The Das Werk Sturmgeschütz III Ausf.G. 1:16

Painting and Weathering

There is a generous choice of markings for five vehicles in the kit:-

• A Sturmgeschütz-Batterie 742, Northern Finland 1943.
• Grossdeutschland Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung, Kursk, July 1943.
• Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 242, Monte Cassino, February 1944.
• Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 189, Orel, Russia, 1943.
• SS- Sturmgeschütz Abteilung 2, “Das Reich’, Belgorod, Russia, 1943.

The first option is a plain Dark Yellow scheme whilst the other four have various patterns of olive green over the dark yellow. I opted for the Das Reich machine as I needed to christen a new H&S airbrush.

The model was first given a good wipe over with IPA before being primed with Halfords Plastic Primer. When dry, a pre-shade of Tamiya NATO Black was applied to all the sharp edges. Next, Tamiya Dark Yellow was sprayed in progressive thin coats until the pre-shade was just visible. Finally, the olive-green camouflage pattern was applied in one coat, using the marking guide as a rough pattern.

A couple of coats of Klear (Pledge Revive) were applied to provide a good gloss base for the few decals required. These were then sealed in with another coat of Klear. The model was left to fully dry for a couple of days before applying Tamiya’s Semi-Gloss Varnish. This, I’ve found, provides a perfect semi-matt finish for the weathering stage.

The first stage of weathering was to apply AK’s Chipping Fluid to all the places where wear and tear would naturally occur such as sharp edges and areas around the hatches and engine covers. In addition, dark yellow was used to simulate chips where the green camo covered these areas.

Next up were AK’s Streaking Grime, Starship Streaking and Rust Streaks applied in dabs over the vertical and sloping areas of the hull after wetting with white spirit. These dabs could then be drawn and blended with a flat brush until the required effect was obtained. If overdone, the excess is easily removed with more white spirit. A mixture of light earth and rust pigments were used on the flat areas where the crew would have moved around. Light earth pigment was also built up in the areas where this would have collected.

It was now that I became aware of the 16th scale accessories sets produced in the USA by Value Gear. I ordered one of these sets from Forgebear Tanks, one of the UK importers. This I received, nicely packaged, only two days later, great service! The photos of these sets don’t really do them justice, the resin moulding is exquisite, and for twenty pounds there are ten separate pieces in each set.

I selected half of these for the StuG and instead of having them tied down on the engine deck, I decided to scratch build a storage rack similar to those I had seen in wartime photographs. This was made from evergreen strip. These racks were obviously added to vehicles in the field to no particular design. After attaching and weathering this rack, the accessories were carefully painted and placed inside along with two spare road wheels. I think these additions really bring the model to life.

The completed tracks and road wheels, sprockets and idlers were now added, along with the tools, tow cables and spare track.

The final touch was the commanders MG34 with armoured mount.

Conclusion, allery and …