was lucky to have a vehicle with quite scrubby zimmerit pattern so it was forgiving when I applied mine. I used horrible Italeri putty: I applied a thin layer, let it set for two minutes and made the pattern with my magnificent self-made zimmerit tool! #:-)





Zimmerit tool:


Next: priming!


Toni

That's looking good !
But I wonder if you haven't made the saukopkf a bit wide, mainly under the cannon. Looking at the pictures of the restored vehicle it looks like the shape of it is more or less a downpointed triangle, when seen head-on. I have the feeling that your saukopf is a bit thick, not triangular enough. But that's only my opinion looking at a few pictures... I may be completely wrong !

Anyway, I just love your zimmerit technique ! You should make an article (digital diamond style) for the site !

Without any knowledge of proper zimmerit designs and armoured castings, I can say this should look brilliant. I love the idea of adding the zimmerit so roughly and when painted this will be cool! Some day I might get around to tryiing something like this!

You´re absolutely right. I thought I could have sculpted the Saukopf OVER the existing mantlet and it´s way too thick and off scale. Nothing I can do about it any more.
Perhaps I´ll put another 7 euros on this and pick up a proper Hot Barrels Saukopf design with metal barrel. I think this kit will be worth it !
Thanks for the comments! It happens often that after a while you can´t see anything in your own work...Only now when I looked at the pictures more carefully, I realized how off that mantlet really is!

There is another headache waiting when I have to decide the places for tools and stuff. Those logs mess up the whole system #:-) #:-) #:-) They had stowage boxes designed especially for Finnish Stugs but I also understood that there were number of field modifications as always...I think I´ll use the plain "place equipment where you think they could realistically be" logic when building it up.

I´ll try to see if there is something to be saved with the Schweinhund mantlet!



Toni