Stug III Ausf G (#6365)

Looking good Brutus!

I agree with you about the gun assembly. I built the 1/35 Dragon Brummbar a couple of years or so back and the the entire gun assembly was a model in itself!

It would have made sense if there was an interior but that was it - a big square space with a lovely breech assembly hidden away inside! Shame.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing some more of this one as you can't beat a good StuG - best of luck

ATVB

Ben

                             Great work so far,as I have built four of these stug I can tell you from experience that fitting the upper casemate to the hull with the gun assembly glued in place is going to test your patience. I do not recall if there is a good way to accomplish the final assembly,many curse words,but I am certain that the brace that goes across the gun opening has to go. I the gun is already attached to the mount it will be somewhat of a bugger. I believe after the hull interior was finished and primerd red oxide ,or whatever you choose the completed floor and lower part of the gun were installed then the completed upper casemate and after that  the upper part of the gun assembly,followed by the upper gun opening brace and roof. I can say that the Dragon instructions will have you cursing. Hope this bit of info helps you to a less aggravating final assembly.Good luck my friend.

                                                  Greg"Detailfreak"Rowley

I'll echo Greg's sentiment...when building the same structure for the StuG IV build (http://www.bpmodels.net/Model/Album/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=46), I found that the following sequence was the only way to make it work:

"Step 14: This is an incredibly tricky step as it installs the gun into the fighting compartment, installs the casemate to the hull, and installs the exterior gun barrel and mantlet to the gun...and also adds the roof (which I haven't finished yet). What makes this tricky is that there's a very specific order that you have to do all these things in or it will not work properly...and there's only ONE way it will all work...so I studied this very carefully and did lots of dry-fitting before committing to glue. So, here goes...this is the order you have to do it in:

1) You must install the mantle to the breech portion of the gun
2) You must then elevate the gun to it's highest possible elevation which in turn depresses the recoil guard at the base to it's lowest point
3) You must then slip the elevated gun, from the bottom, up over the bottom lip of the opening in the casemate. This is a tough thing to do and you have to be patient because the tolerances around the mantlet are tight but if you carefully work at it, you can get it all to fit. Don't force it though and make absolutely sure the mantlet glue has set up properly to avoid an accidental separation of the mantlet from the breech.
4) You must then place the casemate and the gun together onto the lower hull, which means you have to simultaneously glue the base of the gun into the mount plate and glue the casemate to its mount points on the fender. Test the gun elevation carefully as pressure on the mantlet front end can cause the base to lift up from the mount plate which can cause major problems if it comes all the way undone.
5) After you have this all glued in place, you then add part C12 to the top of the casemate gun opening and that essentially secures the gun in place permanently.

If you pull all that off successfully, you get a very nice solid installation of the gun and casemate sans the roof."

brutus, thats looking good, and agree about the gun, its a pity it will be out of sight.

thx you guys. Yes, I am well aware of the fit issues(and the hours of mental cussing and the whatthef&*#'s) as well as wondering and dryfitting I have done so far. Bill, your a lifesaver. I saw the one on your blog, I just honestly did'nt look at it very hard...... I will now. Thanks again guys, I'll have another update on this one by this weekend, as I'm hoping to get color on it tomorrow or Thursday.

I have decided to go in a COMPLETELY different direction on this one. I am going to put this on hold for now, I have been wanting to do a rail dio for some time now w/something wrecked being loaded. I think this is the perfect one for that. SO, I am going to include a flat rail car, and a Bergepanzer IV, I'll also need Zimm and an interior for the Stug. However, it will be a few weeks before I can get the interior, Zimm and railcar. So for now, I am going to focus on building the Bergepanzer. I'll post pics later this week in a different post of the construction on that. Thanks, and ideas/suggestions for the dio are more than welcome.

Sounds like a plan, look forward to seeing the dio come to life!