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

[Road of Bones]

Very nice work Mr DeWire! You should give up shuffling your decks though- creates more work! :tears-of-joy: :tears-of-joy:

[Allen Dewire]

Morning from a cold and sunny Bamberg,

Dude 2, Thank you Sir and with the cancellation of the World Model Expo till 2021, I have 15 months to get my V2 project back on track...

Paul, Thanks too my friend. I have some time to actually get something done now....

Rick, Bob beat me to the punch. most all were field mods and there were 3 different types used or thrown together. I haven't found any hard evidence (orders or waffenamt directives) that Krupp added something in the production. There were StuG IV's that had a welded angled plate over the gap. It looked like this (from the Revell kit),

But again, no concrete evidence that it was factory made…….

Graeme, Thanks too Sir and with the kit comes a fret of etch and the etch side skirts. I used 2 Voyager sets for the rest. Please take a look at page 2 for piccies of them.....

Bob, Thanks Sir for the compliment and for the info for Rick. I also hope that you are felling better too. You take care.....

Alistair, Yeah, you know how us older folks get the jitters sometimes. Gotta remember to glue first and admire your work second…..

I got a bit more done yesterday and hope to drive on with more today. I mounted the side skirt channels and the flaps for the vents on the rear deck under sides,
….paint gun sight….

I left two flaps open and the other two shut. The other side of her, ….paint gun sight...


Again two open flaps and two closed. I glued the cupola in place and made the weld seam around the deflection piece in front from stretched sprue soaked with TET (Tamiya)…..Must remember to paint gun sight, paint gun sight……...Don't forget, gun sight!!!!

More later after I paint the gun sight. Thanks for looking in folks and stay safe….

Bleib Gesund
Allen

[Guest]

Great work Dude 1 , very neat indeed.

You could keep chickens on the back !
Mr Race leaving the building :smiling::nerd:

[scottie3158]

Allen,
Looking good dude really nice detailing.

[stillp]

A tip. if I may - don't forget to paint the gunsight!
Pete

[Steve Jones]

Well I have been rather slack in keeping up with this fine build. Some lovely work and to keep those mesh sheets straight is a real art. There is some wonderful detailing all over this build. Well done mate. It was a real joy to catch uo with this Stug.

[BattleshipBob]

Hi Allen

Had a look through my StuG IV books, although not many tech stuff on this version. As you say nothing about the rain guard, not shown in the Achtung panzer book either.

So yes a field mod

Bob

[Mini Me]

Whew! I'm glad you figured that out, I hadn't realized I asked such a difficult question:tongue-out3::thumb2:
Cheers Guys, Rick H.

[BattleshipBob]

Not a problem, the chaps were a nightmare carrying out field mods so research can be a right time confusing pain!! But in a mad way i enjoy it should get a hobby

[Allen Dewire]

Hi Rick,

The question wasn't hard and like Bob said field mods were a nightmare. The bad news is that field mods were almost never photographed or documented, therefore we have so little info about them. It's the same with Krupp, who built the StuG IV. Existing documents and photos are far and few between. Most got destroyed in air raids or disappeared after the war. There are some, but it's just like Panther production. MAN has a full array of photos shot by the MAN official photographer, but little of the written documents survived. MNH has lots of written documents, but very few actual photos of production and such...

One day and we can only hope, these missing (if they weren't destroyed) documents and photos will surface, may be de-classified and be published. The Bundesarchiv here has a lot of info, but seeking it out is a very difficult and time consuming task as there are hundreds of thousands of photos to go through. Doing a search by name only gives you about a 5% chance of a hit on the subject. I haven't delved into the NARA archives in America yet. They have a lot of photos taken during the war, including the MAN and MNH factories after their capture. Again, I don't believe they have de-classified a lot stuff taken from German armament works after the war either. I could be wrong…..

Bleib Gesund
Allen

[Steve Jones]

Tank Power volume 261 Stug IV have a few pictures in it with the rain cover clearly shown on the Stug. Also a few passages of the modifications applied by Krupp. Let me know if you want me to dropbox it over to you.

[BattleshipBob]

Very true Allen, perhaps something might pop in at a auction for example?

My biggest gripe are vehicles updated in the field to the latest Ausf and approved by the army etc then you have the ones returning to the factories for repair and then being updated. In my world many old StuG's A- F being returned in the latest specs, very hard to work out whats what!

[BattleshipBob]

Will have a look, suprise i have this book lol. The Iv is not covered in the detail when compared to the 111

[Fernando N]

Looking great mate, nice bling baskets on the back

[Allen Dewire]

Tank Power volume 261 Stug IV have a few pictures in it with the rain cover clearly shown on the Stug. Also a few passages of the modifications applied by Krupp. Let me know if you want me to dropbox it over to you.

Thanks Stevie, If it's not to much trouble, please do send them. Finding a good reference on the StuG IV is difficult as the StuG III was much more widely produced and used......

We won't get into re-furbished vehicles in the field or at the factories Bob, as that is another can of worms to sort out!!! War was hell....

Thanks Fernando, You have to love Voyager etch sets. I might follow JR's idea and throw some chickens back there. I love the smell of frying eggs in the morning…...

Bleib Gesund
Allen