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

[Guest]

Mein Gott, das ist ein Bausatz, den du da hast, Alter 1. Hut ab, weil du es versucht hast. Gute Arbeit, ich versuche nichts davon, diese Ablenkungen wären das Ende von mir.

And for those of us that don't speak German.

My god that's some kit you have there Dude 1. Hats off to you for attempting it. Good job I'm not attempting any of it, those distructions would be the end of me................... Well its roughly that ( according the Google :smiling2: )

[SimonT]

Off to a good start Allen

I would replace the idler rings with one piece plastic ones using the compass cutter - splitting them into three so they can cram them in on the fret rather than doing full circles is a bit poor

[BattleshipBob]

Evening Allen

Up and at them, looking forward to this.

Looks like its only us two who are having a go at a modern Dragon StuG

[Allen Dewire]

Evening One and All StuG Fans,

Thanks very much for the nice words and greetings. I would have done exactly that Simon, but I glued them together. I could still split a cut out ring and glue it in place. I will just drive on and hope no one notices. Thanks Sir!!! I see John has gotten carried away with gurgle again and Si and Paul haven't fallen asleep yet. Thanks for that guys. We will have to wait and see if someone else joins the Dragon fray for the GB Bob, who knows!

Christmas is over and I hope everyone had a great time and got lots of pressies too. I have had some time off and some good table time myself. I have decided to not build the engine compartment into my StuG as I couldn't come up with a plausible reason to have the engine compartment covers open to show it off. Ok, let me explain a little,

The 10 Panzergrenadier division was almost wiped out 2 times between latter '44 and again in early '45. They were rebuilt/manned in Germany both times and in '45 were sent to an area in Czechoslovakia to fend off the Russian hordes attacking from the east. The were one of the last units to receive brand new StuG IV's from the Krupp works in March. Being brand new and fighting a retreating battle, they were either destroyed in battle or blown up by the crew if they ran out of fuel, ammo or had needed major repairs. The crew carried as much extra fuel as they could find as well as ammo. Hence the closed engine compartment. Don't worry, I have 11 other Pz IV based kits in the stash to put it in…..

I have ordered 2 Voyager etch sets to add into the build and I will fill the back end with lots of crap too. I also need to show the swinging armor side plates so the StuG has to sit at an angle and not on flat ground. Ok, enough waffle for now and on to some progress pics. We all know Friul tracks and I love them for the authenticity and sag, not to mention detail too. They are a bit labor intensive, but worth it in the long run,


With those out of the way, we could move onto something else. There are some radios and a very detailed 7.5 cm gun with mount on the inside of the StuG, but the plan is to only have the commander in an open hatch. There is no way one would ever see the details even with both hatches open on top. Here's the parts that I mean,


The radios will go into the spares box and the gun has to be mounted inside. The spare road wheel holder is finely molded and uses an etch piece for the bottom. The Saukopf mantle also has nice texture on it.. Next up I wanted to build the remote MG assembly and after going through all the sprues 3 times, the P sprue I needed was nowhere to be found. OOPs, somebody was asleep at the switch. When I got the kit about 2 years ago, it was sealed with the 4 big round pieces of tape Dragon uses. I will send a mail to our distributor for Germany (Carson) tomorrow and complain. In the meantime, I have raided my Trumpy kit of the Hetzer Starr for what I needed. It was time to do a test fit of the major components,


Now it is beginning to look like a StuG IV and note the handles on the final drive inspection hatches. The last series StuG IVs didn't have the reversed air scoops like the other models and only had one headlight,


Oh, and don't ask what the 5 holes are for on the front plate. Typical Dragon destruction doings with no reason for opening them up. I will have to plug them with sprue I guess. The fit overall is not too bad. You do need to do a little trimming and sanding here and there to get the right fit. The back side of the beast,


The flame reducer exhaust stacks are nicely done and you get three sets in the kit. The towing pintle is wrong and not glued in place. You get 4 different towing pintle sets in the kit too. There is a small gap between the rear plates that will need work when they are glued together....

Not much else can be done for the moment. I have to put this aside until the etch sets come, latest next week due to the new year holiday. Then I can do the commanders cupola and some other things. Tomorrow, I hope to drive on with the Storch and maybe do some hissy work on her as we are supposed to have sunshine. Wish me luck...........

Thanks again for looking in and putting up with my drivel. Keep your pigments dry and drink beer!!!

Prost
Allen

[Si Benson]

Tidy work there Allen :thumb2:

[scottie3158]

Allen,
Top work mate.

[Guest]

Russian " Hordes " What ever next , Dude 1 control your self.:smiling2::smiling2::smiling2:.

[SimonT]

Looking good Allen

[Steve Jones]

What an update! Wonderful work and a terrific blog.

[minitnkr]

Looking good Bro. Stay warm. PaulE

[Fernando N]

Looking good Allen, too bad about the engine but as you said it isn't a plausible setup.
Got a reply from Carson yet?

[Allen Dewire]

Good Morning StuG World,

I can't believe it has been so long without an update. For that I must apologise to one and all! I have been working on this in between naps at the table after work and crappy weekends…...

Si, Paul, Simon and PaulE, Thank you so much for the kind words and support. I am trying to push forward despite a lot of personal obstacles. Dude 2, what would you call 100,000 Soviet troops charging your position??? I can't think of another word at the moment!!! Thank you Stevie, I'm giving it the old college try and hope to drive on. Me too Fernando, I will mount the Maybach in another Pz IV in the future. I haven't written Carson yet as I forgot when I got the etch sets. See below...….

I finally got the etch sets for the StuG and I must say, I was impressed with them. Voyager does make nice stuff and really complete sets too,


Ignore the Schwimmwagen wheels as they are for something else. On the box cover, it shows 4 sets in use. It is a little confusing at first as one might think you get all of them in the box. The 35544 set gives you a whole lot of things including wire, tow cable, tiny bolt heads resin parts and more, beside the 8 frets of etch,


The etch is easy to work with and comes in different thickness'. The etch pieces bend easy enough and for the most part are forgiving if you goof up. There are some super tiny pieces that will stay on the frets as I can barely see them and they wouldn't make a difference in detail. The other set PEA322, had the parts I wanted most so we'll start there,


You have to be very careful removing the fencing from the fret as it is so thin and can bend if you look at it crooked. Use a new blade for this. The additional armor plate for the driver is twice as thick as the normal etch. You also need the uprights for the fencing and make the hinges for the plate. The little piece of round stiff wire was used to roll the hinge ends. After a while, with some bending and some CA, we managed to have this,


I scruffed up the etch so it will glue and also take paint better when the time comes. The plastic rod came with the set, but doesn't stick to the etch with CA. I replaced the plastic with 2 pieces of 0.5 mm steel tubing. The fence uprights were glued after the feet were bent. There is a foot of bent etch on the bottom of each one. I think Dragon's destruction makers also work for Voyager and here's why,


Y1 are the feet that go on the bottom of X10. They have to be folded over and then glued on. If you bend them as shown, you will get an 'L' and not a foot. You must fold them under, not over. They do give you extras in case you follow their way of doing it!!! Reading through the destructions of the big etch set, I came across these pieces,


A complete remote MG mount and the gunsight cover with hinge. So Fernando, you see why I forgot to write Carson. The mount is fiddly to build and you get 2 types of shields for it too. I will look sweet when I get it together and the CA holds!!! The gunsight cover requires too much slicing and dicing of the kit parts to install. We will leave it as it is.

This is how the main parts look in place,


I made up an antenna mount for the right side and it fit exactly over the kit part. With the fence in place, you can see why I chose not to install the engine compartment. I will fill in the area with PaulE's favorite, 'Crapintheback'............another shot,


Here you can see the protection plate for the driver in place. These were used on StuGs in Italy too. Later in the war, one needed all the protection they could get. Next up is the commander's cupola and you have the choice of the kit parts (10 pcs + periscopes) or the Voyager etch parts (65 + periscopes)!!! I'm still debating on which one to build. I'll let you know later. Well, back to the table and the fenders for this puppy…...

Thanks for looking and all C, C and C welcome. Build on!!!

Prost
Allen

[Graeme C.]

Looks a rather complex build Alan, but you seem to be getting to grips with it.

[minitnkr]

Beautifully executed. PaulE

[scottie3158]

Looking good mate. Go on go for it the etch cupola I would love to see that. :tongue-out3: