New forum member StuG IV... ** FINISHED PICS with FIGURE! **

Stampede wrote:

Help has arrived.......

German tow cables sported a left hand twist.

the doog wrote:

Stampede wrote:  detailfreak wrote: the projection from the front of the cupola ,being concrete,would not have a weld seam.but rather seperation marks where the lack of or poor bond to the steel is apparent.with yourself and 9 toe tanker applying zim there should be no need for any of us to apply zim in the field..have relatives in dorotea sweden,i believe they have a resort there.welcome. detailfreak, you need to enlighten me here. I've been checking out some references in Panzer Tracts #8 dealing with the various Stugs and it seems to me like there should be a weld seam around the base of the cupola. If you check out the two enclosed pics and compare the weld seam drawings in the saukopf area to the ones around the cupola base, don't you agree that this does look like weld seams? Feel free to chime in here... Thanx... I would tend to agree withyou, but I wouldn't make my decision based on a drawing; try to fing some photographic evidence instead to support it.

Found a good shot, and a description, in Squadron's Stug III G Walk-Around of the shot deflector. The weld seams are clearly visible and the caption indicates that it's a stamped steel piece, not cast as I'd originally thought. The design is identical between the StuG III and IV.

wbill76 wrote:

Found a good shot, and a description, in Squadron's Stug III G Walk-Around of the shot deflector. The weld seams are clearly visible and the caption indicates that it's a stamped steel piece, not cast as I'd originally thought. The design is identical between the StuG III and IV.

Thanx wbill76!

That's a really good shot, think I gotta get me this book. Seems that the only part I had wrong was the vertical seam I applied, and I also have to apply a seam around the bottom flange in front of the cupola.

Thanx again!

Erik

disastermaster, waddaya mean?

Should I make a new cable, but twisting it to the left when making it instead of to the right, as I did on this one?

al41andall wrote:

HELLO NORWAY! WELCOME! Here are some shots of an ITALERI Stug. IV before camo painting and weathering. It's an early zimmeritt attempt and I used a series of production shots for reference. I used SQUADRON white putty spread with an artist paint spatula with the handle removed so that I had a wide end and a narrow end for tight spots. I textured it with a small flat blade screw driver. I'll eventually finish this model. Hope this helps some.[/img]" border="0" />" border="0" />" border="0" />

Stampede wrote:

disastermaster, waddaya mean? Should I make a new cable, but twisting it to the left when making it instead of to the right, as I did on this one?

For the level of detail you are going for on this build....  yeah. Most people would view this as a nit-picky detail so it's up to you as to how far you want to go with it.

                                                                             Steve
 

disastermaster wrote:

Stampede wrote: disastermaster, waddaya mean? Should I make a new cable, but twisting it to the left when making it instead of to the right, as I did on this one? For the level of detail you are going for on this build....  yeah. Most people would view his as a nit-picky detail so it's up to you as to how far you want to go with it.                                                                              Steve

No rivet counting for this here dude... That's too far out for me...

Hi there Stampede.     Great looking work so far on an oldie

I made a tread about how I make my tow cables, here it is:

/forums/766220/ShowPost.aspx

Hope it can be of some help.      I'll be folllowing your build

detailfreak wrote:

very nice photo,i only stated that if it were a piece of cast concrete that it would have no weld seams.the squadron book stug III in action shows this to be concrete.we can learn alot here i believe

No worries detailfreak, just because it's in a book doesn't mean it's 100% true, just like the internet. Some of the older Squadron In Action books have some glaring errors...and your comment got me thinking that it could actually be concrete because of the curved shape...so I went looking as I've recently completed a StuG III G project of my own and had the book on hand for that. Some of the StuG III G crews did apply added concrete to the sloped areas over the driver and loader areas to get some additional protection there, but I'd not heard of the shot deflector also being of concrete and wanted to see if my own perception needed updating or not. I learned right along with you...my assumption that it was cast also turned out to be wrong.

Small update on the StuG...
Things have been goin' kinda slow with this one due to too much work elsewhere.
Finally received my PE sets and got down to some small business on the StuG, darn, PE is surely a ton of tiny parts.

Since this set originally was made to be motorized there is some rework that needs to be done on the lower hull. At my best effort, and with the reference photos I've got I tried to modify the rear idler mounts. 
I'd appreciate if some of you PZ IV gurus out there could point me in the right direction. Does the work I've done so far seem correct? Nice to not have to do things over again once finally finished.

Does this look correct?? 

Some cutting of the molded axle performed here.

Shaped after some ref. photos and other kit photos

Mounted some PE on both sides.

Got some other PE stuff mounted aswell, and more to come...

New saukopf, barrel og muzzle brake from Ausfwerks. These were awesome parts IMHO!

Here's some Aber, Eduard and home made stuff...

That's it for now...

OK, knock it off with all the mark IV's pleeeeease, I still have about 4 more StuG III's to build before I can start on the IV's and all these builds are making me want one!

But really though, this thing is looking nice, very nice!

Stampede,

First of all, welcome aboard, glad to have you on the forum...and secondly,  you are doing some REALLY advanced stuff for someone's whose taken a 25 year hiatus from modeling...and I must say the work is MIGHTY impressive.!

Couple things...I am not a zim' expert like others on the forum, so this is probably a question/comment, for them too.  I think the technique is superb, the only thing is it feels busy...did they cover the surfaces that much...even the lights?  I plan to build this tank too, so I am curious myself.  A great "tow cable" is picture frame hanging wire.  I bought a little box at the dollar store that had plenty of cable for several models, it came in two thicknesses, it even has the twist to it already.  From experience, primer it first.

If you don't mind a little self promo, and I know you've read " the doog's" now famous tutorial amongst us armor types, I've got a tutorial called "Winter Camo' Tutorial" here in armor.  It starts from my built kit and it will run all the way to "ready for shelf display".  I think you'll find the techniques helpful...even if you choose not to add the winter camo'

SMJ

Thanx a bunch for the nice comments guys! Really appreciated, since this is my first armor model.
Been doing some serious PE work since the last update! Man, I must say I really enjoy upgrading this ol' bootleg of a kit, kinda cool to see what can become of it.
Anyways, I'll let the pics mainly speak for themselves....almost.

I decided to upgrade this StuG to a late Ausf. G due to the fact that the Eduard PE set I got was for a late version. Collected as many pics as I could get my hands on of the Ausf. G and started converting. First I modified the exhaust, since I'm originally a car builder I tought these exhaust pipes were way cooler than the one on the early StuG's.

Added some weld seams to the pipes too as noticed on a ref. pic.




I also had to do some remodeling of the hatches and scratch build an MG mount and clip and add some PE to it. I also added a padlock to the hatches, tought that was kinda cool...

I decided to use the Eduard PE fenders so I cut of the plastic ones and replaced them. While I was at it I decided to strip the zim on the front glacis plate and redo it because I felt that the earlier applied zim was way to thick. I used AVES Apoxiesculpt from Ausfwerks for the new zim., great product and long work time before it cures. The front glacis plate also got some PE and some MK spare tracks on PE mounts. Here's the result...





Here's some pics of other details added. I bought a set of tools for Pz III-IV from Royal Model, a jack from Greif Accessories and mounted everything with clamps and holders from my Eduard and Aber PE sets.

Cleaning rods, I just had to drill'em...



Various tools and PE holders...










Made a new latch on the engine deck with PE.


I think that just about wraps it up with additions for now. My schurzen and brackets arrived from Squadron today so I guess that's next. Then it's time to get the Friul tracks out on the bench. And when they are done it's time for the nitty gritty stuff, paniting and weathering.... That's kinda intimidating since I've never done anything like that before on my car models, guess we'll just have to see how it turns out. Can't wait to get some paint on this one now...

Later...

Never done stug IV before, but I thought all late war vehicles had field applied zimmerit?
Compared to the factory zimmerit with beautiful designs, it seemed those done by the crews tend to be simpler and straighter.

Watch out the angle at which you insert the blade though (or screw driver head or w/e you use). Look closely at the real examples, one would probably find most zim patterns "pushed in" instead of "squeezed out".

BTW, the putty used to fill scratches on cars seemed to work well for this, except it smelled really bad. I use AB putty, but the window is sort of small.

rios wrote:

Never done stug IV before, but I thought all late war vehicles had field applied zimmerit? Compared to the factory zimmerit with beautiful designs, it seemed those done by the crews tend to be simpler and straighter.

WARNING! WARNING!

MENTION OF 'FIELD APPLIED ZIMM'

WARNING! WARNING!

Enter stage left....Manstien lol

Great build btw and welcome.

...Guy

rios wrote:

Never done stug IV before, but I thought all late war vehicles had field applied zimmerit? Compared to the factory zimmerit with beautiful designs, it seemed those done by the crews tend to be simpler and straighter. Watch out the angle at which you insert the blade though (or screw driver head or w/e you use). Look closely at the real examples, one would probably find most zim patterns "pushed in" instead of "squeezed out".

The zim on this StuG is modelled after the ridged zig zag pattern, as descirbed earlier in the thread, which is, as far as I can tell, correct for both the early and the late StuG IV. Zim on these vehicles was also applied in the standard ridged pattern. So the angle I have insterted my plastic spatula into the Squadron green, Apoxie sculpt and a couple of other putties should be correct for the pattern I've tried to replicate.

Anyways....thanx for looking.

Thought I'd post a few full shots of the StuG so far as well, here ya go...

Luftwoller wrote:

WARNING! WARNING! MENTION OF 'FIELD APPLIED ZIMM' WARNING! WARNING! ...Guy

Bwaaahaaahaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

According to the following website 

http://www.tankhunters.net/articulos/A1zimm1.htm

the zigzag stug IV pattern was only found on side panels of early and mid production. 

but hey, believe what you wished. 

the site  also gives good description of the other zimmerit types. I've never seen "squeezed out" type of pattern, but hey, that's just me...