Finished: Project II/26

Altmärkische Kettenwerk GmbH Sd.Kfz. 142/1 - StuG III Ausführung G 10.5cm

At least in my home country there's a number of these Alkett-made assault guns sprinkled as decorations. One can be seen facing west-northwest in the Parola junction (roads 3 (E12) and 3051) while a Leopard 2A4 poses on the southern side. They weren't all in museums or where the conscripts get trained. With its different variants the StuG III was also the most numerously built tracked vehicle by the Germans.

This individual had a 105mm gun, based on the sources it might not be a StuG III but a StuH 42 aka Sturmhaubitze 42 aka Sd.Kzf. 142/2, even though the Sturmhaubitze should have a muzzle brake that this one didn't get. I used the name in the box, chosen by the manufacturer. They ought to know.

Method madness or the lamentations part

When I started on this I was so excited about trying the armour texture again. Then I completely forgot it in my excitement of priming the model, and caught myself a tiny bit too late. Perhaps I would remember all this on the next armoured model.

I was following the instructions to the letter and skipped all the opportunities for PE because I had not looked at the PE sheets before and spend a few moments thinking where they'd belong. I trusted blindly in the instructions telling me the options, or marking the photoetch bits like the sprues. Now I was in a situation where I had kinda bought an aftermarket set and not use any of it. Probably the only things I would've realistically used were the engine intake grilles, I really wasn't a fanatical tool clamp person.

With the oil paints the recommendation has been to have a layer of gloss varnish to protect the acrylics. As a bonus the capillary effect works better on the supersmooth surface of the shiny coat. On a couple of projects now the matt varnish applied over the glossy one hasn't gotten stuck as expected, as there have been annoying spots of shininess in places despite multiple reapplications of matt varnish. Maybe all those would behave better through an airbrush, maybe not, but these ones I had didn't go through the tool anymore and were strictly brush-only anymore. I had new stuff in the future pipeline.

I also made some silly choices with my paints, more accurately with the red brown. This one was too red for camouflage and I ended up with a circus candy bag. That was stuck in my mind for the remainder of the project and most likely caused my general displeasure with the painting in general. At least I could tone the redness down with a brushed-on Panzer Aces camo brown, the VMC paints were not directly airbrushable and I didn't feel the need to swear with the dilutions either so... brushwork it was.

 

Photos

When taking the photos I tried a different approach with the lights. They ended a bit overexposed. Maybe I'd retake the photos and update them later, but we'd start with these today.