AFV Content

Another great piece of modelling. I really like the weathering. The muddy road wheels and tracks look very realistic.

@Old pro Looks like a great kit. It'll be good to see it beginning to go together with your customary expertise. I must confess I'd have remained blissfully ignorant of the kits' inaccuracies if they'd not been mentioned above. One of the benefits of Britmodeller is access to all the technical knowledge of fellow modellers here.

Very nice diorama showing great attention to detail and superb workmanship together with outstanding paintwork Stay safe Roger

Absolutely stunning. One of the best. An superp example of scratch building. I also thought you had slipped in some actual photos.

Sweet ! I especially like the seats and the weathering-outstanding!

Nice work .... and a wise decision to paint sub assemblies separately .... Keith 😁

Nothing specific to say about the build. So it's primer time! A friend of mine send me a few pics. So here we go for an Honduran CRV(T)!

More info. First, here is what the interior prism boxes looked like. Prism not fitted. The exterior slot is just below the level of the top of the box. Second, on the MkIV Male sponson there is a mixture of prisms and slits but on the female they are all slits. Third, I was confusing the MkIV and MkV vision slits. On the MkIV they did not allow direct vision at all. They offered either the 8 holes or completely solid. The plate simply slid up and down. Apologies for the fuzzy focus here. The plate lifted up and slid to the right in the L shaped slots to reveal the holes or could quickly be knocked left to drop closed. Note how the internal joint fishplate is shaped to accommodate this. The MkV introduced 2 improved designs which did rotate to allow direct vision or holes as I described - but no solid option.

Thanks for those shots Ian. They are going to be very useful in my build. One thing that it made me do was to examine the 1/48th model that I did of an early Battleaxe Crusader, and lo and behold, it has confirmed how those spare links would have been attached on the top of the track guard. Thanks again. John.

Great work. There should be more comments on this. One suggestion is maybe a little water to tighten up the mesh net. It looks a little modeled right now. It will help bring the model more to scale. I like the base as well really well done. Kudos. G

I have to agree with the others, fabulous work which I, personally, have found mesmerising 😎.

It's all looking fantastic... Ed

Good point Pete and that's exactly what I'm going for with variation from matte to shiny depending on ware etc 👍 Are you suggesting I go for a pimped up sparkling example from an over zealous petrol head pre greaser dispatch rider? 😎 Minty fresh and looking more like a bad build than most real builds 😂🤔 Cheers all Andrew

Exceptionally good piece of work..... Some work gone into that... The guy in the back with the FN stands out. Detail in the palm and the DPM really good.

Brilliant.... The canvas is exceptionally good.

I also like that a lot, tremendous work!!

Seems to have full interior http://www.moxingfans.com/m/view.php?aid=12266

That's a fantastic piece of work. Well done!

StuG III Ausf.G Feb 1943 Alkett Prod. (72101) 1:72 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The StuG is a popular German WWII AFV, and the more you learn about it, the more obvious it becomes why. The SturmGeschütz III was based upon the chassis of the Panzer III, but removed the turret and front deck, replacing it with an armoured casemate with a lower profile that mounted a fixed gun with limited traverse. It was originally intended to be used as infantry support, using its (then) superior armour to advance on the enemy as a mobile blockhouse, but it soon found other uses as an ambush predator, and was employed as a tank destroyer, lurking in wait for Allied forces to stumble haplessly into its path, where it could be deadly. With the advances in sloped armour employed by the Soviets, the original low velocity 75mm StuK 37 L/24 cannon was replaced by a higher velocity unit that was also used in the Panzer IV for tank-on-tank combat, extending the type’s viable career to the end of WWII. The earliest prototypes were made of mild steel and based on Panzer III Ausf.B chassis, and whilst they were equipped with guns, they were unsuitable for combat due to the relative softness of the steel that would have led to a swift demise on the battlefield, being withdrawn in '41-42. By this time the StuG III had progressed to the Ausf.G, which was based on the later Panzer III Ausf.M, with a widened upper hull and improvements in armour to increase survivability prospects for the crew. Many of the complicated aspects of the earlier models that made them time-consuming and expensive to produce were removed and simplified by that time, which led to several specific differences in some of the external fitments around the gun, such as the Saukopf mantlet protector. The Ausf.G was the last and most numerous version, and was used until the end of the war with additional armour plates often welded or bolted to the surface to give it enhanced protection from Allied tanks and artillery. The Kit This is a new tooling from MiniArt in their nascent 1:72 armour line, which is bringing high levels of detail to this smaller scale, with MiniArt’s engineers and tool designers applying their skills to a scale that has been neglected to an extent for many years. The kit arrives in a small top-opening box, and inside are nine sprues of various sizes in grey styrene, a small clear sprue with decals in a Ziploc bag, a Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret in a card envelope, and the instruction booklet in full colour in portrait A5 format. Detail is excellent, including weld-lines and tread-plate moulded into the exterior of the hull, with plenty of options for personalisation, and link-and-length tracks to provide good detail without making the building of the tracks too time consuming. Construction begins with the lower hull, which is put together with five parts creating the ‘tub’, then adding the three-part glacis plate at the front, and the exhaust assembly at the rear, accompanied by duct-work and overhanging vents with a PE mesh panel underneath. One decal option has a few holes drilled into the rear overhang before installation for use later, then various suspension parts are applied to the sides that have the swing arms and axles already moulded-in. Six paired return rollers are made up, along with twelve pairs of road wheels, plus two-part idler wheels and drive sprockets, which have an alternative front sprocket face for you to choose from. Once all the wheels are installed on their axles, the tracks can be built, utilising the long lengths on the top and bottom, adding shorter lengths to the diagonal risers, and individual links around the sharper curved sections toward the ends of the runs. There are eight individual links at the rear, and six at the front, plus another between the lower and its diagonal, each link having three sprue gates in sensibly placed locations. The gun shroud is built from four parts and mounted on a carrier between a pair of trunnions, which is then fitted to a pivot plate and set aside while the casemate front is made from two sections. First however, the fenders are glued to the sides of the hull, locating on three lugs moulded into the sides. The gun shroud is slotted into the casemate, with a mantlet slid over the front, after which the lower heavily armoured and bolted lower casemate front has a vision slot and armour cover applied before it is glued to the bottom of the casemate, along with the sides and rear bulkhead, attaching it to the lower hull while the glue cures to ensure everything lines up. A convoy light is glued into the centre of the glacis, then the engine deck is made, fitting two-part sides, and a single rear panel that is aligned when the deck is installed on the rear of the hull. Two PE grilles are glued over the outer cooling intakes, and a length of spare track is fitted over the rear bulkhead of the casemate, adding armoured covers over the five vents on the engine deck, with a choice of cast or bolted vents on those at the rear of the deck. A choice of three styles of cupola can be made, each one made from a differing set of parts, based around the commander’s vision blocks and central hatch, adding wire grab handles from your own stock where indicated, then inserting the completed assembly in the cut-out on the roof, adding a periscope forward of the cupola from within the roof. The barrel is moulded as a single tubular section with a hollow muzzle glued to the business end, and sleeve moulded into the front of the saukopf, which is an inverted trapezoid with an optional stowage box on top for one option, and an alternative site on the engine deck for the other decal options. PE brackets are added around the vehicle, with pioneer tools built up and fitted where there is space as the build progresses. The gunner’s hatch can be posed closed, or replaced by two separate parts in the open position, adding another scratch-built grab handle from wire, then fitting a drum magazine to the supplied MG34, sliding it through the frontal bullet shield with PE support and another DIY grab handle before putting it in place in front of the gunner’s hatch. Towing eyes are supplied for the tow cable, but you must provide the braided thread or wire to make the cable itself, attaching one to each fender, fixing fire extinguisher, jack block, jack, barrel cleaning rods etc. to various places, and for one decal variant, two stacks of wheels are mounted on long pins on the rear bulkhead, making the pins from more of your own wire. Option four also has a PE railing around the engine deck, which has a basket to hold two jerry cans, each one made from three parts, and slotted into position at the rear of the deck. Two scrap diagrams show how the forward ends of the railings attach to the back of the casemate, and the other four decal options can have stacks of road wheels stowed on the back of the engine deck on the aft vents, again on pins made from your own wire stocks. Two aerials of 30mm each are also needed to complete the model. Markings There are five decal options on the small sheet, with various schemes ranging from pure panzer grey to dunkelgeb, with camouflage or distemper over the top. From the box you can build one of the following: Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 189, Eastern Front, Spring 1943 21 Luftwaffen-Feld-Division ‘Adler Division’, Staraya Russa Region, Eastern Front, Spring 1943 21 Luftwaffen-Feld-Division ‘Adler Division’, Staraya Russa Region, Eastern Front, Spring 1943 Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung ‘Grossdeutschland’ Okhtryka, Ukraine, Eastern Front, Spring 1943 Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 210, Eastern Front, 1943 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion MiniArt bring their talents to bear on 1:72 scale, releasing a subject they have already researched for their 1:35 scale range, resulting in a highly detailed model with plenty of options for personalisation. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

They should fit in well with the Cheese Sellers and wine.🧀

Looks like it but that's rather expensive, at £12.95 plus postage, for a single 3D printed figure. The 'old style' of cast resin or cast metal figures commanded those prices because the mould making effort and material needed was expensive. 3D printing doesn't use nearly as much material to produce. cheers, Mike

Thanks for the links. I had a look at the after-market prices and.... not a chance. I'd need to be sure that I can get a decent result first!

I did have German antecedents on my mothers side, but they came from Wurttemburg so would've spoken a rather different Swabian version, I believe it's a bit of a funny accent to other Germans 😁

Kind words indeed thank you👍 however the quality of this kit is outstanding (albeit expensive).as I’ve said the only issue I’ve had is it is probably a bit over engineered with some of the small parts. Ivan

Most of the PE and other small parts are now in place and some more scratch building done. I don’t have any clear pictures of the mounting for the single Vickers K Gun on wartime Dingos so my installation is a scratch built creative interpretation which matches the two grainy images I have and looks practical. The gun itself is a spare from a Dragon kit. The brackets for the sand channel should have lightening holes so I have drilled them out. I was very tempted to add the sand channel itself as it comes with the kit, but very few photos of Dingos in NW Europe show them. The Gerry cans are from a MiniArt set. The kit comes with two of the earlier flimsy cans and has retaining strips on the mud guard to keep them in place. These strips were removed if the crew wanted to carry different loads, so I have removed them from mine so I can match the load in my reference photo. I spent a morning at Bovington Tank Museum looking behind the wheels of their Dingo to examine the wiring and plumbing hidden there. Perhaps surprisingly the museum staff didn’t seem bothered by a baldy bloke sprawled on the floor and shining a torch under the mud guards. It probably happens quite often! I took plenty of pictures and have dug out some very fine wire to have a go at replicating what I found. This is underneath the rear left wheel, you can see the electrical cable running up the suspension bracket and then out to the rear lights (these seem to be a post-war modification, wartime Dingos did not have them). Bovington’s Dingo. It is a Mk III so should not have an armoured roof, I suspect it has been added by the museum to secure the interior.