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PzIII Ausf. B, Poland 1939


Six97s

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Good morning Six97s and welcome to the STGB. And it looks like you're going to be making a rather impressive looking kit there. I'm looking forward to seeing it underway when you get chance. 

Kind regards,

Stix

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5 hours ago, Six97s said:

It's my first Miniart kit.  It does look good, but they like to use a lot of sprue attachment points, don't they?  The flush cutters will come in handy on this one.

yep - the Ausf D is full of attachment points (I guess a fair chunk of the kits are the same)

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That is looking excellent but I can certainly see why it causes a bit of a strain on the eyes! The detail will look excellent when it's complete. It already looks superb now. Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Kind regards,

Stix

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Relieved to have the suspension finished.  I managed to break three of the eight damper links, salvaged two of them, but one of the clevis ends flew off never to be seen again.  I'll cobble a facsimile from plasticard when everything's set.  108 parts to get to this point.

 

pziii_b_07-vi.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent a few enjoyable hours attempting to glue PE vent ribs edge-on into the openings.  Some small slots on the underside in which to locate these would have made all the difference, Miniart... God knows what they'll look like when I get some paint on it. 🙄 

 

Also assembled the wheels, bar the bearing caps (assume that's what they are?).  Did the first one (leftmost in the image), but they're fiddly and there's no positive location to centre them on the wheels, so I'll come back to those when I'm fresh.

 

pziii_b_10-vi.jpg

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I'm not sure why the edges of the hatches look furry, they don't IRL.   🤔  

 

Assembled the hull MG too, although most of it will be hidden.   As above, it looks better in person than in this brutal close up.

 

pziii_b_11-vi.jpg

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Hi Six97s. That looks like excellent progress. As Hewy mentioned - these MiniArt kits do have amazing detail, but they do take some work. I'm sure you will get it into shape!

Kind regards,

Stix

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Thanks for the comments. I am enjoying it really!  Maybe my tone is a bit dry,..  Fitting those vent ribs was a trial though. 🙃   On the upside, no multipiece photoetch rings on the idlers and no Zimmerit to worry about, so I have it comparatively easy.

 

 

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I agree about the Miniart parts count, I only have one Miniart kit, their T-34/85. The old Tamiya t-34 has about 7 parts to the hull, Dragon has 20+ but Miniart has about 70 parts?? and that's not counting the wheels. :facepalm:

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  • 1 month later...

Here's where I'm up to.   The photo seems to show a gap at the front plate of the upper hull... better check that because I hadn't noticed.  What appears to be a gap at the sides is a recess, which is there by design.   Still have 15 more of those fiddly bearing caps to add to the road wheels.  🙃

 

pziii_b_12-vi.jpg

Edited by Six97s
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Great to see your progress. It is a much more complex suspension arrangement than it became later. Good luck with the caps!

Kind regards,

Stix

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  • 2 weeks later...

How are you finding the tracks? I've got this kit in my stash, and had to rob a track from it for my Bronco Ausf.A (long story) and found the quality really poor. Loads of flash around the guide horns, and one unusable link on every sprue with no hole for the pin to go through. If you run out of links, I've got loads spare, I only needed to make up one side.

Seeing your build so far doesn't make me want to make a start on mine anytime soon.

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