Dragon 1/35 StuG. III Ausf.G Mid-Late Production
By Joe Lotz
Item No.:6581
MSRP: $47.50
History
The StuG IIIG was the final production version of the Stug III series. The first vehicles appeared in early 1943. The changes incorporated in the StuG IIIG where based mostly on combat experience. The main reason for the StuG IIIG’s appearance was to eliminate problems found by crews during combat. Some of these changes included additional 30mm armor plates to the already existing 50mm armor. Later this was changed to 80mm armor plates. Also the superstructure was widened to extent over the tracks. A new cupola with 8 periscopes was also introduced. Other changes included moving the ventilator from the top of the superstructure to the rear plate, Zimmerit and the addition of armored side skirts. A total of 7,720 Stug IIIG had been built by the end of WW2 making it the most numerous version of the StuG III.
The Kit
The box is packed with 11 light grey sprues, 1 PE Fret, a braided metal tow cable, stamped aluminum side skirts, 1 clear sprue, 2 bags of different colored magic tracks for right and left side and a decal sheet for 3 different vehicles. The total part count is close to 700 with a few parts left for the spare part bin.
The quality of the parts is exceptional as we already come to expect from Dragon. The detail is crisp and there are no visible ejector marks or flash. The mold lines are almost non-existent. A nice touch is the interior which includes a full gun mount including breach and breach guard, seats, radios and torsion bars for the suspension. There is also a choice between a flush final drive and a final drive housing. But I could not confirm which is the right one of if both were used at one point or another.
The markings included are for StuG.Kp 1019, 19. Luftwaffen Felddivision, Ukraine 1944; StuG. Brig. 226 East Prussia, 1945 and Pz. Jg. Abt. 2, 12. Pz.Div.,Estonia 1944.
Conclusion
This is another beautifully made kit from Dragon. From looking at the instructions any modeler with some experience with Armor models should be able to turn this into a nice replication of the Stug.IIIG. I would like to thank Dragon USA for this review kit.
