Stug III (Sd Kfz 142) – Sturmgeschützabteilung 197

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

I now finished a project I had on the shelf for quite some time. It is a Stug III with the short barrelled L/24 gun. The vehicle is from 1./ Sturmgeschützabteilung 197, which took part in the Barbarossa campaign. It later turned into Schwere Panzerjägerabteilung 653.

The kit is from Dragon, with a Aber PE set added. I also added two figures from Panzer Art, and on the base I put three figures from a Stalingrad set I also had for quite some time. They have very nice poses, but miss some of the fine details for example Alpine offerings exhibit.

The scene was a bit uninspired unfortunately, the idea with the fence being run over results from a photograph.

LAH at Charkow 1943 – Kurt Meyer and Max Wuensche

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

I again reworked the Charkow scene, taking out three of the figures and putting them on a separate base. After repainting…

Marder III H (Sd Kfz 138)

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

Now I finished the last of my three Marder kits. It depicts a Marder III H from Leibstandarte at Charkow in early 1943. I got inspired from a picture showing a vehicle from that unit there with a lot of personal items stowed on it, so I tried to replicate this. I also added quite a few figures from Alpine.

The kit was from Dragon, with added PE parts from Voyager.

Marder III M (Sd Kfz 138)

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

Building three different Marders in parallel, I now also finished the Marder III M with the German 75mm PaK and the chassis of the Panzer 38(t) specially adapted for self propelled guns. The kit is from Tamiya, with Aber PE added. I also added three injection moulded figures from Miniart.

One issue with all the kits of the different Marders is the thickness of the side walls. The real ones were quite thin, only designed to protect from shrapnel and small arms’ fire, so the replicated walls are way too thick. There are some PE walls available, but I liked to preserve the nicely detailed outer side. So I cut the wall sections from the kit apart, and carefully sanded down the individual parts to scale thickness. One benefit of this is getting rid of sink marks, but all the interior detail has to be added back by either using PE parts or scratch building with styrene profils and nuts.

As the other Marder III builds, the process was greatly assisted by the respective volumes from the Nuts & Bolts publication series.

Marder III (Sd Kfz 139)

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

I spent the last months building three different Marder III Panzerjaeger, that are all now almost finished. The first build to show here is the Tamiya Marder III (Sd Kfz 139), which is the first interim solution tank hunter on the Panzer 38 (t) chassis, featuring a modified Russian 7.62 mm field gun as main weapon.

I added an interior from Royal Model, as I wanted the hatches to be opened, and also quite some details from the interior are still visible through the gun mount. I also used a barrel and two PE sets from Aber. For the base, I added one Alpine DAK tanker, together with two Panzer Art figures.

Overall, I enjoyed the build very much, also it is fun to have a rather busy model in the end, with all the interior of the fighting compartment being visible. But putting it all together takes quite a while, with intermitting steps of building, painting, building again and frequent touch ups.

Last Ferdinand Jagdpanzer

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

I found a recent project on Youtube from Nightshift Modelling quite inspiring, depicting the famous last Ferdinand tank hunter being manufactured by the Nibelungenwerke factory in May 1943. So I bought myself the Amusing Hobby kit, together with some Aber PE, Friul tracks and two figures from Royal Model.
It was a very enjoyful build, being very different from the usual tanks. I put the finished model on a simple base made from Styrofoam.

Putting it all together

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

I finally put all the elements on the base, and took some final pictures

Another Fallschirmjäger

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

I looked for some more figures, and added one figure from Rado Miniatures, that was quite nicely done. I replaced the head using a spare from an Alpine set though.

Adding some Fallschirmjäger

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

I also finished two figures of German paratroopers from Panzer Art, that will be put aside the Elefant in Italy, together with a Zundapp KS 750 with side car.

Elefant in Italy

Posted by lorenzoimcabrio

I now almost finished another subject that took quite some time. Last year, I built an Elefant, the slightly converted Ferdinand (Sd Kfz 184), which was constructed using the Porsche Tiger chassis. The tank depicted was issued to the first company of Schwere Panzerjägerabteilung 653, which was sent to Italy in February 1944. The specific vehicle chosen was 124, which was left behind destroyed in the village of Soriano Nell Chimino in July 1944.

The tank was built using the Tamiya Elefant kit, with the large Aber upgrade set. I also added the Ferdinand/Elefant crew from Royal Model, which comes in two different sets.