Dragon 15cm Sturm-Infanteriegeschutz 33 auf Pz III (2007)

[Bill Plunk]

Build log for Dragon Kit # 6042, Aber PE grilles, ModelPoint MG34 tank variant barrel, and JR SiG 33 barrel.

[Bill Plunk]

Due to the simple fact that the Initial Tiger build has entered the paint/finish phase and I've decided I like having one project "under construction" while another is awaiting paint/finish, at least for the time being, I've begun this rather oddball vehicle as a project. Don't know much about it other than the little info paragraph that DML provides, apparently this vehicle was created out of the experiences at Stalingrad and 24 were built up using repaired and modified Pzkpw III chassis and mounting the SiG 33 15cm gun in a casemate as an assault gun.

Step 1 is a simple enough step and follows the usual pattern with the DML Pzkpw III/StuG III family with the construction of the sprockets, idlers, roadwheels, and return rollers. The roadwheels have several large sprue attachment points that need to be cleaned up, 4 per wheel, and the idler's are molded with several tabs on the inner spoke surfaces which also require care in removing. Other than that, a simple enough step.

[Bill Plunk]

Since today is Wildcard Saturday in the NFL playoff series, I decided to work on this one some more while watching the games. Made some good progress along the way.

Step 2 is the standard suspension installation step for DML's Pz III/StuG III family and as a result, propagates the error in the instruction sheet around parts B13 and B14, the instructions have them reversed as to which side they belong to. All the other parts are assigned correctly though and each suspension arm requires some clean-up effort to remove their seams and install in place. This step also calls for the filling in of two holes near the upper edge that aren't needed for this variant in terms of fender brace locators and the escape hatch outline also needs to be removed on both sides as a relic for earlier variants.



Step 3 is a simple step, it calls for the installation of the drive sprocket hubs as well as the sprockets themselves and the rest of the running gear. I had some trouble with some of the roadwheels in terms of their molded mounting holes not being wide enough to go on the arms and managed to snap a couple of the suspension arms by accident through use of force instead of doing the smart thing and widening the opening. Had to learn that one the hard way I guess, but the fix was simple and easy enough. The wheels were dryfit and secured with blue tack to simulate their installation.




Step 4 deals with the construction of the rear hull plate and the installation of the mufflers. I drilled out the muffler ends a bit more to give them some depth to the already hollow ends and everything went together without incident. I did notice after taking this shot that the one side had slipped out a bit and that has since been corrected. The fit into the hull is tight and in working with the plate I managed to push it slighly out of alignment somehow without noticing.



Step 5 deals with the track installation so that will be dealt with later.

Step 6 deals with the assembly of the gun cradle and involves assembling the 2 halves of the cradle together along with 3 additional parts to provide detail to the end cap. The fit of the two halves was close but not perfect and required some liquid glue along the seam on the underside followed by some sanding to get it to appear smooth. I didn't worry about the interior appearance even though it had some large raised knock-out points and a seam since the recoil slide plate will cover all of this in the next steps. The hinge point arms have 3 subtle ridges on them that are supposed to be there to help provide a friction point for elevation, so these were deliberately not removed even though I was tempted to do so thinking at first they were mold lines.



Step 7 is a tricky assembly/installation of the gun mount and the tray assembled in Step 6 into the hull casemate. The two halves, C8 and C9 are supposed to be glued together with a cap ring, C25 installed over a post to allow the gun to swivel side to side...but you also have to fit the tray swivel arms into C8 and C9 at the same time...which can create a real mess in a hurry since it all but requires an extra set of hands to carry it off. I managed to get it to work out in the end but given the fact that in real life the gun could only traverse 3 degrees in either direction, you could save yourself the hassle and just install it fixed in place and leave the elevation possibility only with no real loss. I also followed the instructions regarding the drilling out of two holes in the front hull glacis plate to take the travel lock piece (identified as part C18 in Step 20) before I actually looked at the travel lock...and discovered it's molded upright with no option to lower it and must be slid over the lock points on the tray, so I cheated and have dryfit it in place and also discovered the holes were in fact not in the right place...due I think to the issue with the swivel mount bowing out slightly and changing their location. Upshot of this is that I removed the pins from the base of the lock, kept it dryfit, and will fill in the drilled out holes and just glue the lock to the hull in the desired position. The glacis plate was also installed with only a minor issue in the form of 2 raised knock-out marks that needed to be removed on the underside to achive a smooth fit to the hull frame.



Step 8 involves the construction of the 15cm SiG 33 gun, installation on the recoil tray, and then installation on the mount itself. The kit provides the gun and breech molded together in 2 halves, I simply removed the styrene barrel portion from each half with sprue cutters, glued the remaining breech portion together, sanding the surface smooth, then glued the JR barrel replacement in place with CA gel. This was installed on the mount without effort and then the upper deck was glued to the lower hull. No rubber band traction was needed this time around, although the front plate areas were a tight snap fit requiring a little force to put into place but just a little bit of glue required to secure the join. The front edge of the hull has a slight overhang due to a mismatch in dimensions between the lower hull tub and the upper hull plate, this will be sanded down prior to painting and will not damage or alter the molded in weld seams at all since it's only about 0.5mm to begin with.

[Bill Plunk]

Quite a bit was accomplished today, made more progress than I honestly thought I would.

Step 9 deals with the installation of the side intake boxes and their corresponding grilles. The boxes fit well against the hull but are not as cleanly molded on the tops, with some uneven ridges vs. the hull, so these were sanded/trimmed down prior to fitting the Aber PE grilles in place of the kit supplied PE items. The Aber are more detailed with finer mesh than the ones provided and since Aber provides them in sets that have 4 grilles per pack, they are a bargain for this type of build IMHO. This step also calls for the installation of the front hull tow pintles, each of which are two part affairs with the outward faces having sink marks right behind the pin eye that requires some putty work to correct. Once assembled, they don't sit perfectly flush against the hull, a common problem with these parts in all the Pz III/StuG III kits of the older series. I applied some putty and lightly sanded these to mate flush, although with the installation of the add-on armor plates in a later step this is all but hidden from view anyhow.





Step 10 deals with the assembly of the left side fender which involves the construction of the 2-part Bosch light, installation of a spare wheel mount and wheel (the wheel is left off at this stage to allow easier painting/detailing), an axe (also left off at this point), and the support arms for joining to the hull.



Step 11 mounts the left fender along with the gunner periscope, the add-on armor plates for the front hull, and the tow pins for the pintles. The tow pins are very delicate and have huge sprue attachment points, so care is required along with delicate cleanup to get them removed and installed in one piece. The Bosch light shape looks odd to me in terms of its dimensions, the body of the light seems almost double the length it should be, but lacking a suitable replacement, it was installed anyhow.



Step 12 is the assembly of the right fender, with the spare mount sans wheel and braces installed just as with the left. The jack goes on this fender and I will assemble and install that after the fender has set up as it looks like a tight fit that might require a modification or deletion of the jack handle to make it work properly, have to see about that.



Step 13 installs the right fender.

[Bill Plunk]

Got a little bit of time in on this one this evening, completing Steps 14 and 15.

Step 14 deals with various details on the rear hull and engine deck and the instruction diagram is one of the infamous Dragon "magic" drawings...it shows several pieces already installed with no part call-out, so you have to be careful not to overlook some things. Probably the easiest to overlook are the three small lifting eyes, parts B21, as only the rear center and left side are called out while the right side is not. Additionally, there are three E4 access hatch vent covers that need to be installed but only 1 is called out. Same thing happens with E5, there are two to be installed but only one is called out while the other is already shown installed. A triple crown!

The left side convoy blackout light and right side brake lights are also installed and it was at this point that I realized that the molded in flap plate for the right side doesn't line up with the actual light placement, which means I'll need to fill that in later on as it will continue to irritate me every time I see it. Last but not least, the two lid supports for the rear storage bin are also mounted and some care has to be taken here as well as the instructions are a little ambiguous as to where exactly they should go, but they have a small notch in their base that lines up with the molded in hatch stop on either side, so that's your indicator on where to put them.



Edit 02-09-07: An error in Step 14 was encountered after the build and paint sequence was completed. Part A43 is actually installed upside down, the point should face upward, not down, as indicated in the instructions. The SiG 33B was built on StuG III-E chassis which utilized the earlier design of cover from the Pzkpw III E/F chassis, not the later down pointing cover from the III G-H series. The rest of the photos in this log show the part installed incorrectly and should not be used as a guide for proper orientation of this part.

Step 15 is actually two steps, with the first part involving the construction of the rear storage box. This consists of installing the lid to the box and also installing the 6 support arms on the underside which mount directly to the hull. These are angled so that the box will sit level with the hull, so be careful that the flat ends are glued to the base of the box only, it's easy to get turned around with them if not careful.



Once completed, the box is installed directly to the engine deck. Step 15 also directs you to fill in two slots pre-molded on the hull as they don't apply for this variant, easily done with some putty and a little sanding.

[Bill Plunk]

While watching American Idol on TV or rather using it as background noise...work continued.

Step 16 deals with the assembly of the casemate superstructure and consists of large one-piece shell with front and rear panels as separate pieces. The rear plate went on smoothly with no issues while the front plate required a little more work to get right. The fit at the sides needs to be flush to create the angled overlap plate to the sides and after glueing some sanding was required to get it to smooth down into a single surface. This requires some care to retain the right angle to the faces so I uses a small sanding "twig" of about 2mm in width cut from an emory board and then followed up with the a full size board to keep it straight.

The hull MG barrel was replaced with the Model Point brass MG and this required opening up the hole in the ball mount just a bit wider to sit properly and was secured on the inner hull side with some CA gel in the desired position. The driver's visor was installed in the open position and fixed in place.

The periscope cover on the superstructure roof was also installed along with the top hatch. Last but not least, the two lifting hooks, C34, were installed after carefully removing the too-large molded on locator outlines.

[Bill Plunk]

Major construction ended today with the completion of Steps 17 through 20. I've decided after looking at the reference photos available that I'm going to replace the kit indy's with MK tracks that have the open guidehorns. I'd contemplated drilling out the horns myself but in the end decided that the cost of the tracks was worth not subjecting myself to that, so once my order comes in, they'll be built and added at that time.

Step 17 continues the work on the casemate details with attention paid to the rear area primarily. The two access hatches are installed along with their grab handles and pistol ports. Both the handles and the port plugs have very large sprue attachment points so you have to be extremely careful when removing them not to damage them and/or offer them up to the carpet monster. The antenna base is also installed and curiously enough, the instructions call out 2 more lifting hooks, C43, for installation but instead of depicting them on the right side where they should go, they re-show the already installed hooks from Step 16 on the left side!



Step 18 calls for the casemate to be slipped over the SiG 33 barrel and installed. This is a tricky task somewhat as the casemate edges are not perfectly straight but slightly concave, which requires some attention to get the fenders to match up to it properly on either side. I glued in the main support areas first at the front and rear areas where the superstructure joins the hull to provide a good base to work from. After that had set up a bit, I used liquid glue and finger pressure to bring the fenders up to the edges. Some putty was still required on the front faces but only a small amount to close up the remaining gap. Once the liquid glue had tried, I sanded the areas down smooth again and trimmed off what little excess had oozed out with the sharp point of a hobby knife.



Step 19 deals with the installation of the armored shields/guards around the gun mount and consists of two bolted on plates with a third smaller sliding plate that is designed to move with the gun as it elevates. The instructions direct you not to glue the sliding plate in place but mine has a little bit of wobble to it at the top so I will glue it down later. The sliding plate, C7, is a very tight fit over the gun cradle and I had to lightly sand the inner surfaces to get it to go in the necessary position. Part C26 is the final part installed in this step, it's a hinged lower guard plate and the instructions are vague as to its actual placement, had to check the reference photos to get it right. The surface that is exposed also had two very large raised sink marks that had to be trimmed and sanded, but easily dealt with.



The final Step 20 calls for the gun travel lock, C18, to be installed, so it was glued in place and the mis-drilled out holes from earlier filled in with putty. That means that this one is ready for a date with the AB as soon as the weather allows for it, high temp today was 34 degrees, not exactly ideal painting weather.



I also went back and installed the jack (missing since Step 12), and added from Sprue A a small storage box on the front right fender as seen in the photo at Achtung Panzer just to add a little variety to the mix.

[Bill Plunk]

I'd been waiting for two events to take place in order to resume work on this build, the first was the delivery of replacement tracks with hollow guidehorns from Model Kasten (SK-24) for the 40cm tracks and the second was good enough weather to paint! Both of those came true this past week/weekend, so more progress has been made on this project.

In preparation for painting, I modified a leftover track bracket from the Tiger Initial build. The rack needed to have the ends cut down by about 1mm and sanded to match to the angled front hull plate. I also sanded down the thickness since Pz III tracks don't require as robust a holder as Tiger tracks and then installed it on the front hull plate after a test fit with the MK links to make sure the clearance was correct.



I also assembled and test fit the spare road wheels that are supposed to be mounted on either side of the hull on the rear fenders. The left side wheel goes into place without any problems but the right side has clearance issues with the jack, so my solution to this problem was to just install the cap to the mount as if the spare wheel were in use after seeing one of the reference photo vehicles with this condition as an inspiration. I think this adds a little bit of variety while avoiding the need for surgical alteration to the jack in the process.



Next up, all the wheels were dismounted and prepared for painting. I used blue tack to cover the mounting surfaces for the sprockets and idler as well as the return rollers but didn't bother with the suspension arms since their fit is already pretty tight. All the wheels were mounted on toothpicks with blue tack and stuck into a styrofoam box for easy handling.



First step in the process involves priming everything in Flat Black with a wide diameter nozzle at high pressure. With light gray styrene, the Flat Black insures everything gets painted the same base coat color before moving on. Others use it for pre-shading, but that serves a secondary purpose in this case.



Once the Flat Black is applied, I switched to a finer nozzle and mixed up some thinned down 70-30 Rust and sprayed that in light mist coats in multiple passes. The key is to apply it so lightly that it dries quickly, almost on contact, to avoid a thick single "wet" coat of paint and instead slowly build up the desired color with the multipe passes. The rims on the wheels were painted using a circle template to protect the Flat Black for the tires.



After the Rust basecoat, I applied an overcoat of Dunkelgelb in the same fashion, multiple passes to build it up and again used the circle template on the wheels.



With this set aside to dry, I resumed work on the tracks. I'd been working on these off and on over the course of the week in front of the TV. The tracks are handed and come with separate guide horns to achieve the hollowed out look and remain workable. The guide horns have to be placed one at a time and then have their handle trimmed off, this can leave a little "nub" on each horn and once they're complete dried/set, I'll come along and trim/sand them all down to a consistent appearance. I completed the left hand track up to 90 links and will test fit it with the suspension to see where in the MK suggested 93-95 link range it needs to be and add the remaining handful.

[Bill Plunk]

Another gorgeous day of weather meant more time with the AB today in order to lay down the 3-tone camo pattern. After looking at the reference photos and the box art/painting guide, I decided to go for a more blotchy type pattern vs. the long stripes that the kit suggests. I laid down the dark green first, a mix of Russian Armor Green with Panzer Gray that I keep on hand for this purpose. I tried to keep the perspective in mind of how the crews would apply this with an airgun and tried to keep the blotches small in relation to this. I use an Aztek AB and for this type of work I use the "fine" tan nozzle along with a gravity feed cup and get up very close to the model with the nozzle, to where it's practically touching the surface. I had the air pressure set at about 20-25 psi, and that works well provided the paint isn't too thinned down. Since it's a double action, I depress the trigger just enough to get air flow and slight amount of paint and draw the outline of each blotch first, then come back and fill in the inside. Some of the more complex areas like the rear deck were a challenge and I had to work very slowly and think it through from a positioning standpoint to get it laid down. All of the pattern was laid down free-hand.



Once I was satisfied with the green coverage, I laid down the red-brown. I use a mix of 50-50 Leather and Military Brown and this is a little thinner than the green, so I had to be more careful with the air pressure to avoid splatters. A couple still happened here and there, but those would be easily cleaned up in follow-on steps.



As is the colors are pretty stark/bold vs. the basecolor so I mixed up a 90-10 mix of Dunkelgelb and Light Gray and toned down the edges of the camo patterns, correcting some of the issues that came up in different areas and fine tuning the overall pattern look. Once satisfied with that, I took the AB out about 1 ft. distance and lightly sprayed a dusting over the whole model to provide a "fade" look to the whole vehicle in preparation of doing the full-on weathering with washes and drybrushing later on. This is a new approach that I'm trying out to add color depth/variation to the overall finish so we'll see where it ends up. I like how it muted the camo colors so far, it will be allowed to cure up for a week and see how I feel about it once it's had a chance to sit for a bit.



Now that all the large surface paintwork was done, I removed the blue tack from running gear and mounted the return rollers, roadwheels, and idlers. The return roller mounts weren't molded consistently and required some sanding/trimming to allow the wheels to sit level, an important element since the mount pins on the wheels aren't very deep and need a good solid surface to mate to in order to remain stable. I also needed to trim down some of the mount pins on the suspension arms for a few of the roadwheels as they weren't large enough internally to take the arms as molded and remain in the proper position. I also drybrushed some Burnt Umber to the under sides of the hull and to the sprockets and idlers as a prepatory stage for the weathering of those areas. The sprockets remain dryfit pending the installation of the tracks when they will be glued into position. Last but not least, the axe and spare wheel were installed on the left fender.



The muffler/exhausts were also detailed, starting with a basecoat of non-buffing metalizer Gunmetal followed with a thinned down wash of Rust. Once dry, I drybrushed some Burnt Umber to deepen the color a bit. The blackout light had its lenses done with Tamiya Clear Smoke and the brake light on the right fender done with Clear Red. The brake light still needs a bit of touchup, easy enough to take care of though.



To round out the day, I completed the second track run and test fits show that 93 links provides just the right amount of sag that I want to represent, so both tracks were extended by 3 links. I still have about 15 links left over in the set which will get used as spare track runs for the front hull.

[Bill Plunk]

Picking up from where I left off last week, the MK tracks were painted up and installed along with the sprockets as the final remaining task before sealing and weathering could begin. Due to the pin arrangements on these particular type, I did have a couple come loose/break on me while fitting them to the vehicle and ultimately I ended up taking out 2 links per side to reduce them back to 91 links to have the right tension and making some of the links "non-workable" by glueing them in a fixed position.

Both sides were installed along with the spare track run for the front hull.







Once all that was done, I applied an overall coat of Future to the entire model via the airbrush and allowed it to sit up for a couple of hours before applying the decals. The kit supplied markings aren't complex, basically just a set of vehicle numbers for G2, G3, or G4 and balkenkreuze to go with them. The balkenkreuze aren't that great, the white portions are way oversized so I scrounged some replacements from my spare decal bin but did keep the kit markings, selecting G4 just for fun. These were given a dose of Solvaset to get them to snug down nice and tight and then a second sealing coat of Future applied and allowed to sit again for a couple of hours.

Then it was on to the weathering! I decided to take a new approach to this one and instead of applying general washes, took a page from the filter handbook and instead applied dots of enamel paint all over the area I'd be working on. I used Gunmetal, Raw Umber, and the lightened Dunkelgelb.



I then took a square tip #2 brush and using clean thinner and downward strokes, blended all the dots together and allowed it to dry. This was done in sections all over the vehicle and I'm pleased with the result. Although the pics don't show the full effect, once some dullcoat is applied I think it will show through more clearly. It produced a nice faded/streaky appearance without appearing too ordered or intentional and is a technique I'm going to continue to explore with on future builds.



Last but not least to round out the day's activities, I applied a pin wash of Burnt Umber to all the raised detail and panel lines and will continue with the weathering next week when I return from a business trip to Sydney.