Nenad Ilijic

Hello everyone, I started with the first build. It will be Panzer III Ausf. G. It will be tank number 131, 1st company of the I Abteilung, Panzer-Regiment 5. At the moment reference photos were taken, it was still 5th Light Division, later to become 21st Panzer Division. There are few more photos of this particular tank, taken before desert camouflage was applied. I don't know when exactly these photos were taken, but I guess sometimes between March and August 1941. I don't now much about what happened with this tank, other than it was lost during operation Crusader, recovered, but than abandoned during the retreat. This is tropicalized version of Panzer III Ausf. G. It is not obvious from this particular photo that this is not an Ausf. H, but it is clearly visible on other photos that there's no additional armour plates. It has early commander cupola and first return roller moved forward. Equipment is a bit rearranged compared to the usual layout. So off to the build. I will not be using building instructions from this kit for the construction. I will be using building instruction for standard Ausf. G (non-Tauchpanzer), kit No. 6639. These two kits share most of the sprues, while No. 6639 is much closer to the tank I am building. Building suspension was quite straightforward. Just pay attention on the instructions because there are errors, mostly wrongly labeled parts. There are two positions for the forward return roller. I choose one closer to the idler wheel (2) according to the reference material. According to Panzer Tracts, three screws (1) should not be removed. Roadwheels and suspension finally finished. My least favorite part of any build. Assembling rear of the lower hull was a bit tricky. Instructions were not very clear, so I had to rely a lot on Panzer Tracts. Fit was not perfect either. There are many gaps, for example this one (2). Nothing that cant be fixed with some putty, but didn't expect it from a Dragon kit. Not sure if gap (1) should be there. I guess not. But I'll probably leave it like this, because it's not visible at all when idler wheel is attached. Here's how rear end turned out. Fortunately, all parts needed were in the kit. At least for now Next to come - fenders and figuring out the layout of all the accessories. Best, Nenad

Fantastic painting and weathering. I really like it. Nenad

Just beautiful! Nenad

Great work Dan. You achieved great result with color variation. Stowage is fantastic! Cheers, Nenad

Hello everyone, I was preparing this build(s) for quite some time. It will be a pair of early DAK Panzer IIIs. To be precise Panzer III Ausf. G belonging to 21 Panzer Division and Panzer III Ausf. H belonging to 15 Panzer Division. Tanks that I will be building were sent to North Africa with the first batches of 21 PD and 15 PD. These builds are inspired by this fantastic thread on Missing Lynx forum and IMO the best book about opening stages of North African campaign, Tank Combat in North Africa by Thomas L. Jentz. Some magazines, like Workhorse: Panzer III in North Africa will be extensively used as a reference material as well. The base will be two Dragon kits: No. 6773 and No. 6775. Both kits are for Tauchpanzer, non tropical versions, but it looks like that kits contain most of the parts that are needed to build standard tropicalized versions. I'll use MasterClub narrow tracks for Pz III G. And wide MasterClub tracks for Ausf. H. However, not sure yet which version of tracks will it be, probably early ones. I'll use Archer Fine Transfer decals. Some additional extras will ne used as well. Including some parts from this Academy Pz III J. This kit is very cheap, making it perfect choice for spare parts. Like all German WW2 tanks, development and production of these vehicles were continuous process, and there's no clear specification of Ausf. G or H. It's rather a combination of different modifications (both factory and field applied) that were implemented continuously during their production and usage. Interesting part of these builds will be to identify all of the modifications that were applied on particular tank that I'm building. That's all for now. Cheers, Nenad

Thank you Francis. Thank you. Yeah, they have 1:48 as well. Choice is not as good as 1:35, but not bad either. Thank you Ed. Than you Ian. Thank you Bertie! Cool lager in Alexandria, now that is something Cheers, Nenad

Great work! Especially the stowage and figures. Nenad

Wow, what a fantastic diorama! How do you make water like this? It's so realistic. Cheers, Nenad

Very interesting. I don't think I ever saw this before. Great work. Cheers, Nenad

Great work Pedro. Interesting extra protection. Cheers, Nenad

Thank you. Thank you Vytautas for yopur kind words. I am currently building an aircraft as a side project. Great chance to make something especially bad, it's my third aircraft build ever Thank you Echen. I didn't actually. It's part of Value Gear stowage. When scratching it, I am using Milliput, but I am quite sure that I would not be able to make it like this. I won't be able to make it this thin. I love Value Gear btw, IMO they are making the best stowage items. Thank you. Thank you Michael. I love doing research about particular vehicle and figuring out all the details, background story, etc. Maybe it's even more fun to me than building a model Thank you Stef. Thank you Autle. Beside an aircraft that I am building as a side project, and learning how to build aircraft :, next will be a pair of Dragon Panzer III's, one from 15th and the other from 21st Panzer Division. But build will take quite some time, because I have to use kits that are not the best choice for these DAK tanks, so it will require some conversion work. I can't wait to start work on it though, I was preparing this build for quite a long time. There's a huge and priceless research thread on missing lynx about these early DAK Panzer IIIs that was an inspiration for this. Thank you Carius.

Hello everyone, After building allied armour most of this year, I'm back on the other side. This is my version of uparmoured Panzer II Ausf C, belonging to 8th company, II battalion, Panzer Regiment 8, 15t Panzer Division, as photographed during Operation Sonnenblume, sometimes during April or May 1941. It's Dragon kit No. 6432. This kit is simply fantastic! There are just minor issues, the biggest one being that they forgot to include rear smoke grenade rack (actually they included the wrong one), so I had to use aftermarket version. Other than that it's just minor issues and it can be built very nicely straight from the box. Kit includes magic tracks, which are my favorite indy tracks. They are so easy to build. Oh, and of course, building instructions are a disaster, but that's quite common with Dragon kits of this period. I used some AM parts: E.T. Models detailing set (which includes smoke grenade rack), AFV Club jerry cans, Aber aerial, Value Gear stowage, and Archer Fine Transfers decals. There was some scratch building involved, mainly to make jerrycan and spare track holders. It's primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500, and painted with Mission Models RAL 7021 as a base color and Gunze Mr Hobby Aqueous Hobby Color H402 as final RAL 8000 camouflage color (my favorite version of RAL 8000). Initial batch of 15 Panzer Division tanks were not field painted. They were painted in Italy before being shipped to North Africa, so they were painted quite neatly (compared to 21st Panzer Division tanks for example). Details are pained mostly with Gunze Metal Colors and Vallejo Model Color. And here are some details: Weathering is Mig's nature effects and pigments. And here's the real thing: There are some inaccuracies in my build. For example, inside of the turret company marking '8' should be white, rear tail light should be convoy light and not the early version that I used, there should be two segments of spare tracks in the front, etc. But, as always, you notice some of these stuff too late. I left first two road wheels and Notek light Dunkelgau. They do look darker on the photo, but this is just a guess I did this just to make some variety. Let's say its repaired battle damage Hope you will like it and all the feedback is very welcome. Cheers, Nenad

Simply stunning, what else to say! This is one of the best interiors I have ever seen! Cheers, Nenad

Wow, that is impressive! It's 1:35 level of detail. And paintwork is fantastic! Cheers, Nenad

Great job! Weathering is spot on. Nenad