Stug 40 by Dan Vadas - FINISHED - GPM - CARD - WW2 German Tank -

[vossiewulf]

Very nice job, Danny.

 

BTW I don't know where the 40 comes from, since this is a standard SturmGeschutz (StuG) III. It took its designation from the fact that it was built on the Panzer III hull, and eventually Panzer III production stopped entirely in favor of the StuG- as the war turned against Germany they needed more and more AT assets to deal with the Soviet T-34 hordes, and the StuG III G and later were quite effective tank killers with a good 75mm/L48 gun. Without turrets they were also cheaper and faster to build, and the StuG III was the most-produced armored vehicle built by Germany in WWII, with somewhere around 10,000 being built.

 

The StuGs were Von Manstein's idea, the early versions had a short-barreled 75MM gun intended to fire primarily HE in support of infantry attacks, hence its name which literally means assault gun. They often operated as single platoons parcelled out across an infantry battalion to support the infantry assaults, and were quite successful in this role. However, as noted their role changed during the war to basically exactly the same as a Pz-IV or -V, primarily a tank hunter and only secondarily supporting infantry.

 

Interestingly, the crews of StuGs were not part of the Panzerwaffe, they were artillery soldiers since their first role supporting infantry envisaged considerable use of the short-barrel 75mm in the indirect role.

 

With respect to the numbers you see on the side of German StuGs/tanks, they are usually company/platoon/vehicle, so if you see 321 that's the command tank of the second platoon of third company. Two-digit numbers were not at all typical, so not sure what the 40 is meant to be.

[Captain Slog]

Just catching up on your build Danny and great work as usual so far.

 

Having built a 160 individual track links I can feel your pain 😃

 

42 minutes ago, vossiewulf said:

not sure what the 40 is meant to be.

I am guessing its because it has the 75mm Pak 40 gun to distinguish it from the other versions available from the same publisher.

 

Cheers

Slog

 

Edited January 4, 2019 by Captain Slog

[Richmond]

Dan

 

Those tank tracks put my whinge about the difficulties of skinning of a hull into perspective

 

Nice work

 

Richmond

[vossiewulf]

23 minutes ago, Captain Slog said:

Just catching up on your build Danny and great work as usual so far.

 

Having built a 160 individual track links I can feel your pain 😃

 

I am guessing its because it has the 75mm Pak 40 gun to distinguish it from the other versions available from the same publisher.

 

Cheers

Slog

 

That sounds like a good guess, but one wonders why they couldn't just say StuG III ausf G and use its proper name. With the tracks, the cover art shows Winterketten. Don't tell me you're trying to do Winterketten with paper also, that would qualify as cruel and unusual punishment of customers by a publisher.

[popeye the sailor]

catching up with your project Danny........you've certainly created one sweet looking model.   the open concept would be interesting to do,  but like with car models {early ones at that},  they gave them opening doors hoods and trunks for that very reason.   you have the movable hatches,  so that would suffice very well     the boggies are awesome.......you did a great job with them....right down to the drive gears.   I wish you well with the track.  did you look into the link that maaaslo posted......looked like a decant replacement.   almost done........fantastic job!  

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you all for the comments, and especially vossiewulf for the extra information .

 

I have finally finished gluing up both sets of tracks. That was quite a marathon . Below are some details of the "teeth" and "lugs" :

 

Fitting the tracks to the body isn't easy. I started by first gluing the locating lugs to the idler pulley, and then glued the pulley to the chassis :

 

The drive pulley is only glued to the tracks at one point so far, and not glued at all to the top rollers yet. Once the idler pulley has dried I'll glue the drive pulley into place. The bottom rollers will be fitted last to tension the tracks :

 

Danny

[vossiewulf]

Danny, very nice job once again. But if you're a stickler for accuracy, the winterketten track extensions on your track should bend inward toward the bogies a bit. See pic below for an example.

 

[Baker]

Danny,

 

Tracks on a scalemodel can always be a bit too long or too short (Unfortunately, I have already experienced this a lot...)
Do not glue the tracks before you are sure that the length is correct.

I would first place the front and last wheel (bottom rollers) then you see if the tracks have the correct length.

The track tension is  controlled with the idler wheel.

 

Nice work.

 

 

 

[Matrim]

this is an impressive kit for card....I am surprised how realistic it is looking. (not a reference to your modelling skills!!!)

[Dan Vadas]

13 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

the winterketten track extensions on your track should bend inward toward the bogies a bit.

That's easily done after the tracks are installed.

 

3 hours ago, Backer said:

The track tension is  controlled with the idler wheel.

Unfortunately the idler wheel is the first one I need to glue to the track. The lugs are too tight and there is too much friction to fit it last. I found out the hard way that the tracks are one segment too long - a bit of cutting and re-gluing coming up.

 

Danny

[Baker]

too long is not a problem.
you can bend the tracks a little down between the return rollers.

This calls "a sagging look" i think.

 

[popeye the sailor]

must have been grueling adding all those lugs on the tracks.  is the drive gear movable?  is there a way to compensate the slack from the top,  as your adding the tension boggies?   they look really good   

[maaaslo]

3 hours ago, Backer said:

too long is not a problem

This calls "a sagging look" i think.

 

Yes, it is called sagging. And sagging can be quite significant

https://goo.gl/images/fgoa6q

Edited January 8, 2019 by maaaslo

[Dan Vadas]

5 hours ago, Backer said:

too long is not a problem.
you can bend the tracks a little down between the return rollers.

This calls "a sagging look" i think.

 

The tracks were actually TWO segments too long, far too long to compensate for by "sagging". No problem, it's already fixed :

You'll notice that one roller has come adrift, easily fixed .

 

Danny

[popeye the sailor]

sweet!   

[Reg]

Looks perfect!!

 

Greg

[Richmond]

Great workmanship

[Baker]

great work!

[pontiachedmark]

Gidday Danny. 

Once again your standards are high and reflected in your work.

All the best.

Mark.

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you all .

 

Getting near the end of the build. The last major part - the gun :

 

All that's left to do are some minor details - a 50 cal machine gun, some jerry cans and tools, etc.

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

This model is now finished, here are the final pics :

 

Danny

[ccoyle]

Danny, you never cease to impress!

[druxey]

Congrats, Dan! Looks very convincing. So, what can we expect next?

[hof00]

Ditto to the above comments....

Awesome Build!!

 

Wot's next?

 

Cheers....HOF.

[Reg]

beautiful!

 

Greg

[pontiachedmark]

Fantastic result Danny.

Looking forward to your future builds.

All the best.

Mark.

[popeye the sailor]

sweet look'in tank Danny........really great job!~

[Captain Slog]

Fantastic work Danny, well done!

 

Seeing that is psyching me up to return to my artillery tractor...if it wasn't almost 3000kms away.

 

looking forward to next project.

 

Cheers

Slog

[Baker]

Well done

[cog]

took you long enough, Dan ... isn't 2.5 month for a tank streching it a bit ... look at the speed you produce them battleships!

 

Well done. looks amazing, down to the smallest detail.

 

What's next?