AllenD's 1/35 Dragon StuG IV, Last Production '45 - Bob's StuG GB

[Allen Dewire]

Morning World,

Greetings from a cold and drab Bamberg on this 1st of December. My entry into the fray will be the Dragon kit (6647) of a last production StuG IV. I will get into the details a bit later in the build. I will be basing my StuG on one from the 10th Panzer Grenadier Division fighting their way back through Czechoslovakia in 1945. Still undecided over adding the engine compartment, but the Friuls are a must as I sold the DS tracks a year or more ago. Enough blah blah and on to the pics!!! The culprits,


The motor kit is for the Tamiya StuG, but with some butchery, it should fit in the back of this baby if I do go with it. Lots of resin in the kit,


We'll see…...On to the sprue shots and of course Dragon has plenty of them in a kit,


What you see above are sprues from at least 4 different kits. StuG III, StuG IV, Brumbär and Panzer IV!!! On to the next shot,


Again, Panzer IV and StuG IV kit parts. And finally,


Tons of parts (and JR favorites), along with etch and a huge decal sheet. On to the destructions. Usual Dragon,


A correction sheet on the top left, huh??? Loads of typical this or that options with no explanations of what or why,


More this or that,


And still more and more. There is a good side though,


There are tons of parts for the spares box left over. It looks like almost half of what's in the kit......…...…..

Work will begin shortly alongside my Storch from the Animal GB. If work ever eases up, doing two builds at once will be a change of pace for me and maybe keep me from taking those long afternoon naps after work. So let's have some fun here folks and make Bob proud!!!

Prost
Allen

PS, Sorry for my absence on here of late. Work and personal demons have beaten me up a bit. It's getting better though...……...…...…..

[BattleshipBob]

Afternoon Allen, lovely looking kit there, i have the CMK bits have you used them before, all new to me :rolling:

Dragon always give you lots and lots of spares lol

[Guest]

That's a whole lot of plastic and some lovely goodies you have there Allen.

[Fernando N]

Hi Allen, neat to see the long barrel variant and with many extra’s too:thumb2:.
The engine compartment is pretty cool to add for a little maintenance dio or so.

Of course you can combine it with the Storch, with paint drying on the one construction can progress on the other:smiling2:.

[Guest]

There are tons of parts for the spares box left over. It looks like almost half of what's in the kit......…...…..

Dragon obviously works on the principle that plastic is cheap. Unlike, say, Hasegawa who’ll cheerfully release three different versions of the same vehicle in 1:72 with only a few parts changed by cutting off different parts of a few sprues —they could make one kit with parts for two or three versions, but choose not to.

[Gauge1TrainsDK]

What I really like about this Dragon kit is that going by the instructions there aren't that many big pieces which will have to be cut into shape - it seems like it's detail cutting, which is less risky than being asked to cut into huge, central pieces of the hull, etc.!

Looking forward to seeing this one as well :-)

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Stuggies and all wonderful folks out there,

I made a start and after 10 minutes, the destructions had me busting a gut. I decided to move on to the resin CMK engine compartment set and the clean up of the parts...

A big thank you to Bob, Andy, Fernando, Jakko and Christian for coming on board for my build. Dragon always gives you so many extra parts and I enjoy that. They do come in handy when scratch building something. So, on to some progress……….....

Normally you start with the dreaded roadwheels and suspension parts. Like I stated above, a total soup sandwich. Here is just one example of the nonsense,


3X MA9???? Dragon decided to be cheap and make your life fun to boot. This StuG uses the late cast idlers so one day I will have to play with the etch 1/3 circles. I decided to move on and see how the CMK resin set fits into the back end of this buggy. Cleanup and removal of the pour stubs went good and cleanup is pretty easy. You have to be careful as there is so much fine detail that you can wreck/break (how do I know) if you are not gentle while handling them,


The 2 lifting hooks on the radiator are hollow and I still have to saw off the pour stubs from the 2 fans. Note the bolts on the header end flanges. The details are sweet in this kit. a test fit of a few pieces,


A real nice fit although the exact placement will be determined when the back plate is added and one can align the exhaust pipes and the cold weather start mechanism with the motor. Oh, the motor,


The resin casting is really fine and the details abound. There are a few pieces still to be added including the fan belts and some pulleys. The rear motor mounts are cast in the firewall and well detailed too. Speaking of firewall, the kit piece and the CMK resin piece,


The resin piece is about 1 1/2 mm shorter in height. Not a big deal at all and easily corrected with a strip of plastic sheet if needed. I still need to thin the sides of the resin panel and find the correct kit rear plate for the last version. Then I can set everything in place to see if it works like I want it to....

Still not sure how to put the motor compartment into play with this as the StuGs in the 10th PGD were issued in March - April 1945. Maybe Rudi is going to clean out the air filters or something after a heavy battle......…..

Thanks for looking in and I haven't stopped working the Storch either. An update on it will follow later this week. Have a great night and stay warm everyone!!!

Prost
Allen

PS...Bob, I hope your resin sets are as well cast as this set is...…......…......…..

[BattleshipBob]

So do I Allen so do I lol

Will let you know, wednesday is curse of the resin day

Excellent work and watching your great work unfold with much interest

[Si Benson]

Evening Mr D,

Well if you wanted a quick, easy hassle free build you should of got off the bus two stops back mate :smiling5:
looks like your going to be a busy bunny, but I have faith that you might finish this particular GB, maybe :thinking: :smiling4:

Good luck and may the force be with you :nerd:

[BattleshipBob]

May the force, ah Could that be Luke Stugwalker :upside:

[SimonT]

That's a lot of parts Allen - looks like you nearly have enough spare to make something else!

I totally rebuilt the old Tamiya kit into one of these

Hopefully yours will be a bit easier

That engine set looks good

[Steve Jones]

Great kit you have there Allen. Nice to see Dragon are up to their usual standards (or should I say down). The resin engine looks the DB's. Looking forward to seeing that built and painted up. Nice to see you building something with lots of wheels again

[Allen Dewire]

Late Afternoon Once Again StuGGies,

Been absent of late as work and life has beaten the me up quite a bit and killed most of my table time. I have made some progress on The StuG IV, but none on the Storch. It's still been too dark to fire up the hissy stick...

Bob And Si, Thanks gents and I think this one could make to the finish line with in the 6 months, including paint!!!

Hi Simon, The resin engine kit is very nice, but my sausage fingers have caused me to make repairs on a few things. I remember your StuG and all the blood, sweat and tears you put into making all the corrections. Gotta catch up on your entries too. My nemesis is the destructions from Dragon, but I'm getting through them...

Thanks Stevie, I love to build things with a lot of wheels. I do hope to make the engine compartment look good and there are a few surprises to be thrown into this build too...

As this puppy is going to be wearing a set of Friuls and has swinging armor plates, I needed to make the suspension operable to adapt to terrain. Some of you may know this trick with later released Dragon Pz IV chassis based kits. It's pretty easy to give the suspension some movement. Here is a quick SBS on how to do it,


As you can see above, the spring mounts have 3 pins and the caps do too. The top pin is D shaped as is the hole on the spring mount. Simply nip off the smaller of the 2 round pins on both the cap and mount. You also need to make the triangle part under the pins smaller. If you cut off too much, it doesn't matter as the glue point is where the D pin fits in the top. Just compare the left set to the modified right set to see the difference. It is simple and when you are done, you should have this,


Hit a few bumps and you will have this,


With road wheels, you get a better idea of how it works,


Just remember to test fit the springs and see how far they travel up and down. Modify as needed and then glue the cap on. I hope this is useful to some folks...

I finally got all the resin parts cleaned up. The last 2 were the fan motor housings with their big pouring plugs that needed removing. Off to the bathroom sink and with a dribble of running water and the trusty JLC, we did this,


A bit of post sawing cleanup and they were done. Again, the parts are cast with really fine details and they fit the fans perfectly. A quick check of the motor fit to see how the the exhaust system would line up with the rear plate holes,


The only prob with the whole resin set is the air cleaner hose from the carbs to the filters isn't curved enough to clear the firewall. I don't have a pic, but some hot water and a little care will correct this minor prob. Once I have ensured that all of the parts fit where they are supposed to, I can give them a soapy bath, a fresh rinse and set them aside to air dry. After that I will start painting them and adding some final touches.

I do believe there was a discussion about sunken screws, rivets and bolts in Scratchy's (paintguy) StuG build. I will only offer a pic of what a StuG IV had as a reference. It's better if you can enlarge it a bit (I'm blind) to see the detail,


You have to admit that Dragon does mold some good detail into their kits.

So this is where we stand as of Tuesday. It's not a pretty sight, but is taking shape and beginning to look like a StuG IV,


Ok, maybe not a StuG IV yet!!! I am not going to use the 1/3 piece etch rings on the idler wheels. With the tracks on, you probably won't see them anyway. My short run of Friuls fit the sprockets perfect too. I have also started to build the gun and mount in the last few days...

With the approaching holidays, and with luck, a full week off, I should make some progress on both this and the Storch. I also hope to catch up here on the forum too with all the great builds going on. Thanks for having a look and all C.C. and C welcome.

Happy Holidays to All and remember, "Santa always said you were a Ho, Ho, Ho!!!"

Prost
Allen

[Si Benson]

Guten abend Allen,
Well thats a sweet looking engine and great advice for making the suspension have some movement :thumb2: Ok not a StuG just yet, but certainly getting there mate:smiling4:

Happy holidays to you and look forward to seeing some progress on your week off :smiling4:

[scottie3158]

Allen,
Good to see you again I keep missing your posts. Nice work on the upgrades. Seasons greetings to you and yours.