Hi all, I'm afraid I'll not be able to take part in the Pz IV ML & BSMC because in a few weeks my workspace will be occupied by a newborn baby, my first one
and I suppose I'll not have neither space nor time to finish this work in time.
Perhaps some of you could be interested in the progresses thus far, so I'll try to be accurate in my description of the mods applied to Dragon's Stug IV.
The finished model should represent a mid-to-late, "mit Zimmerit" Stug IV.
I choose to represent '23' a Stug IV photographed in Prussia, characterised by zimmerit, field applied gun bracket, and mixed cement/steel plate add-on armor for the casemate.
I used one box each of Dragon Stug IV Early and Late, and some parts of Dragon's Stug III and Revell's PzIV.
Photoetched parts are Eduard's, and I'll use a Part gun barrel.
I based my modelling on the well respected Jentz and Doyle drawings, photographs, and books on the subject. A good digital caliper, and much time to spare are fundamental tools.
The basic hull is dimensionally correct. I used the late hull with early front- and side plates so that I had to modify the return roller mounting plates (from three to four), placing them according to the J-D plans. I did that because I wanted the late-style suspension stops (which anyway I removed and scratchbuilt at a later stage- these are oversimplified, rather thick, and misplaced, so I choose the scratchbuilding approach).
I added some bolts (sliced stretched styrene) to the transmission cover (some are misplaced in the kit), and detailed the suspension assemblies with bolts and leaf-springs ends.
Some more bolt heads were added: I used both punch-and-die and sliced sprue techniques.
The rear plate is dimensionally correct, I just thinned the horizontal strakes and substituted the tow hook assembly. The idler wheel/track tensioning assembly is approximate and needs some detailing.
I replaced some parts with more accurate, scratchbuilt items. the exhaust positioning holes are misplaced in the kit, I corrected the exhaust positions thanks to the J-D drawings. Weld beads have been added everywhere needed, etching the plastic with a sharp 10A scalpel tip.
The front armor plate was detailed with new tow rings- a difficult work to get them right- but the end result is convincing to my eye. If you're interested in figures (I'm not usually, but this time I was curious to know) the lower hull has about 320 parts added to the original Dragon pieces. I must point out that the added parts just improve accuracy, as the basic shape is correct and the position of all of the elements is accurate except for the exhausts, suspension stops, and return rollers.
Upper hull/casemate
I tend to learn more and more of the subject while I'm modelling it- so when I start a new project I do lot of stupid errors. First thing I did when I started the Stug project was substituting the hull-roof plate to
the side of the driver's compartment (Dragon's overly thick), then I added the driver's compartment to the casemate- WRONG!- the kit's part is quite misshapen, it needs to be lengthened and sloped. I modified it at a later stage, but in these pics it remains as firstly assembled. The fenders are scratch-built items with photoetched textured plates (Eduard Stug IV late set).Dragon casemate is dimensionally OK with J-D (I mean to the tenth of millimeter!) EXCEPT for the gun opening. It is too wide, and the saukopf mantlet results oversized too. The fix is not too difficult: I cut two new
cheek plates in plasticard of the correct thickness, the plates extending to the base of the casemate, then plied them to the correct angle (J-D helps a lot here!). I then cut away the kit's cheek plates LEVEL with the casemate sloped front plates (actually extending the width of the sloped plates). At this point I placed the new cheek plates respecting the right distances from the casemate sides (I pencil-marked those data on the right plate, it is barely discernible in the pic). Then filled the gap and restored the weld beads. This defect is, sadly,common to the newer Stug III mould.
The kit's saukopf mantlet is plainly horrible. It's too squarish and, worst of all oversized in width by more than 1mm. If you mod the casemate opening to the correct width, the shield won't ever fit inside the corrected opening... so again I took J-D and reshaped the manlet, turning the front part in a lathe and shaping the rest with files and sandpaper. Before reshaping takes place, you should be careful to fill the mantlet with epoxy putty- otherwise the sanding process will open holes in the top "corners" of the saukopf. The end result is correct to the tenth of mm, at lest for the dimensions that can be measured with my faithful caliper; good news? The gun opening diameter is correct (about 2mm) so the replacement barrel will fit just right. I detailed the front fenders with bolts and springs, added the concrete armor, and replaced the gutter (the kit's one is wrongly placed). Please notice the spare track section on the front plate: In Revell's PzIVs (having wrong sized track-links) just six links fit in this place. Dragon has right-sized links, but the links you get are... eight!!! Why?????? I cut the eigth link, detailed the ends and hollowed two horns, as in the pic of the original "23" I'm basing my work on.
I scratchbuilt the casemate skirts, used a refined Dragon Stug III cupola (some adjustment is needed to fit it), antenna mounts, and fan cover. The pic of the casemate roof of "23" shows that the MG is not mounted, while the Nahverteidigungswaffe seems present (odd enough?). Also, the three-pilzen configuration is well apparent. At this point many hull details are still missing, they will be added after the "rough handling" required for the assembly of the lower hull.
Wheels, or How To Ruin Your Entire Week
Shortly, Dragon wheels have wrong diameter, wrong rim diameter, and are a little off in terms of concentricity. Revell wheels are spot-on in diameter (in the pic a comparison of the two, Dragon's gray, Revell's yellow),rim diameter seems fairly good, but have depressingly shallow detail. I tried an hybridization of the two kinds: Revell wheels with Dragon hubcaps, far from perfect but quite convincing at the end.
First step: how to get them aligned?
I holed through Revell hubcaps with a 1mm drill, then carefully assembled the wheel pairs and inserted a 1mm styrene rod as a mounting pin. Then I built on a flat surface a jig in which the wheels are kept in place. The flat surface keeps the faces even, the styrene "main" rails keep them aligned to the ground (the two interleaved rails push the wheels against the flat surface, the two side rails keep them aligned).
At this point I inserted and glued the hull in place, reinforcing with cyano glue.
Et voilà, after breaking the jig and extracting the hull you can see the yellow wheel spacers still in place.
They are cut-to-size layers of Post-it stickers (the number of sheets gives the right spacing, about 0.36mm). They stick in place 'cause.... well that's obvious! Notice that zimmerit appeared overnight!
Now, the jig ensures that the wheels are well aligned in a row, but the two rows are not aligned reciprocally if the hull is twisted. I marked with a green marker the wheels bottoms then sanded lightly over an abrasive planar base until seeing all of the green marks touched a bit by the sanding operation. Now the wheelbase is flat with terrain.
Hubs are explanted from Dragon rims and transplanted. Difficult/scary++ operation...
...but the result is nice indeed (at least I think so!)
The sprockets had the rims hollowed out; I reduced also the hub diameter, so that I had to modify the cone of the lower part, this was quickly done in a lathe. The hollowed rims will give a great improvement to the realism of the finished model.
Installing the return rollers: Again Post-it spacers and caliper measurements help to place the rollers in the correct reciprocal positions
The model today: lower and upper hull are cemented together, and the driver compartment has been modified.
The lower hull has been pre-painted with dark yellow to ensure the best visive yeld for the zimmerit I applied before.
I modified with the correct slope the drivers compartment: sawed away a wedge of it, pressed down the front part, glued then puttyed and sanded it plain. Now it has a correct slope and the protruding front armor plate.
The rear side, waiting for more details. I corrected the thickness of the rear armor plate, thus the white stripe filling the original separation mark.
At this point I'll start with the final detailing phase, then paint will follow, then tracks will be installed, then the weathering process... I hope to get there soon, but it will be difficult... baby cries at the horizon!
Cheers
Stefano
