Welcome to the world of Dragon armour. Actually, this is one of their early kits from the Imperial Series. I've not built this one, but that series of kits are not up to Dragons standard of the last 10/15 years. I would never say ditch a kit, but i would not build this myself and i am not sure how much experiance you have with 35th armour, but i would no recomend Dragon to a novice.

Was this originally a Dragon kit? Someone here (sorry I forgot who now) told me a bunch of the Imperial Series were older kits, often by companies like Alan and Eastern Express from the Russian Federation and former Warsaw Pact members. 

G, some of the older Dragon kits were originally Gunze. But from what i can tell on scalemates, this was a re-box of an early 90's Dragon original. Thouhg i may be reading scalemates wrong.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/dragon-9031-stug-iii-ausf-a--132772

Thanks Bish, I remember now that Dragon replaced the metal parts in some of Gunze's high-grade kits. 

Sorry, getting old and my memory wasn't that great to begin with. 

Thanks Bish. I am a fairly experienced modeler, if not a particularly good one, so I'm going to have a crack. Although by the look of it I'm going to have my work cut out for me.

I remember that I built that kit back in the '90s.  I swore at the time that I would never build another by Dragon/DML.  I lied . . .

Bill

Well Bill, I have made a start. The instructions are confusing and at times just plain unhelpful. I gather there are parts for another version in there as well. At the moment I am working on the running gear and I think I have got the axle arrangements worked out. I actually have some exellent references, but they are upstairs in my study and with this busted leg I can't acess them. It doesn't matter anyway as this is just a re-introduction to building armour for me. So as long as it looks like a tank and I can achieve a reasonable finish I'll be happy. Not looking forward to those tracks though.

This is a mongrel of a kit! Give me Tamiya any day.

I made a couple of the Dragon Stug III kits of a later variety,like the last 10 years and they are fantastic kits,one of my favorite builds here

Beautiful work Tojo. I imagine this has more to do with  the age of the kit and my incompetence. Having never built a kit with styrene individual track links before, can I ask how you handled the painting and glueing? I have always believed that glue does not like a painted surface and yet with this kit I will have painted road wheels and track. I wonder how that is going to work?

Yes those old Imperial kits were difficult,not up to newer Dragon standards.

Okay, the roadwheels were painted off the tank,but keep the hole and the mounting post clean,you can even use thinner to wipe paint off the post before gluing.

For the tracks,Google indie track tutorial,there are a few out there.

Quickly what I do is assemble the whole run minus one or two links using a straight edge and Tamiya Extra Thin.Allow to dry about 30 minutes there will still be some flex in the tracks,then I bend the whole run around the sprockets,roadwheels,and idlers and form in the sag.All the wheels are not glued,just sitting in place at this time,let dry over night.Next day I remove them all,next paint and weather track.Once dry,I will reattach everything and glue in place.If you need those 1-2 links simply add them and blend them in.

Hope this is clear.

Thanks Tojo, very clear and great advice. I'll post some photos as I go.

Dodgy

Thanks Tojo, very clear and great advice. I'll post some photos as I go.

 

I wish I still had photos from those older builds but they got ducked up by the  photobucket fiasco

I have many DML kits over the last 30 years, the Stug III A though J, a couple of times each.  I'm finish ing a Stug III F now.  # 6033.   Even though I have a couple of the new ones.  BTW, I have built a couple of those as well.  I like them.  I have never understood the complaints about their instructions.  I see a few little errors, but not a big deal. Maybe I just have been building nonstop for the past 60 or so years of so, so I've been getting used to models.  The instrutions are only guides for me.   In any case, this Aust A looks fine with a paint job of panzer gray of any company on it.   Heck when I first started to pay attention to Panzer colors it was recommended  to me to use Lark Dark Grey by Floquill back in 1970.  Floquills not made any more.  Too bad.  They were big in RR colors too, great for Brass Engines, which I also built back in the day.  Back to the subject, I really like  Dragon models.  (Dragon , DML, same thing).  They have DONE EVERYTHING!  All the Panzer IIIs and IVs, Stugs, some Panzer II,  most of the Panzer Is, Sherman's, Priests.... the list goes on.  Great company.  No I don't work for them.

OK, some progress. Thanks to some good advice from Tojo I have a plan for finishing this beastie.

Well Tankboy, you are obviously a lot smarter than me. I find the instructions for this kit bloody confusing. Incidently I still have a couple of Floquill paints, good as ever.

Looks good.Don't add the fenders till after the tracks if you can

Is it kit 6860?  I've been working on mine, fit is fine, directions are fine, and mine is a "smart kit" and I have rubberband tracks.

Thanks Tojo, great advice once again. Its been 20 years since I have built any armour and I greatly appreciate your comments. This will not be a great model, but it will help bring me back up to speed on new models and painting techniques.

No its kit No. 9031 and in all honesty the fit is not that bad. I'm just so out of practice. I will stick by my comments on the instructions however.

Oh nice progress there- she's coming right along. 

Thanks GreySnake. It's probably more me and being out of touch for so long rather than the kit, but whatever after the first few frustrations I am enjoying the journey. I suppose part of the problem was that I have never built a Dragon kit before and I kept on hearing how good they were, so my expectations were high. But as Tojo points out I have an early sample of their work, so..... However I have a couple more of them in the stash and intend to build them. Nobody ever said modeling was meant to be easy!

Thanks Gamera. I hope to get some paint on her this weekend.

Thanks Gamera. Despite my initial predjudice, I've actually enjoyed the journey back into armour, although its been 10 years.

I do like Dragon's kits, but their older ones can be downright confusing.  They got better as they gained experience.  However, they do confusing things sometimes that other manufacturers somehow avoid.  For example, I have most of their M4 Shermen kits. Some of them have over 900 parts while others have more reasonable parts counts.  Some instructions are much better than others.  Yes, I understand that some of their kits come with individual track links which inflate the parts counts, but that doesn't account for some of their kits being overly complex.  But, they all build into beautiful models.

Dodgy,  your Stug III looks great!

Bill Morrison

Thanks Bill. A couple more photos before it hits the paint stand.

Dodgy

 

Harold