1941 StuG III Ausf B

[HERMAN BIX]

You sure have a few unique machines Mr Painless.
As far as the resin kit part goes, what, if anything would you recomend to the supplier to include or alter if you had your way ?

[PainlessWolf]

Good morning,
Gentlemen, Thank you very much for checking in on this build. It sure is taking longer than normal but health reasons, etc... You guys know the drill. I'm waiting on deck parts from MATO currently but will putter along with what I already have until they arrive. Herman, if the AsiaTam and Profiline gurus could change one thing about these resin kits, based on my recommendation, it would be to make some of the smaller parts in metal.
with all regards,
Painless

[PainlessWolf]

Mato parts arrived today. Some much needed stuff. On the work front, I finished detailing the rear fenders. At least as much as I want to. The little bolt holes underneath won't be seen by anyone once everything is together. Pictures:

[Merlin707]

Looking good thus far Mr Painless, looking forward to the finished piece.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning all,
Thank you, Kaiser, muchly appreciated! Merlin, you and me both! Now, I know where to get lifting hooks for this tracked gun but I've lost my link to the place that sells the scale treadplate....
regards,
Painless

[PainlessWolf]

Tread plate located and ordered from Artistic Hobbies here in the States. I found a set of lifting hooks on a couple of spare Tamiya sprues so that was fortunate. I have a site that sells the correct working hinges and now need to decide how many opening hatches I need for maint., etc. Tonight's work, I considered the front glacis and addressed the question again of leaving the Panzer III version in place and sanding, puttying the thing flat and making correct hatch mounts for it. After a lot of mulling this over ( again ) I figured that the least amount of work and the best appearance would result in using the resin glacis from Profiline. I marked and cut using a razor saw, leaving a ribbon of plastic on either side. I thought I could file these down and use them as mounts for the resin piece. No such luck. Even after using the Dremel and a dressing file, they remained too thick and lifted the resin glacis clear of the lower hull at the front joint. I removed the rest of the original plastic completely and dry fitted the glacis to see what would be the best method to secure it. A bit more filing and fitting was required to get a square and solid fit but I expected that even with the generally good quality of the resin pour that made up my kit. I ended up the evening using my favorite Ultra Gel Glue to get the piece in place then followed that up with Loctite's excellent epoxy which will need to set for 24 hours to reach maximum strength. Tomorrow night, I will carefully drill and pin the glacis as well for a permanent fit. Pics:

[edpanzer]

Damn you painless I want one now!!! Good job

[PainlessWolf]

Good morning, Ed,
Thank you! ;o) More work tonight.
regards,
Painless

[sassgrunt]

This looks like it's shaping up to be another one of your builds that doesn't leave a lot of the original plastic - that's a huge amount of cutting and splicing that you've been doing. And - it is certainly going to be another masterpiece! Following along with rapt attention.

[PainlessWolf]

Good afternoon,
Thank you, Sassgrunt! I've had the benefit of an excellent 1/35 scale model of this StuG as well as use of _the_ reference books regarding Germany's entire production series of StuGs. Thanks to you. ;o) I have a picture in my mind of what it should look like fueled by all of the above mentioned research material. ) Slowly bringing it to life.
regards,
Painless