discussion SimonT - 1/35 Zvezda Stug.IIIB - Bobs StugGB

[SimonT]

This is my first entry, a Zvezda re-box of a Dragon Stug IIIB all the way from somewhere in Russia via ebay, hence the Russian boxing and instruction sheet

It has certainly done the rounds has this kit







main mouldings don't look too bad but the tracks are cheap and nasty looking vinyl things rather than the original Dragon links

No etch


so I shall be using this set designed for the Tamiya kit


the abysmal kit tracks will be ditched in favour of these metal Masterclub winter tracks

If by some small miracle I finish this one and the 1/72 E then I have a Gunze Sangyo G (with lots of white metal parts) and a Tamiya G as well as a 1/48 one and the Italeri boxing of this same kit

 

[Steve Jones]

Its a Stug production line! Bob will be pleased. Good luck with all your builds Simon

 

[PaulTRose]

i think this is a repop of the repop of the dragon original im doing :tears-of-joy:

 

[Guest]

Plenty of extras to keep us entertained. Good luck with the Russian instructions!

 

[SimonT]

Steve - cheers. With all these GB's there isn't enough time so will probably fail to complete anything on time!

Paul - as I said at the top, it is indeed ex-Dragon. Also available as Italeri and possibly others. Well travelled moulds

Andy - good job there are a few pictures

 

[BattleshipBob]

Gordon Bennett Simon, putting us to shame lol

Carry on sir

 

[Fernando N]

Have fun with the flash Simon, will be a neat one with the planned extra’s.

 

[SimonT]

Thanks Bob - Carry On Follow that Stug :smiling5: one of the less well known films

Fernando - I'm sure I will. Mould flare of edges is also rather bad. Wish I'd gone for the Tamiya now

Maybe I should just sink it in a Russian swamp and get the Tamiya instead :thinking:


so far I have only cleaned up the wheels - they suffered from quite a bit of mould flare so needed considerable sanding to get the running surfaces somewhere near square again

 

[Mini Me]

Mr. T, Perhaps you might get "Comrade Race" to interpret those instructions for you. I understand he is quite accomplished in Soviet dissertations and such:smiling3:.

Rick H.

 

[Guest]

Looking forward to this one Simon. No doubt a class act unfolding!
I used Masterclub Tracks on a Russian PT-76 and really liked them.

 

[Guest]

Think your idea of sinking it in a Russian swamp Simon is a good idea, possibly the best place for a StuG ! .:smiling3:
That flash is everywhere, agree with the thought of a Tamia version at least it would come with decipherable drawings. This certainly is nothing like the later offerings from Zvezda.

 

[Guest]

Mr. T, Perhaps you might get "Comrade Race" to interpret those instructions for you. I understand he is quite accomplished in Soviet dissertations and such:smiling3:.

Rick H.

Rick the person or persons unknown who did those drawings would be in a Gulag or in a penal battalion if they had done work like this in 1940's.:angry:

 

[Si Benson]

Chop it up, chop it up, chop it up!! :tongue-out2:

Sorry Mr T I’m getting carried away....your fault as the last time I remember you doing a StuG, it became a cut and shut!
look forward to see what’s “not right“ with this one:thumb2:

 

[SimonT]

Rick - hot line established

James - I’ve used a few of their resin sets and really like them. These ones are the newer metal type

John - not the greatest kit is it

Si - yes, that Tamiya Stug IV was very inaccurate and needed chopping vertically and horizontally
Haven’t checked any dimensions yet on this one

The basic kit is produced from some very very tired and worn moulds so there are sink marks, flash and pronounced mould lines all over the place.

Even worse is that nearly all edges have some flare to them.

Flat panels for example flare out at the edges and so are not flat.

The running edge of the wheels had such a slope on them it took quite some time to sand them flat again

All pretty much standard problems for an old kit - the original Dragon version came out back in 1994 and this looks like it has been made from period moulds!

 

[Guest]

God I do pick em !

 

[SimonT]

Not done any more on this yet but I did check it against the plans in Achtung Panzer

Good news is that it seems pretty good so there will be no need to slice it - sorry Si

 

[SimonT]

well, as previously mentioned this is not the best moulded kit in the world

A few more parts have been cleaned up but it is slow progress as every part needs either sanding flat, scraping square, filling/sanding or all of the above

Hatch doors shown in progress above have a typical mix of sink marks and ejector pin marks plus flared edges

Only bits assembled so far are the three sections of barrel housing - dry fit showed that they did not fit together at all well so the pins were sliced off and the mating surfaces sanded

This gave a better fit but a skim of filler was still required along the seams - the front section had sink marks so also needed filling

Day off today so may get some more done later.......

 

[Si Benson]

Morning Simon,
I see the squadron green is out In force! I’ve been meaning to ask about that as my tube was pretty firm and getting it to smear into plastic was near impossible!

The white wasn’t much better and I ended up thinning it with lacquer thinners .
Did I get some duff tubes or is that right?

 

[SimonT]

Hi Si - certainly is :smiling2:

If it was hard from day one then you got an old / duff tube

It should be nice and squidgy and smearable when new

Unfortunately the lids never fit very well and the toluene evaporates and it gets harder and harder to persuade it to leave the tube

I generally find that by the time I have used half a tube it is getting hard - rather wasteful but still my favourite filler

It thins nicely with liquid cement until it reaches the point of no return

 

[Steve Jones]

A day at the bench Mr T. You lucky bugger. Nice to see you beating this one into submission. Its certainly not an easy ride for you this one.