Dragon 1:35 Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf. J

[Naedrux]

Hello lads and lasses, I've been around here on the forums for a while now, but my posts are usually the occasional "Good work" on the builds of other people. And while that is a nice thing to say, of course, I suppose I might write something of my own work - which is easier done than said! Enough drivel from me, I'll get us right into it.




So, this is a Panzerkampfwagen III, Ausf. J, a kit in 1:35 scale from Dragon. The boxart is, as Lee often uses as a description, "very nice indeed" (it is!), showing the tank in action. This is my first kit from Dragon, and the second tank that I've ever built - the first one being a Pz.II Ausf. G from Tamiya, that also in 1:35 scale. The kit has three different paint schemes from the box; two from Africa (Afrika for you Jerries) in 1942, and one from Russia in '41. I'm going to make it in the dark grey Eastern Front Russian marking option, and it'll be an OOB build.




Since the kit doesn't include any figures, I bought this MiniArt set of five German artillerists. I'm only using one of them for this project I reckon, which is the officer, whom I will convert to a German tank officer of the Eastern Front. As for the other four blokes, they might be used in a diorama with the tank, but I haven't decided about them yet.




So, to start off, I prepared all the wheels; tedious work, but fun! The plastic is a bit harder than that which I am used to, which makes it a bit difficult to work with, but on the contrary, at least it's not too soft to work with.




And so came the torsion bars, maintenance hatches, and other various parts of the main hull. This is one of those processes on which you spend many hours with what feels like hundreds of parts, with little actually visible progress being made. But, I'm enjoying it, nonetheless. There is a good amount of detail, which makes this tiresome work worth doing!





Then came the wheels, and upon attaching them, each one gives a lot of noticeable change to the model, unlike the previous step. I'm not planning to toy around with the kit, or make it RC-controlled, or anything like that; I merely glued the wheels stuck in their positions, it's going to be a static display model.





After this, I assembled all the engine hatches, with a tow cable to top it off. I noticed just now that I missed a bit whilst cutting off the excess sprue part on the cable, egad! No fancy-schmancy scratch-building a tow cable here, but, some very fancy photo-etched parts I attached! They come with the kit, and it's my first time working with PE parts.





And the rear part of the tank, with more PE, exhausts, and more detail that won't be seen much on the finished build. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this part of the build especially.





Oh, and that's a tiny Maschinengewehr with intricate detail, of which merely the barrel will be seen on the finished tank. However, I couldn't resist building this mini-model, which was fiddly to put together. Oh, and that's Tamiya Extra Thin glue, in case you might be wondering what glue I use for this build.

So, that's the build as it stands so far! Any comments are appreciated, and I'm hoping to come with an update soon enough!

[RonBurgundy]

Great build so far, I have exactly the same kit in my stash and now I suddenly have desire to start it haha
Keep up the good work.

[InitialProduction1]

Great start Naedrux, I wanted that kit, I guess not enough, so I still get to watch it go to gether, was there photo etch in that kit, other then grills? Again cool build.

[Naedrux]

Great start Naedrux, I wanted that kit, I guess not enough, so I still get to watch it go to gether, was there photo etch in that kit, other then grills? Again cool build.

Thanks for your comment (that accounts for RonBurgundy as well ), and yes, there is a handful of PE parts beside the grills. There are a few hinges, and two splash guards for the back of the tank, which can optionally be excluded, alternatively be built in plastic, should one not want to use the PE. Other than that, there aren't a lot of photo-etched parts.



The major sub-assemblies (aside from the turret) are finally, after a lot of fiddling and puzzling, attached. I regret to say that the instructions show this vital part of the build vaguely, it is nigh-impossible to get the upper hull correctly assembled; nigh-impossible. That means that you ought to dry-fit it together, check the fit, check it again, double-check, and repeat. Eventually, I solved the riddle by attaching all separate upper-hull pieces to the compartment below the turret, before joining the halves together. For anyone else building this, or a similar, kit from Dragon, be wary, careful, and even more cautious, and you should do just fine!






The turret prior to attaching hatches and other small parts. I loved this part of the build, which consists of a couple of small sub-assemblies, comprised into one heck of a good-looking turret, with a plethora of detail! The gun itself takes a bit of trial and error, once again, do not glue it together without first dry-fitting it; the instructions are somewhat inconsistent on this one too.





Major parts of the turret exterior are attached. Also, one of the figures of the German Artillery Crew kit, seen at the top of this page, is assembled, on whom painting has been initiated. He looks like a thug if you ask me!





Hatches, hooks, and handles are attached to the turret. My Panzer is starting to look as though it can kill someone now. Next up are the tracks!






Voila! Here are the tracks! It is commonly held regarding individual track links assembly a dread of which; but, I fail to see its reason. In my experience, doing individual track links is far superior to rubber-band type tracks in many aspects; one of which being the level of detail, and another being that it is possible to create a realistic sag effect. Then again, I might just be a lucky lad, but if I do say so myself, she looks the part now! I've also begun work on the attachment of tools and lights on the sides of the tank.





Awful quality picture, yes, I know that. Try taking a better photo yourself with a mobile phone in the middle of the night after a long session of modelling. Anyways, this is the officer from the MiniArt kit, whom I will use as a commander. Let him stand and point as if hooting his own horn in that manner for now, because...




... he lost his legs by the hands of a mad modeller known as Naedrux, who is thirty-five times taller than him, and made of flesh and bone. Little Otto here lost his legs to a pair of pliers. Poor blighter! I suppose his situation won't improve if I tell him that this process was merely executed for the sake of him fitting inside the tank, from which he can point for all eternity. Oh, maybe he'll rejoice once I have put some paint on the chap's garments!


And "das war alles" for now, I'm hoping to update you lads and lasses on my progress soon! Cheerio!

[McClane187]

Really great work so far... looking forward to see the finished model... kutgw....

[Naedrux]

Really great work so far... looking forward to see the finished model... kutgw....

I'm also looking forward to it! The kit is a very good one, apart from certain parts of the instructions. I've now assembled everything, tomorrow I will post pictures of the complete assembly! Next up is the paint...

[ForTheWatch]

Looks very nice! Cant wait to see it finished and camo you go with.

[Naedrux]

Looks very nice! Cant wait to see it finished and camo you go with.

I'm probably going to weather it heavily with mud on the tracks and wheels, and light snow and dust on the upper chassis and turret. As for the paintjob, I'm hoping to get a good finish, as I do not have an airbrush; I paint everything by hand, per se. We shall see, I am going to work hard on painting the model!

[Linushg]

Nice work mate! Hope to see it finished sooner than my 1:200 USS Iowa, leyte gulf configuration.

[InitialProduction1]

Very cool Neadrux, that's one of the thing's that drives me nuts about dragon and other company's, they give you thoughs great looking clear parts, and why? They get painted over all the time, I paint mine light clear green by tamiya, why don't the companys just make them green clear, or just make them plastic gray. Again awesome build. looking forward to painting and weathering

[Smiffy]

Great work so far

[Naedrux]

Thanks for your comments! Old Tamiya kits usually have a fairly accurate plastic colour for the vehicle presented, for instance their Leopard A1 is green.

Anyways, I apologize for the recent lack of updates, but I've been busy with various things other than modelling. A bit more progress on the Panzer has been made, but nothing much aside from a few more detail parts. There'll come an update within the next few days, I hope.

[Linushg]

Thanks for your comments! Old Tamiya kits usually have a fairly accurate plastic colour for the vehicle presented, for instance their Leopard A1 is green.

Anyways, I apologize for the recent lack of updates, but I've been busy with various things other than modelling. A bit more progress on the Panzer has been made, but nothing much aside from a few more detail parts. There'll come an update within the next few days, I hope.

As for the old Tamiya kits they can be somewhat of a bummer to put together. I just bought myself a cheiftain Mk.5 (its from 1975) and, well, I've had to use brute force to put the suspension together. Waiting for new updates on this one. I have to say it again, it looks AWESOME!

[burnie43]

Good job....I like it " a lot!!"
cheers and thanks for sharing
Mark

[Naedrux]

As always, grateful for your comments I am. Various school assignments are keeping me rather busy, so I haven't really had much time lately during which I can work on the Panzer. Also, I've initiated work on a DAK Kübelwagen in 1:35 scale (Tamiya, heh!), of which I'll create a build-process thread when it is finished. As for the Panzer itself, I've taken one picture of it:



It looks awfully green, a colour that would suit a Sherman well. Luckily it looks a lot less green in the world, compared to the photo. I am flabbergasted though, because this is supposed to be the correct paint; "German Camo Grey, WWII" my Vallejo paint is called. Oh well, future weathering will hide its, or rather, my sins. A few more layers need to be applied, then I can proceed with painting the tools and equipment, before weathering it.

[Naedrux]

Here's the tank as it looks now. A complete overhaul of its look, compared to the last update!


Okay, so I must admit: The more I looked at the "grey" paintjob, the more I realized how daft it would look. So! I decided to repaint the whole model in Dunkelgelb, and turn it into a vehicle of the North African campaign. This paint is a little bit too dark, but it's still more accurate than what I used before. Luckily I didn't finish the "grey" paintjob, so not too much work was lost. I've applied all decals, next up will be finishing off the wheels, and other detail painting. The tracks also need some paint, I'll need to study photos of the actual tank further before I decide what weathering I'll use on them.

That's all for now, cheerio!

[InitialProduction1]

Really awesome Naedrux, I've always wanted to paint a Tiger that color, well for a Dak tiger, but I've never been able to pen down the true olive color. Again awesome.

[AgentG]

Good save!
RAL 8000 was quite dark anyway, so your J looks spot on.
This is my custom mix of RAL 8000 using Tamiya paint.



G

[Naedrux]

Thank you again for your comments!
As for the model, it is just about finished. I had a very long modelling session yesterday, and did some finishing touches today. The only thing remaining now is the commander figure.

I need to take better photos soon, but you can hopefully see what the model looks like now. Needless to say, I'm very happy with how it looks, at least for the time being!




Okay, so I managed to get the backside panel stuck upside down. Blame the instructions! They were rather unclear as to how this part would be attached, as per Dragon's reputation for their "brilliant" instructions. I suppose I'm also to blame for not looking up reference photos of this part. Anyways, I don't think anyone but a real Panzer fanatic (which I am not) will notice this slight defect.










Lots of dust! I didn't do much weathering apart from that, maybe a little drybrushing would touch her up?


More dust.


I am particularly happy with how the turret came out.


Some side details. Awful picture, yes.


More side details. The shovel is one thing of which I'm proud!

I hope you've enjoyed following this project! Any feedback is welcome. Everything is hand-painted with Vallejo acrylics. Also a MIG wash was used over most of the model.

-Naedrux

[Linushg]

Absolutley marvelous work, extremly well done. Next time you might want to paint the inside of the boxes with the PE part first as it is hard to reach later on. But still:

[Naedrux]

Thanks! I captured some better photos of the finished tank, which are somewhat better than the previous ones - though I don't have much experience with photography. Nonetheless, I suppose these'll suffice.

















Enjoy!

[Linushg]

Good Job mate!

[d6mst0]

very nice work. Great job with the weathering, looks like she just went through the sand.

[Naedrux]

I am grateful for your comments.

[AgentG]

I like that!

G

[Naedrux]

Thank you lad!