StuIG 33 - Kursk, 1943

Well, after chucking my hat in the ring for this build I had this horrible thought, where is the kit in my stash? Hmm... after a bit of digging around I found it. At the back, behind stuff and close to the bottom of the pile



Reckon it's gonna take the rest of the month just to dig it out

Well Andrew , in my house I am at great risk trying to pull a kit out from the bottom of being buried alive by a cascading wall of kits !

Jenny

Well, it's been dug out and no one or any cats got buried under a cascade of kits! Royal Mail have delivered the Eduard PE set from Hannants and I've found the two references I'll be using. Looks like I'm good to go.

I had a wonderful mental image of you and Jenny playing a weird game of styrene Jenga...

Simon

S P Hammerton wrote:I had a wonderful mental image of you and Jenny playing a weird game of styrene Jenga...

Simon

That could be quite painful here as the biggest and heaviest kit is on the top (don't ask...)

Anyway, back to the build. There's a well known photograph of a very battered and worn gun attached to 23 PD (ignore Trojca's captioning as it's likely to be wrong) in the winter 42/43. What always attracted me to this subject was the winterketten coupled with the very nose-down and dejected look of the vehicle.



This is the the kit (with today's T&T home page) that I will be using.



The aftermarket goodies that I have accumulated over the years for this build. Yes, those are Moskit exhausts!



And of course the two primary references I will be using for vehicle detail, inspiration and general rivet counting.



This will be my first attempt at a winter finish so I will likely be asking a lot of questions on techniques, supplies and materials.

Andy, there's some nice goodies there.

This is one of those tanks whose shape really appeals to me; like a an ugly pillbox on tracks!

Good luck with the build, I'm thinking about a white wash for mine too.

Cheers
JT

Definitely an ugly beastie . . . and one that will look fantastic weathered to within an inch of its life! Looks as though a bunch of us will be going the whitewash route

Mark

Hi Andy:

You should be able to put out a fantastic looking StuIG with all those extra goodies. This one should be a real good one to watch.

Gary

Well, haven't even started it yet and I'm already planning on cutting it about! To get the dropped nose I'll need to compress the front shock absorbers and extend the rear ones. Time for Mr Dremel and some evergreen tube, which will require a trip to Plymouth.

Thanks for the comments guys, hopefully job stability will mean I don't have to move house part way through this build.

Finally started to cut plastic on this build, been a slightly slow start due to GF and car both needing attention. Anyway, started to clean up the hull tub along with the front and rear suspension units so that I can asses the method by which I can achieve the hull down aspect. Hmm... two things have struck me almost immediately, one is that the standard of moulding on this old kit is quite truly terrible , the second is that to achieve the hull down aspect is going to take a lot of surgery, potentially more than I'm prepared to put in at the moment. I already have one huge scratchbuild project on the go, not sure I want a second one so I may well build this one "as is". However, looking at the hull tub on my Pz III N smart kit I would have still had the surgery to do if I had brought the newer StuIG 33 kit anyway. Also, looking at the photos I think that the nose down aspect may be due to the front shock-absorber being missing anyway, so I can still depict this vehicle but only as before the mechanics got their hands on it

In order to match the details on the new Pz III hull I think I'm going to start my Ausf N kit and use it as a reference for the StuIG 33. So expect some confuzzling photos from a cluttered workbench!

Oh and speaking of references, does anyone have any photos of the Pz III shock absorbers? Museum vehicles will be more than ideal.

I hope you went straight onto talking about the model and were not talking about your girlfriend & Cars respective hull tub and suspension units needing cleaning .

Jenny

Jenny Ryan wrote: I hope you went straight onto talking about the model and were not talking about your girlfriend & Cars respective hull tub and suspension units needing cleaning .

Jenny

Andy J wrote:
Oh and speaking of references, does anyone have any photos of the Pz III shock absorbers? Museum vehicles will be more than ideal.

http://data.primeportal.net/tanks/ville_paavolainen/stugiiig/images/stugiiig_07_of_39.jpg

http://www.primeportal.net/tanks/ville_paavolainen/stugiiig/

This is from the Finnish StuG that a couple of people here are going to be doing, and it is doubtless where Tamiya got all their information and stuff to do that kit.


http://www.primeportal.net/home.htm
And this is where it came from. This site went on my computers "favorites" list the very first time I saw it some many many years ago. You want to click on "battlefield" and then the choice is yours. There are several good walkarounds of StuG III's and Pz III's in there. Good luck with that shock absorber


Gary

Cheers Gary, superb links and that photo is exactly what I'm looking for.

Started my reference build (Pz III N) so that I can start the update and detail work that this elderly kit is going to need, so far it's just dry-fitting and checking of parts. Here you can see the two lower hulls side by side.



There's a lot of work needed, mostly clean up, aftermarket PE and some scratchbuilding of parts. The plan is to complete each stage on the PZ III and then follow with the corresponding stage on the StuIG 33.

However, as is usual in my life I have changed my mind on which vehicle to depict. This has come about during the build of the PzIII hull. If I carefully remove the locating pins on the suspension arms I will be able to show the hull with the nose down view, now I can't do this with this kit so I have just whacked my CC with purchasing the new smart kit of the StuIG 33. The new kit is going to be swapped into this blog, whilst I'll build this kit as one of the ones that participated in the summer 1943 fighting.

Oh by the looks you might need one of those Historex punch and judy sets they are heaps useful for all those missing rivets .

Jenny

Jenny Ryan wrote:Oh by the looks you might need one of those Historex punch and judy sets they are heaps useful for all those missing rivets .

Jenny

Invested in one a few years back for my Mörser Karl build as Trumpeter missed loads of bolts along with an entire engine compartment access plate

Actually got round to starting this build ably assisted by Meg...



...she eventually settled on my lap and got covered in plastic shavings from the surgery required on the hull

The hull seems to have the Tiger I type welded fillet for the upper hull, I have no idea why Dragon thought this would have this, but anyway it had to go. Out with the X-Acto and microchisel, careful with that btw, careless people have been known to drive it right through their finger...

Comparison of how it should look (lower) and Dragon's first attempt (upper)



And after an afternoon with bits of I-Beam, C-channel, rod and rivets...

Looking good ! Hiya Meg

Jenny

Suspension, final drive and idler mount all on and where necessary detailed. I've also added the missing details to the starboard side too. Next up is the hull rear and those Moskit exhausts.



And side by side with the Panzer III Ausf. N hull which is being used as a guide for the detailing. The new smart kit, despite having more parts and more fiddly is coming together in about half the time that it takes to clean up and detail the Imperial Series kit. Although with the old kit it is possible to leave the track tensioner as operable so at least I'll be able to tension the track when I get round to it.

Moskit exhausts on and fitted in place with help from the PE brackets from Eduard. These exhausts really are rather excellent, the wall thickness on the tailpipes is unbelievable, makes the Smart Kit ones (which I have drilled out) look thick and clunky. Shame they went out of business. Also started on the missing weld beads, looks scruffy at the moment but I'm waiting for the Mr Dissolved Putty to set fully before sanding it back and tidying it up.



Side by side comparison with the Pz III N. Very evident that Dragon have seriously improved their game in the intervening years.

You're making excellent progress Andy. Relatively speaking - okay, compared to me!

John T wrote:You're making excellent progress Andy. Relatively speaking - okay, compared to me!

Cheers John, praise indeed from the master of scratchbuilding . Looking forward to seeing what you do with yours.

Well, it's time to start the upper hull, superstructure and the main gun on this old kit. Not too many issues with it other than some missing/simplified detail on the main armament and some very inconvenient knock out pins on the outside faces of the tow pintles. The missing detail on the main armament was easily dealt with by the expedient of starting my other StuIG 33's main armament and comparing the two and adding either scratchbuilt parts or robbing the unused parts and using them. The casemate goes together very easily, well it is only three parts and just needs a little bit of filler on the front plate and to touch up the welds on the rear.



The gun seems to have been on the beer... Basically due to the cruddy method of mounting it, it's supposed to elevate (snigger...) but if left operable it pushes the mounts apart and this will affect the gun sight. Opening up the holes just leaves it a bit droopy so I think I will cement it in place, also the traverse mounting is crummy and tbh it doesn't achieve anything useful, so that too is going to be cemented in place.



Details on the main gun, there was an inspection plate missing so that was scratched using sheet styrene and at the end of the recuperator there was a raised blob that was cut off and replaced with a more detailed spare part from the newer kit.