StuG III WIP #9

"So, what's been happening on your StuG project?" 

This is what a couple of friends asked me a couple of weeks ago.


Well, as I wanted to get a couple of my aircraft projects finished, the Sabre and the Hellcat along with the 49 Mercury, this was put on hold for a few months. The main tank construction was done, now there is just some detailing and weathering work to be done on it. The figures still need to be painted, along the the ammo that came with the kit. But as they say, "this is just a technical detail!".


Now, if you look back at post "StuG III WIP#8 Extra", I said about ordering the Russian Street diorama base kit from MiniArt. Upon receipt of the kit, which is mainly vacuum formed sheets, a slow start was made to it. After the first two walls were, well kind of made up with some frustration and a few naughty words along with it, I put it aside to complete the models mentioned earlier in this post.


Anyhow, the beginning of last week, I decided to get it back out and crack on with the base. This time I chose a different path to assemble the walls, using a foam sanding block to clean up the edges after cutting the waste plastic away. This was so much easier then the method I tried earlier, and so much quicker. Plus it was giving me a cleaner edge for matching up the two halves together. I also cut some strips of plastic from the waste and sheets of plasticard to the internal width between the two halves. This would a; give the wall some strength and rigidity, and b; help join the two halves together. So using this method, the front wall of the house went together quickly and with less swearing from me!


After the walls were done, I tackled the base next. This is a single vacuum formed sheet that is very flexible. So some 1mm and 3mm Foamlux sheet was cut to size and glued to the hollow underside of the base for stiffening it up. After this was left to dry overnight, I dry fitted the two main walls only to discover that they do not fit exactly to the base. The front wall is slightly longer then the groove on the base and both are wider too. So some cutting and filing was done to the grooves to make them wider to fit the walls in. A little sanding was done to the wall bases to make them flatter before gluing them into position on the base. Next, the internal walls and upper floor were glued in place, then I filled the wider gaps in the joints with some superglue.


With these walls being vacform, the detail does not match up between each panel. So out with the good old Green and White Putty to level out the joints and openings on the walls. After a bit of sanding and filing, things are looking a bit better to progress onto adding the doors, windows, edging bricks, street lamp, fence and gate. This is the point that I am up to as of last night. Supplied with the kit, are parts to make up a table with benches and ladders, so these were made up with one bench damaged. These will be used to add some extra life to the scene in my sometimes warped humour.


So here are a few new photos of the project.