IanC Posted June 19, 2021 Share Posted June 19, 2021 Hello. My trip down modelling memory lane continues with a couple more Airfix 1/76 classics - the PzKpfw IV and StuG III. Both moulds - which are half a century old at least - are pretty tired now and there was a lot of flash to clean up but at least the decals went down ok. The tracks resisted all glues, so I resorted to the heated screwdriver method to join them. The only slight improvement I made was to drill out the barrels. They don't bear very close inspection but I enjoyed the nostalgia. Hope some of you do too! 🙂 All the best, Ian 34 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
echen Posted June 19, 2021 Share Posted June 19, 2021 Great builds. They certainly bring back memories - must have been over 50 years since I first built these. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilspen Posted June 19, 2021 Share Posted June 19, 2021 Ian, they look very good considering their vintage. I remember the joys of trying to get the tracks stuck together and then to sit around the wheels. You have overcome that admirably. Cheers Neil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 Nice work on both of them. I recall building the Stug back in nineteen hundred and can't remember. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairtrigger Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 Splendid builds... The heated screwdriver method for the tracks works fine... I remember having a go with fine fishing line and a needle in the past. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natter Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 They're both great little models to build despite their age, and yours are very nicely done. With the tracks on mine I resorted to stapling them together. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orso Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Nice work on those oldies. For the tracks I use Locktite All Plastic It work on those tracks. I glued down the tracks on my old Airfix Chi-Ha with it. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Yes the memories come flooding back,built these must be over 50 years ago ,sadly they got destroyed in battles with my friends, happy days. You have done a fantastic job on the old timers ,well done . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herrick Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 18:02, IanC said: which are half a century old at leas They certainly are; I can remember building the Stug when I was a boy! Nice builds. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted June 23, 2021 Share Posted June 23, 2021 I remember both well. Many is the battle fought with both against the Airfix Sherman and a Chieftain? on a battle base made from an old cupboard door painted with fields and rivers. The Pz IV was new around 1971 when I started building kits. The Stug III was a lot older. Great memories. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanC Posted June 23, 2021 Author Share Posted June 23, 2021 1 hour ago, noelh said: I remember both well. Many is the battle fought with both against the Airfix Sherman and a Chieftain? on a battle base made from an old cupboard door painted with fields and rivers. The Pz IV was new around 1971 when I started building kits. The Stug III was a lot older. Great memories. Great memories indeed. I remember building a platoon of Pz IVs - and Churchills - amongst others, but all those wheels and fiddly tracks! Took ages. Kids these days, they've got it easy... 😄 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 Wow! The Panzer IV was I think my favourite out of that series, and the Stug III wasn't far behind. You've done them proud, and I think they still stand up as good kits to this day (he said, knowing nothing about armour...) Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanC Posted September 3, 2021 Author Share Posted September 3, 2021 4 hours ago, AdrianMF said: Wow! The Panzer IV was I think my favourite out of that series, and the Stug III wasn't far behind. You've done them proud, and I think they still stand up as good kits to this day (he said, knowing nothing about armour...) Regards, Adrian Many thanks Adrian. Yes, the Pz IV was one of my favourites too, and I believe is a fairly accurate replica. I remember trying to emulate Gerald Scarborough and convert the StuG to a panzer III, but fortunately Matchbox came to the rescue as regards that particular vehicle! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 16 minutes ago, IanC said: convert the StuG to a panzer III Can’t be worse than the Centurion to Crusader conversion about two years before they released the Crusader kit! Regards, Adrian 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigglesof266 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 (edited) Thanks for sharing. Comprehend the nostalgia. Evokes similar memories of many happy hours fighting imaginary childhood battles in miniature with Airfix armour and figurines in the 1960s. I had built that StuG, possibly my favourite available Airfix AFV of the time. Of course, like the much desired "Russian T34" their "Panzer IV" hadn't released back then much to my -and the lovely and patient Mrs. Scott behind the LHS's counter, mutual frustration. According to Scalemates, I see that the T-34/76 apparently released in 1968. If so, Presuming it so, I never saw it appear on shop shelves here in the antipodes until circa 1970, by which time I'd grown to an age where I had transitioned to other activities. There's a story associated with Airfix's unavailability of the Panzer IV until moulded in 1971. I think I must have been about nine (1964) when I went to the LHS 'confronting' Mrs. Scott wanting to buy a "Panzer". In my mind's eye I knew exactly what I wanted. Then ignorant of the finer technical details or discrepancy in size and familiar only with the general similarity in shape, I was after either a late PzKpfw III or IV upgunned to their respective 50mm and 75mm long barrel versions. Of course not knowing at that age that "Panzer" was the ubiquitous equivalent for tank in German. I knew only that I wanted a German "Panzer" (III or IV) from their distinctive shapes in images in the extensive library of books I'd read, and the many documentaries and films seen on television. Poor old and ever patient Mrs. Scott. I recall I kept repeating in abject frustration that I wanted a "Panzer" as she showed me consecutively and I rejected the Panther, the Tiger -she must have been out of stock of the "75mm.Assault Gun", presumably neither of us being aware that at that time, Airfix didn't offer a Panzer III or IV. And of course, this was before the time of the emergence of and proliferation of similar scaled models from Matchbox, Fujimi, Hasagawa et al. In the end, disappointed, I think I went home with the Panther as best I recall. Some short time later their Tiger was also added to my armoury as was the StuG when spied in stock on the LHS Airfix display hanger. Along the way, the "Stalin Tank" (JS III) -gotta' love the marketing to baby boomer kids as was of the 1960s, "Sherman Tank", & "Churchill Tank", Airfix's "Armoured Car 234" variant of the "Puma" were added, as well as their "1916 Mk.1 Tank" (1967), which I recall being super excited about when I first saw it on the hanger having an extant collection of all of Airfix's then fairly new mould and glorious WWI figurines. The WWI German and French sculptings in particular were magnificent, and Brits not too bad either. Sadly, Airfix's "Crusader Tank" and Matilda Tank" moulds didn't make their debut until 1971 and 1973 respectively, by then too late for either my playing or modelling days. The only one of the armour catalogue available in (near the end of) my time I didn't own and build at that time, and never have since, was the "Lee/Grant Tank". It must have been because it released in 1969, very late in the day for said period of interest and activity. Unlike their T-34, I do recall seeing it in shops, although obviously it would have been 1970 or later, which turned out to be later than nostalgia tinged memory recalled without the aid of Scalemates. Well done. You've sent me on a nostalgia journey with your own. Thanks. Edited September 3, 2021 by Bigglesof266 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumblestripe Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 Ah certainly brings back the memories. One of which was that didn't the tracks used to react with the plastic of the wheels and gradually dissolve them? Pz4 was (as I remember) distinctly more refined than a lot of the range. Thanks for posting 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carius Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 Very nice job with small kits Ian TC Cesar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seahawk Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Very good effort with this old kits. You're obviously much better at painting moulded-on tools than I am! Well done. Is Model Air 71.330 Khaki Green the paint you used on the StuG? The colour looks very convincing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanC Posted January 10, 2022 Author Share Posted January 10, 2022 4 minutes ago, Seahawk said: Very good effort with this old kits. You're obviously much better at painting moulded-on tools than I am! Well done. Is Model Air 71.330 Khaki Green the paint you used on the StuG? The colour looks very convincing. Many thanks. No, that pot was just chosen at random as a size comparison. The StuG is actually painted in Tamiya's new Dark Yellow 2 (XF-88). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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