The OFFICIAL Panzer III and Its Variants GB

Welcome back Carl

Thanks Bill . Gosh , that sure is a nice looking G.B. badge .

Welcome back Carl!  Sounds like you had great time.  Hope you saved some for us.  Thanks for looking at my work.  Another update coming soon...

Camp . No trees . No communications . No electricity . Lots of water ,trails , driftwood and beer .Took plenty of the amber liquid , its 100 mi. to re-supply .

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Alrighty fellas.  here she is minus tow cables.  as soon as i find a suitable cable i'll throw them on there.  but for now she's done and hopefully i can jump in on tigerman's bitw group build.  once done with the blitz i'll jump back over here with another pz 3.  even though i am drooling over all the stugs!!  i'm starting to get the pic thing down better so i'll have better wip pics with my next builds.  any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.  

Hey all - don't know if anybody's seen it, but Dragon's actually got some sweet stuff in their Facebook specials this week.

Including a Pz.III Ausf.N w/ schurzen smart kit for $24.99 (and a Zvezda 1/48 La-5FN for $13.99).

Malone its a beaut You did well on the  pics of the turret interior . Thats an interesting and appealing looking camo .

Have still been watching just been short on time last week.

BILL - The base is coming along nicely.  Like the idea with the water

ANDY - Thats some fine PE work now I need an aspirin.

DUKE - I really love your Pz III.  Really like the scuffs and scrapes and detail around the turret hatches.  The camouflage and weathering is perfect

Carl- This is the kind of vacation I really need... away from the civilization!  Of course I will bring the work bench if possible.  Again, it is good to have you back.  Now we are seeing more activity here! LOL

Malone, Malone, Malone-  WHAT A BEAUTY!   I really love the camo and I want to use that on one of my future builds perhaps a PV IV or KT.  Nice job using the dark washes too.  Can't wait for you to call it done so I can add it to the Hall of Fame. 

Doogs- Thanks!  Saw the same thing... would have brought it if I didn't have Ausf N in stash.  I already have one that comes with Winterketten tracks.  I am hoping they will sell M16 Quad-guns kit soon...

Rob- Thanks buddy!  I could use more aspirin as my fingers are still sore from many nights doing PE work. LOL  I just saw your work on Somua... beatuful work too!  You used alot of PE too... now I am tempted to change my build from Char B1 to Somua or something else maybe German sdKfz 232..  I feel we are seeing too many Char B1 already...

Guys- Quick update on my StuG... I was so happy I don't have to deal with PE that much last night.  Just one PE for the lamp base.  Most of work was done on the top hull... now I am at step 15 with only three steps left to do. 

Hulls are not glued together yet... dry fitting.  Hope to do more work tonight before my family and I go camping tomorrow just for one night. 

Be good!

Andy thanks for the welcome back . Only thing is it seems to take 2 weeks to get every thing put away after i get back .

That Stug of yours is looking great with all of P.E. you are putting on it . I should get back to work on my "M" , i dont really like being spread between 2 G.B.'s like this but i put off yours since it lasted a year . Seeing your progrees i want to get back to building my "M" now .

Beautiful work Malone!

Andy, you're really giving that bending tool a work out aren't you! Nice work!

Carl- I am with you... I find it too difficult to juggle between two builds at same time.  I have mild case of ADD so I do better doing just one build at a time.   Looking forward to see your 'M' completed.  Maybe we can do Blitz GB at same time.  That's where I am going next after my StuG.

John- Hey my Hoosier friend!  Thanks for the nice words.  Yes, loving my bending tool.  I should have bought one long time ago.  You can tell your tool that it is safe from me for now.

Guys- Quick update on my StuG.  Tried to past before I left for camping last Friday but the server was down for maintainence...

Dragon kit is little old that it didn't come with PE for the screens.  So I ordered a set from Aber and I am glad I did... nice details.

Added PE to the commander's hatch.  I am keeping that one open because I am planning to include a commander figure.

Hope y'all are having a good weekend! 

Hi guys,

I take it that I'm not the only one who hasn't been able to get onto the site due to maintenance for the last 36 odd hours?

Anyway, an update on my second entry into this GB - my Tamiya 'Leningrad Winter Scheme' Panzer III N:

Yesterday I took the Friuls off and started laying very fine streaks of AK Streaking Grime with a 10/0 brush all the way down the vertical hull walls behind the running gear, the turret walls (a bit lighter around the turret) and up front on the sloping armour. I laid the streaks so they nearly entirely covered the hull walls and front armour then took a bigger, reasonably 'firm' bristled brush just dampened with AK to the streaks and used a motion that MIG calls 'feathering' in his AK DVD to blend the streaks into one whereupon they dry giving a superb effect. I suppose this 'feathering' is what you do when laying an oil-paint dot filter down over a vertical surface and want to bring it all together. I also used some AK 'Winter Streaking Grime' which is a touch greener in colour and adds some tonal variation to the treated surfaces.

After that was done I took my Graphite pencil to the sharp edges and places of wear and gave some hint of bare metal sheen and highlighted the cogs on the drive wheels added a pin wash of MIG 'Dark Wash' using a 5/0 brush the made up a really nicely coloured main wash of W&N Raw Umber Oil Paint Wash. I bottled this up as it was a really nice shade and it can be a messy job making washes up so it will be handy having some, ready-to-go!

Onto the Friuls: I gave these a full covering of my just made Umber Wash, let that dry off then gave the two runs a very light dusting of MIG Track Brown pigment. Finally I took a small flat file to them and filed the raised areas then gently brushed just a gtouch more light Mud Pigment over them.

Finally, I fitted and painted one of my RB 2m Brass German Antennae and added an all over Vallejo Acrylic Matt varnish.

I've got a few little things to do next Saturday like some extra pigment work on the wheels and a general tidy up. The one thing I have to decide on is do I fit the front bar and assemble a length of leftover Winterketten Friuls or do I leave it as it is and just do the tidy up next weekend and post some final completed photos?

Here we go - the weekends work:

Below: Here's where the spare Winterketten links will go if I use them - DO I USE THEM as I love this weathered front end?

Well, that's how she stands guys and I must say that I'm pretty darn pleased with the results of this very enjoyable little build.

The stowage rack was great fun and I'm definately going to be doing more of that again and I really want to start doing some figure work too.

I'd REALLY appreciate it if you guys could let me know what you think re the stowed Winterketten spare links mounted up front? Yes or no?

I had a call from my LHS to say that my Leningrad Winter Scheme Dragon Tiger (kit # 6600) is now in stock and will be my next build and I'll be building it as the big 'Sister' to this build! Luckily it's my Birthday on November 4th and my folks have offered to buy me it for my present! Bonus

Have a great week everyone and take care,

Ben

Ben , yes the site was down for maintenance , thats the message i got when i tried to get in .

Beautiful weathering and details on the Pz. III .

Ben, almost every photo of Pz IIIs and IVs show tracks mounted over the front plate.  The added armor protection was almost mandatory when facing T-34s with 76mm guns.  I would mount them if I were you.  Because you are industrious and motivated and not lazy like me.  So if I were you I would have done it on my Pz III. 

satch_ip

Ben, almost every photo of Pz IIIs and IVs show tracks mounted over the front plate.  The added armor protection was almost mandatory when facing T-34s with 76mm guns.  I would mount them if I were you.  Because you are industrious and motivated and not lazy like me.  So if I were you I would have done it on my Pz III. 

"industrious and motivated" eh Satch?

Erm, I'm not sure about that but after looking at other N's I'm going to put them on!

So, final update next weekend!

Cheers guys,

Ben

Ben- Beautiful work on your Panzer.  Final dark wash will make the details pop like bolts & nuts and hinges.  You are about to call your second build for second GB done and I am not even past half way with my first build. LOL 

I am not too sure about the spare tracks... you are already too far into this and it would be difficult to since paint and glue don't get along too well.  But it would look great with spare tracks even tho.  Did the kit come with spare tracks holders?  Just look at your reference pictures to help you decide.  Post if you wish...

Guys- I had great time camping with my in-laws over the weekend!  Fortunately we returned home early enough to allow me spend alot of time at my work bench.  Six +/- hours...

Forgot the gold rule... never follow Dragon instructions!   It instructed me to glue tools before I attach the lower and top hulls together.  Big mistake!  The shovel was in the way!  I had to deattach... fortunately I had this which I rarely use which made the job easy to remove the CA.

Space is tight on the left fender...

While dry fitting the hulls together, everything looked great but there was a huge gap in the rear of top hull...  

A must for serious modelers... this package comes with several different sizes styrene sheets.

Fixed...

I found another issue... one of the hatches for the gun periscope was way too thin and there was couple of wide gaps.  I added styrene sheets to reinforce the hatch and close the gaps.

I will add more styrene or putty when it is dry... maybe tonight.

There is no question this old Dragon Imperial requires more tender and care than most Dragon kits.  But I have to admit I have been enjoying this gift from our friend detailfreak. 

I will post more update later today...

Guys,

I have been going back and forth all week about whether or not I would do an interior on my 222 or not. One day I didn't want to do it. The next, I'd get all fired up to do it. I have finally fallen on the side of doing it, so I have been measuring and cutting out some bulkheads and some blanking plates. Nothing really dramatic to waste time posting pics of.

BEN!

I vote for NO winterketten. Sure, it might be "most historically accurate" to portray them, but I agree with you - that weathering is too nice to cover up.

One comment/observation - I really love what you did with this. I think you really did a great job of portraying a heavily used, worn down tank. My only question: why the heavy rust treatment on the spare road wheels? It definately jumps out at you in how sharp of a contrast it is.

JOHN - When do we get to see some more updates from you?  Are you still building, was really looking forward to seeing your work on the Sturm 33 B.  Did you see that Dragon is putting out a new Smart kit of the 33 B?

CARL - Completly agree with you about being in more than one GB.  From now on it is one at a time for me.

BEN - She looks great!  I would say yes to the spare tracks but without the Ketten.  Either way you go she looks good.

ANDY - Fine PE work!  Surprised at how big that gap was.  Great job with all the fixes.  The Imperial Series did require some work to get them up to standards and your moving right along to uphold those standards

Where has Brian and some of the other fellows been?  Have not seen them post for a while.

Ben,,    awesome job on the pz III. The weathering is grunge-tastic!      Your choice on mounting the tracks up front...   [My opinion]  I would say leave them off,,, however,   is there a way to mount them and make them removeable / optional?

Andy,,    wonderful scrambling with the fills and fixes....  nice adjustments.     I especially like the thumbs up endorsement       good one!

bbrown,,   I am with you,,  build the interior

Bill

BaBill212

Ben,,    awesome job on the pz III. The weathering is grunge-tastic!      Your choice on mounting the tracks up front...   [My opinion]  I would say leave them off,,, however,   is there a way to mount them and make them removeable / optional? 

Bill

Hi guys,

Thanks for the 's on my Panzer everyone!

Making a front track rack rail with removable tracks will be simple. I'll fit the long spare track rail that is supplied with the kit that covers the length of the front armour panel below the headlights then make up a long run and a few shorter runs of Friuls mixing up the left and right hand tracks then I'll weather them and just slot them in loose without fixing them with glue. I've got some normal 40cm Pz III Friuls too which I could drop in there too? Sorted

Brownii - thanks buddy, I'm really glad you like her matey. Tbh the spare wheels were something I wanted to treat with my AK stuff but I just totally forgot them so I'll be doing that this weekend too. They are too stark and although I do want them rusted I also want them to look like they are 'part' of the tank so thanks for picking me up on that and I'll sort that before the next update

Then final photos and I'll be calling this baby complete!

All the best chaps,

Ben

Boyd- Always good hearing from you.  Is that 222 for Blitz GB?  It is something I always wanted to build maybe for Afrika Crops GB or something like that.  Looking forward to see how it comes out. 

Rob- Thanks buddy!   Hope it comes out as your little Frency tank!  I thought abut Brian few days ago.  Am sure he will be back as his build was getting closer to the finish line.

Bill- Glad you didn't have to take any more of aspirin this time!  Thanks!

deafpanzer

Boyd- Always good hearing from you.  Is that 222 for Blitz GB? 

Andy... Right you are! Forgot where the heck I was for a minute there....

Guys- Another update on StuG...

Last step in the instructions was to add the barrel to the hull.  I didn't like how it looked... it was not even close to the real thing! 

Here's the real thing... photo for discussion purpose only

So I had to do something... with help of bolt & nut set from Modelkasten and styrene sheets. 

You gonna love those all different bolt and nut options... I went for last two on the right.

Now I like the new look...

Steel cables were missing from the kit.  Greg, not to worry... fortunately I had couple of aftermarket sets I brought at AMPS show last year when they were here in Auburn. 

I would say it is 95% completed before I can move to the painting stage.   Of course I am still waiting for the Fruil tracks and it still needs couple of clean up.  I am planning to add welding threads on the front.

One thing made me realize... this StuG isn't carrying extra jerry cans.  Then I looked at other late war tanks... most of them didn't carry.  Is it because Germans were experiencing fuel shortage or they are no longer on offensive mode?  Have you ever thought about this too? 

Again, thanks for looking!