To supplement my existing (unassembled) Zvezda Pz II and IVs, I bought some of the Zvezda 'Pz IIIG', despite the new inflated prices. I'm not actually convinced this is a G, as it doesn't have the thicker mantlet, although it does have E/F/G drive wheels. Maybe an F? Anyway, it is a Panzer III with a 50L42 gun, so good enough.
I assembled two of them for Stage One, as Pz IIIs were the mainstay of the DAK panzer regiments. I'll put the other two together later. Like the Panzer IIs, these are easy to assemble, but have more parts, with separate hull tops and even separate side pieces and suspension.
They are supplied with closed hatches. I added a commander and open hatches to the one on the left using a spare PSC Pz IV cupola top and commander figure. I had to cut the top off the moulded on cupola but it all looks OK stuck together.
I did them in different shades of sand as there weren't really any standards, and sometimes Italian or British paint was used, and sometimes the supplied sand paint was mixed with green which produced quite a brown shade (the Pz IIIN in Bovington is in the brown shade).
The tank on the right has had some spare track link added. You can see the very fine detail on these quite well in this photo.
I added a bit of stowage as well. The tank on the right has some jerry cans (those PSC stowage sets are very useful!) while the one on the left has a big box and a rolled tarp. The box is a PSC ammo crate, and the 'tarp' is actually a spare Soviet fuel tank, filed down to make it look more like cloth.
The paint job was the usual sand over grey with an ink wash, dry brushing etc. Unlike tanks for Europe/Russia, I didn't bother painting the entire running gear mud coloured as the tanks look pretty dusty anyway. I do still paint the tracks mud, with an inkwash followed by a gunmetal highlight, which looks OK.
This one got turret numbers and a standard balkan cross. The other one got an outline cross, which ended up being invisible from more than 6" away, so I'll stick to standard crosses from now on. I didn't even attempt to paint the turret numbers on, these are from my dwindling stock of paired, outline numbers. I have got a very old sheet of Command Decision turret number decals, but each number is separate, and they are horrific to apply as you can never get them lined up straight.
They look very good sir. The Zvezda 1/100 panzer 3 models are the workhorses of my DAK force. They were very cheap if I remember only 4 dollars or 5 dollars per model back in the 2010s. They're also not bad next to the PSC models either.
ReplyDeleteYes, they are lovely little models. Originally they used to sell for 3.99 here, and I bought loads of Zvezda tanks and trucks. Most of ,my DAK stuff was 'in stock' already as I was building a Command Decision Pz 38 battalion a few years ago - in the end I did the (Zvezda) Pz 38s, but never got around to doing the Pz IIs or Pz IVs, so all I needed for DAK was the Pz IIIs. They were 5.99, so increased in price by 50%.
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