1/16 PzKpfw III Ausf M - Trumpeter/Heller kit with Taigen hull integration - Build

[lmcq11]

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since i created a panzer, the past few years have mostly been involving US armor, this build will be a PzKpfw III Ausf M.

The base model will be the Heller 30321, the same Trumpeter kit that was issued under the Heller, Gallery and MonoChrome brands late 2021. Purchased on special offer from Axel for only 84eu, it's been sitting patiently for something to happen. Quite polyvalent, it offers the choice between a J (short and long barrel), L and M versions.

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I was torn between purchasing the Das Werk/Takom Panzer III ausf J instead but since i wanted the ausf M version with the Shurzens (side and turret skirts) and deep wading exhaust, the Heller was the natural choice.

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PzKpfw III Ausf M advancing in Russia.

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I have 2 old Heng Long Panzer III on inventory, a converted HL ausf L with long slim L60 barrel and a ausf G with short L45 barrel and other mods. Built maybe 10-15 years ago, they both reflect my more limited building skills of the time and are now completely outdated and non functional. The paint job on the ausf L is terrible and i can't believe i actually put the HL stickers on it. Both have no recoil or do anything fun. It's time for a new Panzer III, and this time i want it to be my best and ultimate one.

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The Heller kit covers 3 versions, the kit comes with tons of parts and extras, such as 2 upper hulls.

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The side skirts are cut in really thin plastic sheet. The PE parts are mostly for the grills and tool. It has a nice decal sheet.

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Parts are well moulded. The mount for the shurzens are in plastic. It's to be determined if i will use these on the tank or just use as models to create new ones in thick brass strips.

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The tub is finely detailed and great for a static model. But since there are better and simpler panzer III chassis options already setup for RC on the market, i will not be attempting to reuse it. The conversion will mostly make use of the detailed upper hull and turret parts with full RC options enabled.

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The chassis has plastic torsion bars though, enough to support an empty hull with plastic tracks and allow the modeller to learn about the Panzer III suspension.

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[lmcq11]

The road wheels come with black plastic rims molded separately with basic Continental brand marks, they are not rubber. This is nice though to speed up painting for static modellers, surely welcomed.

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Lots of extra parts will be put aside, such as the nice plastic tracks that can be reused for all kind of things.

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The parts are well designed and molded, basic but good quality.

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The screw heads are well molded at the bottom of the turret top mounting holes.

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Nice fender tread plate.

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Weld and cut marks.

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Finely detailed bolt heads are everywhere, there are no simplified or rounded heads to be seen, this is important to me.

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The hull has nice armor texture, with opened hatches and removable armored plates allowing for mods and options.

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[lmcq11]

See the subtle and finely casted Bosch branding on the headlight covers.

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Barrel support details.

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The mantlet is nicely shaped with weld lines but some molding lines need to be erased.

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We're used to simple Panzer III cupolas with a few parts, this one has 45 parts.

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Clear plastic periscopes. I ended up really liking them on the Sherman build. When the visor area is masked before painting, it gives a striking result.

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Here is the instruction sheet for the cupola for those who do not believe it has 45 parts.

I found the Trumpeter/Heller instructions to be very simple but dry. I miss the friendly style of Tamiya instructions where the designers are speaking to the modeller with history, details and tips. It makes the build and overall experience easier and better.

Who is familiar with Wingnut Wings 1/32 WW1 plane model instructions which contains full history, pictures of the real actual parts and tons of information wish other model companies would do the same. Once a build is finished, the Trumpeter instructions will go strait in the garbage, while the Wingnut wing instruction will be kept forever in a nice folder, with fond memories of the build...

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The two MG34 with armored barrel are nice, but i will replace them with Aber barrels, and setup with flash.

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The kit comes with a nice (non hollow) short barrel in metal, but with a nasty one part long barrel (stick...) in plastic, that's really weird. It will be replaced by this Mato metal replacement long barrel with flash. It looks ok but i have not yet investigated it. Although i plan to have recoil with flash and smoke, i am concerned that gun smoke will look like a volcanic eruption on such a small gun, i will analyze test results and adapt plans accordingly.

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The tools are pretty ordinary, ok but nothing to be excited about.

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[lmcq11]

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The deep wading exhaust main body is hollow, it should be easy to make smoke run through it.

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The lower hull will be a Taigen metal tub with metal torsion bars and plastic overlay, available from Forgebear.

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Metal road wheels with rubber tires will be used.

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There have no ball bearings but they run well, very tight with metal shaft.

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The main problem with the Taigen chassis are the torsion bars that need to be adjusted for height and stability.

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What is not helping is that the Taigen chassis is 5mm deeper than it should be, i suspect because of the torsion bar design. Here compared to the Heller chassis, reversed and flat on the table. The HL chassis dimensions are a better fit with the Heller.

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The good news is that the width is the same as Heller, so the upper hull should fit nicely.

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Taigen super low gearbox will be used.

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[lmcq11]

The difference in hull depth between Taigen and Heller is evident.

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I thought about replacing the Taigen plastic overlay side with plates made from the Heller tub but it would be difficult, the placement of the suspension arms are not the same, with a couple of mm of difference here and there.

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However, i have determined that most of the Heller details except suspension arms can be transposed to the Taigen chassis for a more accurate chassis as they are almost all molded separately, the small items left can be cut and moved as well.

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This is the current situation with the Taigen chassis as received. I can understand why some guys will be disheartened by this, will have trouble managing the setup, and will be tempted to return it to the vendor.

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All the torsion bars need adjustment, not an easy task.

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Funny to see that at one point, the designer at Taigen had a chassis with side hatches, still not fully erased...

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The Taigen details can be removed separately as they are just screwed from the inside.

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Compared to equivalent parts on the Heller kit, they are sometimes undersized, lack finesse and or detail. In this specific case, the Heller component comes in multiple parts that need assembly, and look a lot more detailed.

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[lmcq11]

For the guys that will want to use a HL chassis, the situation is simpler, no torsion bars to adjust. But the HL tub has a lot of holes to plug, side hatches and bad details to remove, if they care about accuracy. The suspension arms locations are also not really aligned between the two hulls.

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The width is the same as Heller too.

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In order for the HL suspension to work, it might not be possible to transpose all the Heller parts.

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A few years ago, i ordered figures on eBay from a Montreal seller who was liquidating his collection of unbuilt model stuff. Through ebay discussions, he found out i was a RC tank modeller. He told me he packaged extra stuff as a gift in the shipping box that might please me. Upon opening the box, i found a set of Impact metal Panzer III tracks, sprocket and idler.

They have been sitting around for a few years. There are now some better options for Panzer III metal tracks but this is a good opportunity to use them and honor his friendship.

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The Impact tracks are well articulated but not as crisp as I expected.

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Surprisingly, the Taigen gearbox shaft will need a bit of grinding to make them fit the Impact sprocket. I have Mato metal sprockets on order and they might replace them.

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That's it for the planning.


Moving to preparing the Taigen chassis for the build. The first task is to fix the height of the chassis and align the torsion bars at the same time.

The wheels have been mounted and resting on the tracks in order to be at the same level as my other HL Pz III tanks. As shown compared to a HL Panzer III, the Taigen is at least 5mm too high, worse on the other side. It really shows.

As the Taigen chassis is 5mm deeper than HL, the designer made the choice (and mistake) of keeping the same ground clearance. It means the Panzer III look like a jacked up panzer monster mod. A 5mm difference in 1/16 is 80mm in real life, quite a lot. The extra 5mm shows between the road wheels and the rollers. Personnally, i think it really sucks and i can't tolerate that, especially when the tank is sitting next to a correct Panzer III. It makes it obvious something is wrong with that tank.

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I have done this before on the Alkett Stug G build, fixing this is a big job needing patience and methodology.

Taigen added a ring with a groove to the first and last suspension arms that act as a stopper, setting the technical height for the hull. That ring is what sets the hull too high.

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[lmcq11]

The Taigen suspension parts are held in place by a tiny metal clip. If it flips into the air and you lose it, you are in deep problem as exact replacements are likely difficult to find. I called them "my precious" and were carefully safeguarded while i was doing the suspension work.

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All the torsion bars were removed. The two end points need to be twisted one way or the other with two sets of pliers in order to get the required suspension arm position. The bars are very sensitive and difficult to manage, expect them to be removed and put back 20 to 40 times each following adjustments to check and test the result.

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My trick was to remove all the torsion bars, and only set the front and back suspension arms first with the bearbox weight in place in order to align the height of the Taigen chassis against the HL model, and ensure its at the same level all around. As the first suspension arm has a strong shock absorber spring, the torsion bar actually needs a negative twist in order to lower the hull and bring it down to the HL level, and cancelling the effect of the internal stopper ring. It is a twisted situation where the torsion bar works against the shock absorber... But after an hour of trials and errors, it's almost there.

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Then the remaining torsion bars are added one after the other. Each torsion bar is set so that its road wheel supports its own pressure against the ground, but without lifting the height of the chassis. Each road wheel needs to be given some ground pressure to roll correctly and support the hull when needed, no more. It’s tricky to achieve this balance without a stopper on each suspension arm and it takes time. Otherwise, the hull is not well balanced.

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After 3 hours of torsion bar twisting adjustments and reajustments,, the Taigen chassis is finally level and ready. Some fine tuning might be required as the chassis ages in the coming days but its 95% done.

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I brought in another HL chassis on inventory the following day (a leftover from the Stug build) to check and confirm the Taigen setup.

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Looks good.

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It's exactly the same height as the HL but the ground clearance is 5mm lower, of course.

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All the metal details are removed.

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The metal parts have a mold line that does not look good. Something easy to do can be done about it.

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[lmcq11]

The parts can be easily cleaned up with nail files in a couple of minutes each. It also cleans up years of greesy filth at the same time, making a more interesting build.

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Looks much better now and these show when the road wheels are on. These suspension arms are not authentic in shape but they can at least be made not to look ugly.

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The Heller gearbox cover under the sprocket looks nice, the bolt heads are well defined.

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But the Taigen looks pretty good too so i will reconsider which one to use. But it's a no brainer on a HL chassis.

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This is it for now. The Taigen chassis has been prepared. The Panzer III ausf M build can start.

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Now, it's time to go back to the Christmas family party. I needed a few hours break...

Merry Christmas everyone,
Louis

[Ecam]

I've heard some people refer to those (and similar clips) as Jesus clips, as in when they leave their intended position our saviors' name is mentioned!

[jarndice]

When assembling the suspension on my Armour i discard the "C" clips and replace them with "R" clips,
Much easier to fit and when inevitably they have to be removed it is a simple grip and pull,
On smooth sufaces such as an axle a quick spin in a dremel chuck with a small file against it provides the channel for the clip to sit in.