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MiniArt 1/35 Panzer III Ausf.B


Ned

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Inspired by @Bertie McBoatface's joy at building MiniArt kits, I have decided to ride into the jaws of Death and tackle this mechanical marvel. The Ausf A Panzer III had coil-spring suspension which wasn't strong enough, so the engineers threw everything at the Ausf B in the hope that something would work. MIniArt have done a grand job of reproducing the complexity, including far too many "don't glue this bit" arrows in the 15 assembly steps :)

I'm going to ignore the instructions and build a nice solid hull first, because nobody wants a wobbly twisted hull, do we?

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Bloody Hell! I've only stuck 4 bits together and already I've made a mistake!! MiniArt redid the front and rear hull because they got it wrong, and mr "I don't need to follow instructions" went and glued the old rear panel in place.

Lesson learned.

 

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1 hour ago, Ned said:

Bloody Hell! I've only stuck 4 bits together and already I've made a mistake!! MiniArt redid the front and rear hull because they got it wrong, and mr "I don't need to follow instructions" went and glued the old rear panel in place.

Lesson learned.

 

 

That's a big shame Ned, can you not unglue by adding Tamiya extra thin to the joints of the rear panel and slowly pulling apart, I have done that in the past when I had mistakenly glued into wrong position...

 

Ed

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49 minutes ago, edjbartos said:

 

That's a big shame Ned, can you not unglue by adding Tamiya extra thin to the joints of the rear panel and slowly pulling apart, I have done that in the past when I had mistakenly glued into wrong position...

 

Ed

Yes, I realised quickly enough and was able to unglue it. No harm done. I enjoy this juggling part of the build. In my mind I am an engineer assembling the first prototype from sheets of armour plate on a machine room floor.

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3 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

You don't need to follow MiniArt instructions but it's often helpful to read them before disregarding them. 😁

This will be my mantra from now on. Thanks Bertie.

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Time for some photos I suppose. This is the kit that I have. It includes a corrected front and rear hull. Look at all of those wheels!

"THIS IS NOT A TOY"

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Nice looking instructions, with markings for 5 tanks. All of them are pretty similar, but one of them is the early brown-over-grey scheme so is currently winning.

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Loads of sprues! 2 big ones, 1 with replacement hull parts, and then loads of little ones with fiddly bits on.

A small PE sheet, transparencies and decals.

There's also 4 figures in Grattan catalogue poses, all wearing jaunty hats.

And of course I now realise that I don't have tracks because I nicked them for the Bronco Ausf A last year. I think I've got some Friuls tucked away somewhere. Or I could just buy an Ausf C and steal them from that.

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Here's the hull so far. Only just started really, there's still loads to go on. Those brackets that stick out under the hull are just crying out to get broken off. The suspension arms are very poorly moulded compared to the rest of the kit for some reason.

The suspension is fixed, but the bogies can be fitted movable should you want to pose one breaking down as it drives over a rutted field.

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Onwards!

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4 hours ago, Ned said:

Or I could just buy an Ausf C and steal them from that.

But then you'll need to buy another when you start to build the Ausf C and realise you used the ....         oh, wait.

 

That's the plan isn't it. A never-ending stream of Panzer III kits

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1 hour ago, psdavidson said:

But then you'll need to buy another when you start to build the Ausf C and realise you used the ....         oh, wait.

 

That's the plan isn't it. A never-ending stream of Panzer III kits

I might already have one or two or nine in the stash. In my defence, it is my favourite tank. I don't have a 'C' though. Or a 'D' for that matter...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Slow progress, there are just soooo many parts and they all need a bit of fettling to get them right. The suspension has been made far too fiddly by MiniArt in an attempt to make the wheels turn and the bogies move, but the end result would just be too fragile to be of any use. Everything is glued bar the drive sprockets, but the road wheels are all nice and level.

There are also some odd (circled) holes in the hull that I'm going to have to block because they don't make any sense. The suspension isn't finished, there's some dirty great shock absorbers to go on yet, but I think that I want to get some paint on the cart springs and big rubber bump stops while I can still get to them.

I've found some Trex tracks in the stash so I'll be having a go with them when I'm in the mood!

Nasty join between the rear and middle upper hull. I'm going to fit the side vents a bit further forward than they should be to cover the join. Don't tell anyone.

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I really liked this kit.  I had the original-issued kit with the incorrect parts and had installed the wrong rear hull plate before finding out it was wrong, so I feel your pain. I picked up an aftermarket (TMD) correction set, but the build stalled as cleaning the resin was a LOT of effort and I lost interest.

Stick with it, you’ll be glad you did.

Miniart sent me the corrected styrene and PE parts (they have awesome customer service historically, although they are facing challenges lately for sure).

I was able to “unglue” the old incorrect parts and clean everything up.  That gave me the motivation to jump back in and I built the Miniart B, then their C and D immediately after.

Waiting patiently for them to release the Pz III Ausf. D Befhelswagen…

52175927542_a7b9f1132d_b.jpg

The painting instructions are incorrect-ALL Panzer IIIs through the French campaign were grey and brown.

Edited by f matthews
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5 hours ago, f matthews said:

I really liked this kit.  I had the original-issued kit with the incorrect parts and had installed the wrong rear hull plate before finding out it was wrong, so I feel your pain. I picked up an aftermarket (TMD) correction set, but the build stalled as cleaning the resin was a LOT of effort and I lost interest.

Stick with it, you’ll be glad you did.

Miniart sent me the corrected styrene and PE parts (they have awesome customer service historically, although they are facing challenges lately for sure).

I was able to “unglue” the old incorrect parts and clean everything up.  That gave me the motivation to jump back in and I built the Miniart B, then their C and D immediately after.

Waiting patiently for them to release the Pz III Ausf. D Befhelswagen…

52175927542_a7b9f1132d_b.jpg

The painting instructions are incorrect-ALL Panzer IIIs through the French campaign were grey and brown.

Nice! Like you I want to build one of each mark, and in order, but for my sanity I think I'll skip the C and D, although I do like the early grey/brown camouflage.

Kudos for picking the B variant with the most difficult decal placement, getting them to sit over the hatches must've been hard work. The crews back then just had no consideration at all for us future modellers :) 

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Looking good Ned, Miniart working suspensions are always a bit of a nightmare, the same problems occur with their T54/T55 series, where everything is supposed to be movable, they are definitely that when they fall off.! So gluing them in place is the right decision. I have done one of these many years ago, looking at yours is making me want to try another...🙂

 

Ed

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18 hours ago, Ned said:

Nice! Like you I want to build one of each mark, and in order, but for my sanity I think I'll skip the C and D, although I do like the early grey/brown camouflage.

Kudos for picking the B variant with the most difficult decal placement, getting them to sit over the hatches must've been hard work. The crews back then just had no consideration at all for us future modellers :) 

This is so true!  That was a point where I seriously considered scrapping that scheme, but then I’d have three virtually identical tanks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not much to report. I've been grabbing the odd half hour to work on the build, but with so many parts it's taking forever. The sprues are still half full!

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I've made the (inevitable) purchase of a 'C', along with a set of some Lifecolor paint for the grey and brown scheme.

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And because I've never ever built anything Russian, I bought a Hobbyboss BT-2. I was expecting a dinky little 2-man early tank but it will possibly break my 'nothing bigger than a Panzer III' rule. Why on earth is it so big? Did it have a bedroom in there? I wanted something small to go with my collection.

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On 20/09/2022 at 18:29, Ned said:

Bloody Hell! I've only stuck 4 bits together and already I've made a mistake!! MiniArt redid the front and rear hull because they got it wrong, and mr "I don't need to follow instructions" went and glued the old rear panel in place.

Lesson learned.

 

RTFM springs to mind!

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Tracks!

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This weekend I need to have a go at making a towing cable for the first time, and put the track guards together. If I can do that and put the last few fiddly bits on then I might get some primer on before a few days away.

 

And a peek at my Panzer III stash, which is getting a little out of hand!

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19 hours ago, Stef N. said:

Nice stash,Ned👍 How did you find the TRex tracks to build?

They went together ok, but I'm a little bit disappointed, I wanted them to be amazing. The pins are just ever so slightly too big to push fully home into the links, I think that a true push fit that is neither too tight nor too loose is just beyond the tolerances of 3D printing. Annoyingly the inner pins that you don't see are a better fit than the outer ones.

But still, they're better than the Miniart ones, which in turn are better than the Bronco ones were on my Ausf A (they got smashed and ground up in a frustrated mad hig when I'd just had enough of them!).

I wanted them to be better than Friul ones, but I think that metal still has the edge.

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Right then, here it is doused in NATO black as a primer. I wanted to get black into all of the nooks and crannies of the suspension, so that I don't have to worry too much later on.

The fenders will go on once the running gear is done. I hope this isn't a mistake - getting them on is a bit fiddly, so I'll probably break something off attempting it.

My phone camera really doesn't like black, but I can assure you that it is.

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Here's my way of getting black into the track links. Masking tape sticky side out around a can of Pepsi Max (other carbonated soft drinks are available). I need a smaller diameter can, so I'm eyeing up the tonic water cans that my wife has in the fridge).

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That'll be it for a while now. Off to Oslo tomorrow for a few days, then it's on to the half-track GB. Unfinished kits are starting to stack up now (Toldi tank, Kadett staff car, this) so I need to have a word with myself.

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