DF- THANKS... how is your Stug doing?  I promised myself that I will buy DML Stug III G whenever I see it but I think I am going to wait for new zimmerit set to arrive.  I can't remember when it is expected to be released.  I neglected to mention that one of the books you recommended has arrived today.  One of the best reference books on STUG I have seen so far.  Still waiting for volume 1 order to arrive... you are the best!  Here's the proof... LOL

TB- Thank you very much!  I am afraid I am addicted to modeling since returning to my hobby two years ago after 20+ years break.  BUT I work at very slow pace so I think it helps.  I saw MIG 'Fading Panzer Grey' at AMPS show in Auburn and I had to get it because I have been hearing nothing but great things about MIG products.  My last oil filtering treatment was a disaster as it nearly ruined my 234/1 during 8X8 GB if you recall... realized I brought the wrong kind of oil paint.  So I am still not too sure about doing the whole dot filtering treatment at this moment.  You have to try it... now I have to buy one for Allies tanks too.

Thanks friend,the second part of the sturmartillerie covers the stug IV, Brummbar,Sturmtiger and so forth. The bad part is there are no interior pics,My stug is getting close,I will try to get some fresh pics up.

Gosh, I haven't touched my baby Stug for last two nights... want to know why?  Had guests staying at our house as they were on their way driving to the eastern coast from California.  One of their kids who was six years old and believe me he was a little devil sent to us from hell!!!  No kidding... drove me and my family even my young boys crazy!  We never saw a boy misbehave that badly so I had to hide all of my models somewhere safe until he is gone.  By the time he is in bed, I was too exhausted to do anything.  Now with my immediate family coming to stay with us for next four days starting today I will be lucky enough to touch my baby Stug. 

Of course their visit made me and my wife appreciate how fortunate we are to have our boys how they are now. At least I will be busy drinking up beer from the keg over the weekend... LOL  You guys are welcome to help me empty the beer keg!

Thanks Deafpanzer I am going to need one or twenty-one.Bad luck so to speak.Our next door nieghbor and family friend disappeared yesterday morning,the sherifs dept. was called and one deputy was dispatched.When it became obvious that more help was needed they dispatched one additional officer.These guys took an amazing twenty minutes to get there *** together and start walking a river bottom about the size of a football field.Well I could not stand by and watch,the road through the trailer park here runs along the river.I searched along theroad as the banks are sloughing into the river from all the rain and I feared he may have gotten to close.Well to my dismay I found my good friend Darrel's four wheeler upside down in three feet of muddy fast moving water.Darrel Johnson drowned after becoming trapped under his submerged atv. I do not feel like modeling.Sorry to vent this here,its just on my mind.I will finish the stug by the deadline!!!

Oh my, I am very sorry to hear about your friend.  Yours is nothing compared to mine dealing with a little devil from hell.  I can't imagine what his family and friends are going thru.  We are your friends and you are welcome to vent here.  You go and take care of his family as they need you more than your model.  Deadline can always wait as I am sure the moderator understands completely.  Again I am very sorry about this...

I'll be ok Deafpanzer,as I said I just needed to vent a bit.Darrel was 74 and an insulin dependent man.,retired navy,always said " you don't want to join the navy because in all likely hood you will end up hauling a bunch of damn marines around" then LHAO.Just getting the fenders on now,final detailing of the engine compartment,a few additions to the fighting compartment,weathering and by then it should be all over.

I am building this Tamiya Stug III now. Did you all detail the interior before or after painting the outside gray? I am trying to figure out what would be best and easiest.

Wildman,I always use aa iron oxide ,or something close to it colored primer.The actual color of the primer is something of a hull red,the paint I prefer to use is Krylon indoor/outdoor primer,the color is called ruddy brown.I brush paint all of my projects after the priming stage so in my case it doesn't really matter when I paint/or what order of assembly I paint at. Hope this sheds a little light on your question.

Hey Iraqiwildman!  Yup, I remember you bought Tamiya Stug III after I recommended because it was readily available at Hobby Lobby.  You made the right choice especially that the kit is not one of those OLD Tamiya kits.  I hope you have been enjoying it... easy and fun at my end but the building part was too short for me as I like kits with hundreds of parts. LOL

I painted the interior first... MM Panzer Buff but no details yet until I painted the exterior using MM Panzer Grey.  Used lots of tapes (Frog tape is the best... thanks to Indy) to protect the interior before you attack the exterior.  Then I did the detail painting for both interior and exterior at the same time because often I used same paint.  Hope this helps...

As usual I seem to be draggin this out right to the end! Have managed to complete some interior work and will button this one up soon. Got the fenders attached to the upper casement. Need to do some touch-up painting in the engine compartment. Install the drivers seat,gunners seat. Put some OVM on the fenders.

HOT DAMN!  I am loving your work, DF!  This explains why it took you forever to build this kit with so many details going on.  No wonder you came up with the profile name.  Looks like you may finish the race before I do!  My family from NY and Canada are still here but they all leave in the morning.  I am hoping that I can do some touch-up painting tonight and apply more MIG weathering pigment before I call it done. 

My another playboy issue has arrived yesterday...

 You will be hearing from me tomorrow or I'd be voted off the tribe.

Thats the one on Sturmartillerie I have. Got to get that other one. You'll make  it to the finish line just like I will. we'll have to update every few hours or so tommorrow.

And now,the end is near,and though I face the final curtain.I've lived a life thats full with each and every highway,and much,much more than this,I did it my way. HaHaHa. I think that's about how Sid Viscous of the SEX PISTOLS put it into perspective.well as time runs out I'm still a few hrs away from finishing. DNF me ASAP.

I'm gonna have to go that route too with my second build -- list my Italeri Jagdpanzer IV L/70 as DNF. Durn, that's two GBs it didn't get finished for! Still, I got my badge for the STRV 103B earlier in the year.

Cheers, and thanks for the fun,

Mike/TB379

Is this GB now over?

Had signed up at the beginning but never got around to cutting sprue. Was going to do the M40-75 this weekend during a local 6 hour build.

If it is no problem. Just wanted to ask. Been looking back through the posts and saw some really awesome work!!! Great work guys.

See ya

Scott

LOL!  Same goes for me... I am about 99% completed with my Stug B then I made a BIG mistake last night and I am afraid it ruined my previous weathering pigment work using MIG Fading Panzer Grey as you have seen.  Like I said I am still learning.  I believe I should have applied some kind of protective coating to protect such as dull or flat coat before I apply another coat of MIG weathering pigment.  Have you done that before? If so, what should I have used? 

I spent 2-3 hours trying to fix my mistake... I hope to post the pictures tonight with my new camera.  I am going to buy one at Best Buy after work... I am thinking about getting Canon PowerShot 14.1 Megapixel Digital Camera for $229.  It has white balance controls which seems to be very critical for you guys while taking pictures of the models.

Here's my update... I didn't get the new camera because I had to work late yesterday but managed to get a new chair as a birthday gift from my parents for my workspace I built last spring.  You won't believe how comfortable it is... it was on sale for only $109 at Office Max down from $179.  Sale expires next week I think...  

Here's my Stug... I did my best to correct my mistake but it didn't go away completely.  I think I applied too much MIG weathering pigment.  Hope you can tell me why... if you can look closely at front and back top parts of the hull. 

I need to correct the cable to make it laying down against the fender behind the tool box.  Just noticed this...

Used old fashioned pencil on the edges, hinges and corners of the Stug especially the tracks.  I think I need to do little more...

Sorry about the poor quality picture for this... I can't wait to get a new camera over the weekend.  Was still using my BlackBerry...

Too much rust on the mufflers or is it just right?

Closer shot of the tools... I know guys are crazy about tools!   Small amount of rust weathering pigment was applied to some tools such as cable and cable holders, etc.

Those are two figures I plan to work for next 2-3 weeks before my trip to Denmark & Sweden.  I wanted to make sure the colors of uniforms are accurate for this?  Not black uniforms I always thought in early stage of war against the Russians during the invasion in 1942. 

Again, thank you for looking and support!  I will take and post better pictures with the new camera.  Happy July 4th! 

Awwww, I wanna workshop like that!!!!

Seriously, DP, while there's the artist in us that will always want to fiddle with the fine details until they are perfect, I would have to say that this build is very high quality and passes muster in ever way. It's realistic, the cumulative effect 'suspends disbelief" in the viewer, and that's the object of all simulation. You've built an absolute winner!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Well ok,heres the last of the pics of the yet to be completed stug. The brass catcher is scratchbuilt from tissue,the ammo bin from plastic card,the steering levers are copper phone wire with a touch of insulation left on for the handgrips.As this is my fourth or fifth stug smart kit I can tell anyone who is planning to build one to shorten the recoil guard. And that installing the upper fighting compartment with the gun glued in place may cause one to pull his hair out. Read any and all reviews you find!




Oh, Deafpanzer I really do'nt see any thing wrong with the stug,looks good to me. All you need now is vehicle #'s 11,12,14,15, is what the germans called a zug/platoon. See you all at the next one.

I continue to work my way to finshing this build as well as a couple others that I started at the same time as the stug. The front hull plates were re-installed.
And heres a shot of the stug B I was working on at the same time. I may have to use the same decals for the stug abtielung as Deafpanzer and a different vehicle number. I shall continue to plug away until I am finished,and will continue to post progress pics here.

Beautiful!  Want to trade Stugs?  I like your figure... who makes it?  I'd like to use it for my future Stug build.  Detailfreak, tell us how many models are you working right now?  I have seen you in other GBs and armor recently... looks like you are building 3-4 kits at a time. LOL

For next two weeks I will focus on figures for the Stug and 234/1 that I built for 8X8 GB earlier.  Then I will start the Panzer 1 Ausf A in August for Battle of Norway GB with Huxy as moderator.  Feel free to join us there...

Happy July 4th buddy! 

Nine or eleven


These are just a couple of the figure sets I like.
The panzer crew by miniart is another as well as Tristars spg crew 1 and 2

Detailfreak- Long time no talk... I have started working on two figures for my StuG.  I wanted to make sure I am doing this right... originally I was planning to paint the uniforms black but realized it is reserved for panzer crews only, correct?  Looking thru my reference books, they seems to be wearing dark grey uniforms.  Are those the exact same color as German fieldgray?  If it was you, which paint would you have used for the uniforms?  Thanks again...

You have this kit... I want to match those for my figures.

Hey Deafpanzer,I've been lurking about.If I may make a suggestion,browse through the figures forum and check it out. As a matter of fact Manstiens revenge posted a great bunch of pics over there. Seeing that these figs you are using are early war they could very likely be wearing the black panzer uniform,or a combination.They also had a gren work uniform as well as coveralls.let me dig around a bit to see what I can find.

Thanks DF!  I did some research online and learned a great deal about the uniforms for StuG crew.  They did wear black uniforms during pre-war but it was changed when StuGs were assigned to artillery and infantry support instead of panzer so they stopped wearing black uniforms from there.  And what's interesting is that StuG crew didn't want to wear black uniforms because they are treated as high prized targets by snipers when they have to get out of their StuGs to do some scouting often.  I will use this picture... german field grey with dark green collars and red pipings. 

Good suggestion about bringing this up in the Figures forum... I will go there before I start painting my figures tonight.  You have a great weekend buddy!

Finally catching up with this GB

Detailfreak & Deafpanzer (andy) – Those Stugs look great; was a thrill to catch up with the GB and read the WIPs of both Stugs. Love the historical pics too! Your builds and pics are worthy of a magazine feature. Thanks for sharing such great work!

I never got back to my own Stug IV, although I had it all planned… life, family, health issues, you all know the drill… do we have an official extension? I still want to finish mine, but will take until end of July probably. Anyone else want to grovel, beg and offer free beer to the GB host to extend the deadline to July 30^th? Lol

Cheers all

JMart, thank you very much!  DF started it all with the historical pics posting... he got me addicted!  I don't see any problem if you want to extend the deadline til end of July. Our GB moderator has mysteriously disappeared.  Kidding... he went to start another GB before this GB ended.  I'd love to see your Stug IV completed! 

Yup, he dun RUNOFFT'd.Ai'nt seen um afterthen.got my vote on the extension. Seeing how we may be the majority we may rule!

ok, Ill start re-building and posting pics once I get back from vacation, cheers all

Same here... my vacation starts in two days for two weeks.  I am taking my family to Denmark and Sweden.  I will let y'all know if hot Swedish ladies is a myth or not.  Will be back after August 1st...