Standard Bearer In Mud!

Historical Background

In 1934, the German Army's Army Weapons Department drew plans for a medium tank weighing 24,000kg with a speed of 35km/h. This tank was to be the main combat tank of the-then emerging post-World War I German Army. The tank was given the designation Panzerkampfwagen III Sd.Kfz.141 and was intended to fight opposing armoured fighting vehicles and to serve alongside the infantry-supporting Panzerkampfwagen IV. Therefore, it was designed with a 50mm weapon in mind. However, the German infantry at the time was equipped with 37mm anti-tank gun and in the interests of standardisation, the early marks of the Panzer III (Ausf. A to F) were armed with the same gun. However the turret ring remain able to support the proposed 50mm weapon. The 37mm gun was adequate during the early campaigns of World War 2 but when confronted with the powerful Soviet tanks, the larger 5cm KwK 38 L/42 were fitted to Panzer III Ausf. G to early Ausf. J and finally the longer 5cm KwK 39 L/60 on late Ausf J and L. The final Ausf. N was armed 7.5cm KwK 37 L/24 weapon (the same weapon arming early Panzer IV marks) as they were designed as support tanks.

Panzer IIIs were used in the campaigns against Poland, France, the Soviet Union and in North Africa. By the end of the war, the Panzer III were no longer in frontline service and only a handful were present at Anzio and North-West Europe. The Panzer III chassis were selected as the basis for the Sturmgeschutz III assault gun. Apart from new-built vehicles, many Panzer III were converted into Sturmgeschutzes when they were returned to factories for overhaul. More than 5,700 Panzer IIIs were built during the war.

The Kit

Dragon Kit #6394 was labeled a '2 In 1' kit as two versions of Ausf. J can be made: early J with L/42 50mm gun (with or without spaced armour) or late J with L/60 50mm gun (also with or without spaced armour). The kit comes in 488 grey parts, 17 clear parts, a small fret of PE and Dragon's patented 'Magic Tracks'. Plenty of the parts in the box however are not for use as they were only applicable to Ausf L (or just about every other variants of the Panzer III). From what I read, the kit is highly accurate for a Panzer III Ausf. J save for the engine deck at it was only applicable for late Ausf. J and Ausf. L (the L/60 armed tanks).

Markings are provided for eight tanks:

- 5./Pz..Rgt 24, 24th Panzer Division, Stalingrad 1942 (L/60 in Dark Grey)

- 1./3. Pz.Gren. Division, Stalingrad 1942 (L/60 with spaced armour in whitewash)

- 2./Pz. Rgt.18, 18th Panzer Division, Russia 1942 (L/42 with spaced armour in Dark Yellow)

- 23rd Panzer Division, Eastern Front 1942 (L/42 in Dark Yellow)

- 5./Pz.Rgt.1, SS-Pz. Gren. Div 'Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler', Kharkov 1943 (L/42 in whitewash)

- 3./Pz.Rgt.7, 10th Panzer Division, Tunisia 1943 (L/60 with spaced armour in Desert Sand)

- 1./SS-Pz.Gren. Div. 'Wiking', Russia 1943 (L/60 in Dark Grey)

- 3./Pz.Rgt.8, 15th Panzer Division, Tobruk 1942 (L/60 with spaced armour in Desert Sand)

I decided to do the LSSAH vehicle as I do not have a German vehicle in whitewash camo plus I want to try the 'hairspray method' of weathering.

Construction

As usual with tank models, I started with the lower hull/suspension. Even though it's going to be virtually invisible when complete, Dragon provided the torsion bars. The sprocket and ideler wheels were assembled but were left unglued to the chassis until later. I only put the inner half of the return rollers and roadwheels (also unglued) in order to facilitate assembling the tracks. I also carved off the right-hand half of the U in the 'Continentau' (moulded on the tyres) to turn them into 'Continental' (Dragon took advantage of loopholes in the IP law...haha) titles on the wheels. The tracks are of Dragon's patented Magic Track separate-link type. The tracks were easily assembled as they have already been separated from the sprues at the factory. I started with the lower, straight run (i.e the easiest part) first and later the curved areas around the drive sprocket and idler wheels and finally the top run - all using Tamiya extra thin cement. For the curves and sags, I allow the glue to set a bit before wrapping them around the appropriate parts (or pressing down a bit to get the 'appropriate' sag). The assembled track were removed for painting, to be fixed permanently later.

The rest of the build were pretty straightforward but one has to take note which version they wish to build as Dragon provided different parts for regular or spaced armour gun mantlet. A rudimentary interior was provided for the turret, mainly consisting of the gun breech and details inside the turret hatches including vision blocks in clear plastic. I added the vision blocks for the commander's cupola as I intended to have its hatch opened and a figure placed in it.

Painting

Once the sub-assemblies were completed, it's off to the paint shop. I painted the kit overall Panzer Grey using Tamiya XF-63. The tyres were painted using Gunze H77 Tyre Black. Once cured I sprayed the upper part, front and the rear of the hull with a couple of layer of hairspray to act as a temporary, water-soluble layer for the white camo paint. Once dry, I applied Tamiya XF-2 Flat White in a rather haphazard manner (just like the real thing). When the white paint was dry (but not cured), I used a stiff old paintbrush dipped in water and proceeded to strip off the white paint. I concentrated on high wear areas such as around the hatches, mantlet, engine deck and basically the flat horizontal areas on the tank. After cleaning up the flaked white paint, I washed the tank using a bluish-black wash mixture. Decals were then applied.

I decided to do some extreme (maybe not) weathering by applying mud to the lower hull (the tank marking chosen by me placed it around the third battle of Kharkov in February/March 1943 - about time the winter camo weathered and the 'time of the mud' in early Spring). The mud paste was made from a mixture of Mig Productions' 'African Earth' and ' Europe Dust' pigments, Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown, some bristles from unused brushes, white glue and bulked with baking soda(!). The resulting goo however ended up with a lighter tone once dry so I added more XF-64. Once properly dry the 'mud' was glossed over with Tamiya X-22 Clear to simulate wet mud.

Figure

The commander figure comes from the spares box; specifically from Tamiya's King Tiger 'Ardennes Front' kit in my stash. Whether truly accurate or not, I decided to paint the figure's parka in the SS-Eichenlaubmuster (aka Oak Leaf pattern) camouflage. The figure was then placed inside the commander's hatch - a tight fit because of the aforementioned vision blocks - necessitating the removal of its lower half.

Conclusion

Another great kit from Dragon. The build process is tedious however and I especially hate separate track links. However the inclusion of the Magic Track helped in eliminating the 'snip-and-store first' approach to assembling tracks.