Sturmgeschütz III Ausf.G (Sd.Kfz.142/1)
1:48 Scale - Kit No.32525
Review by Terry Ashley
The Mid Model G is characterised by the welded 80mm front hull armour and the single piece bolted armour plate over the driver’s visor and bolted armour panel on the right front of the superstructure. The side panniers were extended forward from the early G and the left side pannier vision block was removed and replaced with a small pistol port plug as well as the early style skirt armour panels used and the rear wall of the fighting compartment was vertical as with all Gs.
The kit also incorporates a few later features such as the cupola deflector
installed from Oct. 1943 and the initial cast Saukopf mantlet introduced
from Nov. 1943 but without the coaxial machine gun opening added
from Oct. 1944 as well as the final round profile muzzle brake.
The roof also has the three mountings for the 2 ton auxiliary crane fitted
from around July 1944, so is a bit of a mixed bag.
The instructions do tell you to cut off the three crane mountings and also found lurking on the sprues are the six smoke grenade dischargers fitted to the front hull sides and the bolted armour panels for the hull front which are features of the early Ausf.G with the instructions showing these parts are not used and it would appear there may be other versions of the Ausf.G to follow along with the addition of the block mantlet. Also lurking are the block mantlet barrel fittings for both the 7.5cm and 10.5cm guns so watch this space.
The kit consists of 240 parts in light beige plastic with a length if twine for the tow cable and a selection of poly caps and screws for the wheels and securing the upper hull, plus the decal and instruction sheets.
As you would image a number of the sprues are from previous kits with sprue A from the StuG III Ausf.B (kit #32507) and Sprues D, E, P & U from the recent Panzer III Ausf.L (kit #32524) with new sprues G and R added for the Ausf.G plus the same metal lower hull tub from the previous StuG.B and Pz.III kits.
The standard of moulding is again excellent as we have come to expect from Tamiya with clean crisp mouldings and some very nice surface details, although there are quite a few prominent weld seams around the StuG hull that are not included and you may want to add these yourself.
The cast metal lower hull tub is as mentioned the same as with the StuG.B and Pz.III kits with correctly offset axles plus the axle bump stops and return roller supports as well as the idler wheel mounts.
The detail on the two part drive sprockets and spoked idler wheels is very good as are the road wheels with the holes in the wheels and nice hub details as do the return rollers and look very good for the scale. The road wheels, return rollers and idler wheel are all glued to their respective axles/mountings while the drive sprocket is attached by pressing its axle into the poly cap trapped inside the final drive housing which does allow you to remove the sprocket at any time and of course to rotate the sprocket to line up with the drive holes in the tracks as they are fitted.
The tracks are again link and length in the same plastic as the rest of the kit and the top track run is moulded with the track sag between the return rollers for a nice appearance once fitted with the shorter sections and single links for fitting around the drive sprocket and idler wheel and the track guide teeth are moulded solid which is okay for these later style tracks.
The upper hull is moulded in one large piece including the superstructure, fenders with separate engine deck intake covers and both front inspection hatches plus one engine deck hatch separate to allow the upper hull to be screwed to the metal lower hull and obviously you don’t glue these hatches on until the upper and lower hull are joined.
The detail is very good overall but as mentioned you may want to add the many weld seams around the superstructure for a better look. The Commanders cupola is moulded with an upper and lower ring that includes nicely defined periscopes once the two are fitted together and there is a separate top hatch. This has a few pin marks on the inside that will have to be removed and the binocular scissor sights are included for when the hatch is open as well as the single sight for the forward sight opening.
The cast cupola deflector is a separate part and you have to open up the locating hole for this but this does allow you to leave this off for the earlier version if you wish.
The main gun mount is much like the StuG.B where you have an inner assembly which uses poly caps trapped between the parts to allow movement and you should allow the glue to dry thoroughly before fitting to the hull. You have to slip the gun mounting through the front superstructure opening and again allow the glue to dry completely before attaching the mantlet and gun and remember not to attach the mantlet until after the mounting is fitted to the hull.
When attaching the mantlet you have to elevate the gun mounting to its maximum
and I found the poly caps were very tight and made moving the mounting difficult,
especially the small amount of traverse allowed so take care here.
Once the mantlet is fitted you can then add the 7.5cm L/48 gun which is a single
part except for half of the muzzle brake and this just leaves a small moulding
seam along the barrel to remove instead of the usual join seam.
On the rear superstructure wall Tamiya have given you a template to mark the location of the ventilator cover, aerial mounts and rack as adding these to the vertical wall would be difficult and this is a nifty solution. The template has lower notches that fit into the engine deck contours and allows for precise location of the markings.
The early style top machine gun shield is provided (later Gs had a remote controlled MG mounting) and you can fit this shield raised or lowered as you wish but the MG34 provided is the one from the Panzer III and has the armoured barrel sleeve as used in the hull mounting and you may want to replace this with the gun from the German Infantry set (#32512) or elsewhere with the normal perforated barrel cooling jacket.
There are a couple of omissions from the upper hull, when the left side vision
port was removed for the later Ausf.G, it was replaced with a small pistol
port plug but this is missing from the kit. It is very easy to add this from
a small disk of plastic card contoured to shape and it should also be noted
that many later Ausf.G were covered extensively with waffle pattern zimmerit
and you will have to add this in many cases.
The fenders have dot pattern tread plate with all tools are separate parts and the side mounted engine intakes are moulded open without any attempt at the covering screens which is probably good as there will no doubt be etched screens released and Tamiya has pre-empted this by leaving them open to make your life easier. But you will have to add the screens if you don’t plan on getting any etched detail sets for the kit.
Also included is a full set of side skirt Schürzen armour moulded as a single piece for each side with separate hull mountings. The plates are the early style with double plating at the top of the middle two plates but are a little on the thick side with about a dozen pin marks to be removed from the inside before fitting but you can be assured there will be etched Schürzen coming from ABER, Hauler, Lion Roar or Voyager to rectify this.
Other details include all the tools, fire extinguisher and four part jack as separate parts with moulded on tool clips and the front NOTEK light and small rear tail light.
As a bonus you also get a three quarter Commander figure wearing a winter reversible parka and this has quite nice details for the scale but the moulded on headphones are a little on the heavy side.
Decals:
The decal sheet is quite extensive and is usual Tamiya with well printed markings
and good colour register but thickish carrier film.
Markings are for two StuG Gs with one shown with Schürzen and the other without.
Decal sheet
The Sprues
Click on thumbnail for larger view
Detail images
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Conclusion:
This is another very nicely detailed little model with a few options in the
vehicle type even if Tamiya didn’t intend with this model such as the
smoke launches and early bolted armour plates and the figure is nice little
bonus. But remember that many StuG Gs did have the waffle pattern zimmerit
which will be quite a task in this scale to replicate convincingly.
Highly recommended
References:
| Sturmgeschutz III Assault Gun 1940-42 Osprey New Vanguard 19 ISBN 1 85532 537 3  |
"Stug III" Monograph Acción Press/EuroModelismo ISBN 84-95464-40-3  |
Ground Power Magazine #140 3/2006 GALILEO Publishing Co.,Ltd  |
| Sturmgeschütz III in action Armor No.2014 Squadron Signal Publications ISBN 0-89747-047-8  |
Achtung Panzer Vol.5 - Stug III, Stug IV Model Graphix ISBN: 4499226546  |
Page created May 6, 2006