bigfoot Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 This is going to be my entry in the GB, dragons nice little kit of the PzIII ausf H in North Africa, supplemented with a tank workshop barrel with canvas cover. Other than that it will be an out of the box build in the hope I get it finished in time!! 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stuart Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Looks promising. Can I ask, where did you get the Tank Workshop barrel? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Welcome to the build Bigfoot, nice choice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted February 2, 2021 Author Share Posted February 2, 2021 37 minutes ago, Robert Stuart said: Looks promising. Can I ask, where did you get the Tank Workshop barrel? I picked it up from eBay a while ago. I’ve got another one from panzer art which has the mantlet as well for another build. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Hi Bigfoot. Hope you are keeping well. As Ozzy said - that's a nice looking kit. Dragon do quite a range of Panzer IIIs and StuG IIIs and I think we'll see quite a few of them in this GB. I think I have decided on one of Dragon's StuGs. for this GB myself. I am looking forward to following your progress with your Pz.III. Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted February 2, 2021 Author Share Posted February 2, 2021 16 minutes ago, PlaStix said: Hi Bigfoot. Hope you are keeping well. As Ozzy said - that's a nice looking kit. Dragon do quite a range of Panzer IIIs and StuG IIIs and I think we'll see quite a few of them in this GB. I think I have decided on one of Dragon's StuGs. for this GB myself. I am looking forward to following your progress with your Pz.III. Kind regards, Stix I’ve got two dragon stug III’s and two more PzIII’s in the stash so it was a hard choice as to which to build. I’ve not actually built any PzIII vehicle before so this will be a first! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Browne Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 Following this build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted February 8, 2021 Author Share Posted February 8, 2021 Work has begun in earnest and despite not looking like I’ve done much, this is several hours of assembly work! Got to love dragon and their many tiny pieces. first up the drive sprockets and idlers, the latter with single piece PE inner rims thankfully. and the hull with a myriad of tiny pieces added. If anyone else builds this kit, the return roller mount you have to add (front one in this picture) part A21 doesn’t have a locating pin but the hull has a hole. I used a piece of styrene rod to create a pin to accurately locate the mount. What I didn’t realise until after I took this pic is that I put it in the wrong hole! I’ve since taken it off, sanded back the area and put it in the right hole (just visible forward of the mount). coming together slowly! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stuart Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 That is a good start @bigfoot There are something like 21 components so far in that hull 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted February 8, 2021 Author Share Posted February 8, 2021 35 minutes ago, Robert Stuart said: That is a good start @bigfoot There are something like 21 components so far in that hull Thanks Robert, yep something silly like that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted February 8, 2021 Author Share Posted February 8, 2021 35 minutes ago, Robert Stuart said: That is a good start @bigfoot There are something like 21 components so far in that hull Thanks Robert, yep something silly like that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 What type of tracks are in your kit, magic track or DS? It seems strange to me to have working torsion bar suspension parts when there is a pin on the hull to stop the axle arms moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Hi bigfoot. Looks like you are off to a good start and I'm not at all jealous of your single piece PE rims................at all.................much............ Kind regards, Stix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 12 hours ago, Retired Bob said: What type of tracks are in your kit, magic track or DS? It seems strange to me to have working torsion bar suspension parts when there is a pin on the hull to stop the axle arms moving. They’re magic track thankfully, I avoid getting dragon kits with DS tracks where I can as they have a reputation for disintegrating! 21 minutes ago, PlaStix said: Hi bigfoot. Looks like you are off to a good start and I'm not at all jealous of your single piece PE rims................at all.................much............ Kind regards, Stix thanks Stix, yes a good few hours work which doesn’t look like I’ve done a lot! The single piece rims are good although a little difficult to file the fret attachment points off without bending them! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 More work done today, got all the suspension and torsion arms on and rear hull plates attached. The rear additional armour plate dragon have you add doesn’t fit around the towing pintle mounts soba little carving and sanding was required to make it fit. the next bit the dragon instructions aren’t particularly clear and I can’t find any good reference pics of this area. I think the rear plate with smoke bomb housing and air grill (marked U8 in step 6 below) fits like this but I’m not sure. It’s just dry fitted in the below picture. Has anyone built this or similar kit and can advise if it’s in the right position? more work soon hopefully. Thanks for stopping by. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Hi bigfoot, Looks like good progress despite the issues with the additional armour plate. I'm afraid I cannot help with the smoke bomb housing but hopefully someone will be along soon who can. Kind regards, Stix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 On 09/02/2021 at 17:06, bigfoot said: Has anyone built this or similar kit and can advise if it’s in the right position? I don't have this kit but from making other StuGs I think that it should have the grill effect pointing downwards and the 2 middle supports fit into the 2 U shaped cutouts. See if that looks correct on later diagrams in the plans before you add glue. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ned Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Looks to me like the smokebomb housing should be vertical. Have you got those trangular mounts the wrong way around? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted February 13, 2021 Author Share Posted February 13, 2021 On 2/10/2021 at 6:34 PM, Retired Bob said: I don't have this kit but from making other StuGs I think that it should have the grill effect pointing downwards and the 2 middle supports fit into the 2 U shaped cutouts. See if that looks correct on later diagrams in the plans before you add glue. On 2/10/2021 at 6:39 PM, Ned said: Looks to me like the smokebomb housing should be vertical. Have you got those trangular mounts the wrong way around? Thanks both, you are both right, I had put the rear plate in the wrong position, it should be at a different angle so the smoke discharged points downwards. However as assembled the grill doesn’t fit properly with the plate in the correct position. I managed to find a build blog of this kit where the builder got it to fit by assembling it on the tank rather than as a sub assembly as Dragon would have you do. I’ve now separate the grill from the plate ready for refitting. In the meantime, whilst pondering the above, I cracked on with building the top decks. Again, dragon’s instructions stuck again with the vent covers wrongly numbered. I figured it out though! 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Seem like the odd ambiguous picture in the instructions is an on going theme in many builds, nicley built up though👍 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Great to see more progress with your build and it's looking very good. Annoying that Dragon's instructions are still causing so many of us problems. Good luck with the next stages! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Very nice work so far on what looks to be a very nicely detailed if a bit complicated kit, not helped by Dragon's seemingly universally vague instructions. Also great that it is another DAK machine.👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 On 2/14/2021 at 2:51 PM, PlaStix said: Great to see more progress with your build and it's looking very good. Annoying that Dragon's instructions are still causing so many of us problems. Good luck with the next stages! Kind regards, Stix On 2/14/2021 at 3:24 PM, modelling minion said: Very nice work so far on what looks to be a very nicely detailed if a bit complicated kit, not helped by Dragon's seemingly universally vague instructions. Also great that it is another DAK machine.👍 Thanks both, yep dragon instructions have caused me more headaches, see the update below! More work has been completed most of the upper hull structure has been completed, although the central and engine deck haven’t been glued to the hull yet. more words of warning with the instructions for this kit. Firstly the turret ring plate is U1 not A59 as shown in hut instructions. The diagram shows the correct one (with the 6 attachment points for the additional front armour) but the wrong part number. I used the wrong part and had to cut away the splash guard to reattach to the correct plate. Also the lifting hooks are numbered wrong, they should be A10 not A63 on this plate. Thankfully you get twice as many as you need so I didn’t have to remove these from the wrong plate. On lifting hooks, the ones on the engine deck are parts A63 but the instructions show you to add a PE base plate to the hooks. A63 already has a base plate moulded in and the PE parts look to fit the A10 hooks but those ones have the mounting plates mounded on to the turret ring plate. So I just ignored the PE parts and left them off! rest of the hull went together nicely. impressed with the hull MG on this kit, muzzle already hollowed out. As for the pesky rear grill/plate I found a good build log that explained how to fit it properly. So I separated the grill from the plate that I had previously stuck together. first the grill is attached to the hull. Then the rear plate is attached to the hull. This took a bit of squeezing and clamping to sit right but fitted alright in the end. I was going to leave the exhausts off for painting but you can’t really get them in once the grill is on so I ended up installing them at this stage. I haven’t don’t yet fenders yet as I’m undecided, having said I wasn’t going to use any AM, whether to get some MJ miniatures PzIII tool clamps to use. Anyone had any experience of them? Their Sherman brush guards are very good so I’m tempted and with 4 more PzIII variants in the stash they’ll get used. Next up to build will be the turret and all the road wheels. Thanks for stopping in. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Well the instructions are certainly terrible for your kit!! But it does look excellent now. Lovely job! Kind regards, Stix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ned Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Glad you got the rear-end sorted out. It's bad enough when the instructions don't really match the order that you'd build in, you don't need any more confusion than that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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