Jump to content

Finnish Army's StuG. III Ausf. G in 1/35


Recommended Posts

A couple of days ago I finished my latest build, the Finnish army's StuG. Ausf. G III .These assault guns played a very important role in halting the red army's massive attack in the Karelian isthmus near Leningrad during June-July, 1944. The fate of Finland was at stake. If the Russians had been able to break through they would have marched directly to Helsinki and conquered the whole country. It would have been the end of Finland as a nation. But the advance of the red army was halted in fierce fights. One important element were the 59 German assault guns that were bought just in time to strengthen up the Finnish defence. These StuG III's destroyed in total 87 Russian tanks while own losses were 8 StuGs.

 

My model is a kitbashing build of the Dragon 1/35 scale StuG III  kit and the Tamiya Finnish StuG III special edition. I vandalized the Tamiya kit of its Finnish modifications, for instance the large tool box in the rear, the spare wheel racks on the sides of the StuG,, the modified shield for the machine gun and the DT assault rifle as well as the C-shaped hooks. The tracks are white metal ones of Master Club. The problem I noticed too late was the size of the tracks.They didn't exactly fit the teeth of the drive sprocket. I will have to fix that problem going forward.

 

For the markings and the Finnish swastika (nothing to do with the nazi one, though) I bought the very good decal set of Echelon. Building the model was straightforward and maybe the hardest part was painting the complex green, brown and beige camouflage. I used Vallejo color's paints for the job. I finished the build by weathering the model with several AK's pigments. Many of the StuGs had a wife's or girl friend's name written above the visor of the driver. My model was named "Liisa" and it was one of the highest scoring assault guns with nine tanks destroyed.

 

spacer.png

 

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

  • Like 32
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great Sturmgeschütz! I read about the Finnish Army's operations with the StuG III in Osprey's Duel 96. A very interesting and brave episode of the war.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Toryu said:

Great Sturmgeschütz! I read about the Finnish Army's operations with the StuG III in Osprey's Duel 96. A very interesting and brave episode of the war.

Thank you!

 

It's nice to hear that you read about our history

 

Cheers,

Einar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really nice Stug and a nice amalgamation of the two kits to create something a little different, particularly like the unique camo scheme too!:like:

 

Perhaps something for the future but as far as I know it was the loaders hatch that when open would lock the machine gun shield into the vertical position 

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/kUEEfebsyjkN61oS9

 

(Hope you don't mind me mentioning it).

 

Great build, thanks for posting. 

Darryl 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Really nice Stug and a nice amalgamation of the two kits to create something a little different, particularly like the unique camo scheme too!:like:

 

Perhaps something for the future but as far as I know it was the loaders hatch that when open would lock the machine gun shield into the vertical position 

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/kUEEfebsyjkN61oS9

 

(Hope you don't mind me mentioning it).

 

Great build, thanks for posting. 

Darryl 

Thank you very much for your comments Darryl..and by no means do I mind. Thanks for the pictures.. You are quite right about the locking mechanism of the machine gun shield. I really should've left the hatches open. Unfortunately,  it's too late now!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Einar said:

Thank you very much for your comments Darryl..and by no means do I mind. Thanks for the pictures.. You are quite right about the locking mechanism of the machine gun shield. I really should've left the hatches open. Unfortunately,  it's too late now!

Cheers

 

Einar

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Einar

Great Stug! You did it very well. It is a pity that we do not see real colors in the photos.

During the war, the Finns did a lot with them. The Finns were great soldiers, little Finland withstood the huge Russian army. I read a lot about the Finnish war, this made a big impression on me. When I do Stug, I will make it probably Finnish.

 

Vytautas

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, vytautas said:

Hi, Einar

Great Stug! You did it very well. It is a pity that we do not see real colors in the photos.

During the war, the Finns did a lot with them. The Finns were great soldiers, little Finland withstood the huge Russian army. I read a lot about the Finnish war, this made a big impression on me. When I do Stug, I will make it probably Finnish.

 

Vytautas

Thank you very much Vytautas!

 

I really appreciate your words about Finland and our history. Good luck with your Finnish StuG!

 

Cheers,

Einar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey! Nice to see a finnish StuG here.

And it's a very nice model indeed. All the finnish features are there and the three-tone camo has turned out spot on.

As your track issue, I suggest you have too early 38cm tracks on it. Finnish StuG's were 43/44 production and used wider 40cm tracks.

According to Andreaslarka.net PS.531-6 Liisa had 40cm closed horn track without chevrons - these would be MasterClub MTL35012. Wider tracks would probably fit your sprocket just fine.

 

I myself have done a finnish StuG many years ago. I used a Dragon kit as well and also had Echelon decals, but opted for PS531-8 Aili.


Kristjan

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, vaoinas said:

Hey! Nice to see a finnish StuG here.

And it's a very nice model indeed. All the finnish features are there and the three-tone camo has turned out spot on.

As your track issue, I suggest you have too early 38cm tracks on it. Finnish StuG's were 43/44 production and used wider 40cm tracks.

According to Andreaslarka.net PS.531-6 Liisa had 40cm closed horn track without chevrons - these would be MasterClub MTL35012. Wider tracks would probably fit your sprocket just fine.

 

I myself have done a finnish StuG many years ago. I used a Dragon kit as well and also had Echelon decals, but opted for PS531-8 Aili.


Kristjan

Hi Kristjan!

 

Thank you very much for your positive comments!

 

..and you are quite right. The MasterClub tracks that I used are not the correct ones. When now comparing them with the plastic tracks of the Dragon kit the difference could be clearly seen. I should have ordered the MTL35012 tracks instead! How stupid of me🙈! Thank you for solving the problem👍

 

Cheers 

Einar 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...