In the desert furnace...PANZER III Ausf.J Das Werk 1/16

[Gérard Deygas]

I open this new feed with one of my last subjects at 1/16
Declined in several versions with moderately effective improvements, the Panzer III will be qualified as a medium tank by the Wehrmacht. Widely used on the Eastern Front and in North Africa, soon exceeded it will be replaced advantageously by the Panzer IV. It will subsequently serve as an armoured escort to support the infantry rather than facing armoured forces.

The kit: After the Stug III from the same manufacturer, I let myself be tempted by the Panzer III Ausf. J. It is no longer necessary to praise DAS Werk as much for the 1/16th as for the 1/35... The quality is there and we are never disappointed when we open the box! Based on the same chassis, we find all the ingredients faithful to the brand. Significant packaging, an impressive number of parts grouped into twenty-one plastic clusters, an illustrated assembly plan with six color profiles, a photoetched, a decal board, a translucent plastic board to restore the glasses of the episcopes, of lighthouses, two turned aluminum cannons etc... The chassis. The suspension arms in place, they will remain articulated allowing a perfect adaptation on a dio to difficult terrain!. Blank test of the undercarriage components, support rollers, rollers, pulley and sprocket...

If nothing goes wrong, we’ll remove everything because these parts will be painted separately! A small remark, the molding of the supporting rollers could have been simplified thus reducing the number of parts... Indeed, the assembly of the two half parts of the rubber reveals a rather unsightly joint to fix! You should spread liquid glue on both sides to avoid using sealant. After drying, the excess glue will be removed with a half-round file; the finish will be done with fine abrasive paper. Finally, with the supporting rollers (the rollers will be treated in the same way), “break” the overly protruding rubber edge with a flat file.

I am keeping here the same attachment as for the Stug III, a plywood board, an effective system to hold the kit during all the assembly and painting phases. For this, the frame is drilled and four nuts are glued inside, two at the front and two at the back of the body. Set the location of the holes beforehand to avoid crossing a torsion bar. In order to secure the bonding, I reinforced the nuts with Magic Sculpt. Another putty will also do the trick.
A 5 mm thick board will be screwed into the frame (6 mm screws) on it, and a wooden handle will be attached to complete this adaptation (drop of a wooden curtain rod, handle of a brush, etc.).

 

[Gérard Deygas]

The axes for passing sling hook, B27 parts, must be improved; indeed, the end piece that positions itself in the hook is actually conical. A hole of 0.35 mm must be drilled for the passage of a pin that will keep the axis in place. A chain will ensure the whole, thus preventing the axis from falling due to the vibrations caused by the movement of the armored vehicle. I placed the hook on an eraser to prevent it from moving when drilling! On the right is the copper wire pin. The loop is formed on a sewing needle. The chain comes from Green Stuff Worlds.
The plastic on the exhaust pipe outlets is too thick and not deep enough, so the holes were enlarged and dug using a ball mill mounted on a mini drill. On this subject, I use a train transformer from the brand Jouef, which serves as my drive!
During fairs or model train exhibitions, you can find these little transfos, which are more commonly used nowadays, sold for a trivial amount of money!
For better adhesion, the photo-etched grids at the back of the crate are brushed with a Scotchbritt scouring pad and then glued with a cyanoacrylate gel glue.
Photo n° 14: As for the exhaust outlets, the air intake openings (parts G2-14) on the transmission section will be enlarged. Perform this operation before gluing the parts on the top plate of the crate.

The replacement track element support bar, part F2-12, is much too thick and poorly reproduced in shape; we will replace it with Evergreen profile.
To be sure of its location, I assembled some chenille runners then positioned on the back a piece of double-sided tape to keep the element in place on the body of the Stug.... All I had left was to present and stick the bar. A bar is welded to the front plate of the hull to install crawler pads, which can be used to increase shielding or as a simple precaution not to run out of pads!

 

[Gérard Deygas]

Help...I made a mistake when trying to reply to Elco by mistake, I posted the rest of my feed about the Panzer III. Could you fix that? Jakko, thank you. 😳

 

[Rob Plas]

How will you fix the fact that the suspension is over 2 cm too high when released from the jig?
If you builg the Stug and/or this kit just following the plans it will end up way too high.
I cut the bars, lowered the hull to the correct hight and reglued the bars

 

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Help...I made a mistake when trying to reply to Elco by mistake, I posted the rest of my feed about the Panzer III. Could you fix that? Jakko, thank you. 😳

I moved the message to this thread 🙂

 

[Gérard Deygas]

Hello Rob,
If you are talking about the height, I left the suspension arms free. I’ll talk about it later in my topic.

 

[Gérard Deygas]

On the lid of the boxe (F2-27), extend the hinges with Evergreen profile. Add a half-loop in the latch for the passage of the padlock.
Photo no.: During the manufacturing of the molds, some holes for positioning the tools in the on-board set were not pre-drilled; this oversight is indicated during steps 18-1 and 18-2 of the assembly plan by a strange symbol, not very clear... I would have preferred to see a more explicit forest/wick symbol appear. A side plan would have been preferable! These holes will be drilled through the inside of the mudguard, 1 mm drill bit.
The supports of the shovel, remove them to replace them with aluminum foil. The fastening bolts are cut from hexagonal punch-die plastic card. Having raised the shovel by its new fastenings will result in the end stop of the handle being modified. The dough at square will be lengthened with a piece of Evergreen profile. Its end is rounded. For the antenna duct, the manufacturer went to the simplest option; once again, the parts are too thick and the whole system does not look at all like the equipment mounted on the PZ III ausf. J... We keep the dimensions, but we redo everything with Evergreen profile. Then, we can restore/reproduce a chute corresponding to the actual piece that was made of wood. The end of the antenna mast when it is in its housing is placed on a wooden abutment for support. It is made of balsa according to the sketch included in photo no