The Sd.Kfz.141 (Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf.J) by Unimodels 1:72

[KRK4m]

The last of my five-strong Wehrmacht AFV collection is a tank, conceived as a medium-weight fast (30 mph) cruiser. However, the 37mm AT gun of the early variants (less than 700 built of Ausf. A, B, C, D, E and F) proved to be helpless against the armour of the British Matilda and the Soviet KV. So almost 2,000 next generation Pz.Kpfw. IIIs (Ausf.G, H, and early J) were fitted with a 50mm AT gun.

 

 

However, it was not until the beginning of 1941 that the Ausf.J was upgunned with a long-barrel 50mm cannon, making it a dangerous enemy for most Allied tanks in North Africa.

These long-barreled variants (late Ausf. J, Ausf.L and M) totalled more than 2,400 of the 5,800 Panzer IIIs built.

 

 

But after El Alamein and Stalingrad, it became evident that the 50mm AT gun was barely effective against the sloped armour of the M4 Sherman and T-34, and thus some 700 final Pz.Kpfw. IIIs (Ausf.N) became support (i.e. infantry) tanks. Fitted with a short-barrel 75mm gun, they were used mainly as light tanks screening the heavy Pz.Kpfw.VI Tigers.

Weighing about 23 tons and crewed by five men, all late-generation (Ausf.J - N) Panzer IIIs were powered by a 300 hp Maybach V12 petrol engine.

 

 

The best 1/72 Panzer III kit on the market is the quite recent (2016 tooling) Ukrainian Unimodels kit, available in six different boxings. Mine is the #271 "Ausf.J".

It's built OOB except for a drilled (0.7 mm dia) gun barrel and exhaust pipes, and an antenna made of the Aber 0.3mm wire.

 

 

The only problem was the complexity of this tiny kit. The entire vehicle, about 75mm long (88mm including the barrel), consists of 237 plastic and 11 photo-etched parts !

That is some 85 parts for every inch of the hull lenght  - paranoia !

 

 

My idea was to have the Pz.Kpfw.III in the early Tropen scheme of RAL8000 Gelbbraun and RAL7008 Graugruen  - much darker than the 1942 DAK scheme.

However, it was very difficult to find a mid-production (i.e. long gun, but still with transverse air intake covers behind the turret) Ausf.J from Africa.

After some digging, I managed to find a batch of similarly camouflaged tanks from a completely different area.  

 

 

The „white outlined 123” is one of the four (the others are 115, 122 and 124) long-barrel Pz.Kpfw.IIIJs spotted in Rostov in July 1942 during their expedition to the Caucascus.

They belonged to the famous 5.SS Panzerdivision Wiking. These early 1941-production tanks had the then standard Tropen camouflage.

 

 

The paints are (as always) brush-painted enamels: Humbrol 83 for Gelbbraun and 155 for Graugruen. Then the Vallejo acrylic matt varnish was brush-applied overall.

This time the decals are OOB. Only the Luftwaffe-style swastika came from the Hasegawa Heinkel He51.

The pictures are taken with an LG smartphone.

Comments welcome.

Edited March 3, 2021 by KRK4m

[Stef N.]

That's a hell of a lot of parts for a tiny kit.😲

 

Very nice though and the camo scheme works really well. Nice one.👏

[Spitfire 123]

Great job, that must have been a tricky kit! 👍

Riley