Battle of the Stugs

The new tool Tamiya Stug is a top notch Early G. This is probably the best kit on the market of a Stug III. But, it is definitely the Early G.

Don't waste your time on the earlier Tamiya offering.


If you want anything other than an Early G, then you need to go Dragon.
I personnally liked the Dragon Stugs. Their detail is not as crisp as Tamiya's. But, they are definitely buildable kits. Some will need attention from the aftermarket people (namely the tracks and the tool clasps). I'd defintely sit down with the Achtung Panzer on the Stug III for any of the Dragon ones and correct what needed to be done. I've seen many modelers with not a tremendous amount of effort turn the Dragon Stugs into show-winners.

And if you bought each one of the Dragon Stugs, you could litterally build the entire Stug III family.

That's just my 2 cents. I hope this helps.

Tamiya makes only two StuG III kits. The old one is kit #35114, it is ancient. The new one is the StuG III Ausf. G 'fruhe' (early). This is a superb kit and the best StuG on the market in 1/35 scale. It is kit #35197, and I just got a Tank Workshop partial interior for it. It should be a great build.

DML makes several variants. I've had a friend build the Ausf. C and he said it wasn't too bad. I chose the Tamiya StuG III G early after reading a comparison between it and the DML StuG III G late. The conclusion was that the Tamiya kit was superior although the DML kit wasn't bad.

Besides, DML's PzKpfw III individual tracks are torture to build.

I hope this answers your questions unless you want to know about StuG IVs.

I have Dragon's Late G and it looks like a pretty nice kit. Yes it has those dreaded indy tracks for those who hate them. It doesn't come with Schurzen. Haven't built Tamiya's G, so can't compare kits.

I dont know about Tamiya's Stug but the Tamiya kits I've built were pretty good.

I agree with Rob, Dragon's tracks are a pain.

I have DML's Stug. III ausf F8 and Dragon's Stug. IV early type kits and both are crisply detailed. The individual tracks are going to be fun, though.

Regards, Dan

Thanks for the help guys, I' ll probably end up buying Tamiya's Stug III Early. What do you all think about Tamiya's Stug IV though?

Never built their Stug IV either, but it is one of their older offerings. Still, not much out there for Stug IV's. I built Italeri's many years ago and it was an okay kit.

At www.greatmodels.com they have a Stug IV #9038 for $28. I'm sure that's probably a good kit. Lots of little tracks though. I saw Academy's which I believe was Tamiya's old Stug IV for about $14 at www.rollmodels.com

QUOTE: Originally posted by Abercasten Thanks for the help guys, I' ll probably end up buying Tamiya's Stug III Early. What do you all think about Tamiya's Stug IV though?

Tamiya's StugIV is based on the older tooling for the PzIV. So, it has all the mistakes that one does.

But it is an easy build.

i just finished building the Dragon Stug III early version. I found the kit very nice to work with. I went with after market steel tracks, because of my schedule, I don't have time to finish a set of plastic tracks in one sitting. I also added other goodies like a camo net, fuel drum, spare parts, and water cans. I found this kit fun to build have fun