As a pre-teen scale model
enthusiast I’m foremost an “aircraft kit” fan, all of the Land vehicle kits
I’ve had within the time frame are either gotten by unintentional means or bought out curiosity, however
when I was sorting out the box of my discarded models to start my now several
series of “blog” pages of “scales and things” there is "one" particular land vehicle scale
model that made me sigh in regret when
I saw it’s seemingly unrecoverable jalopized condition; it was a scale World War II era German
“Sturmgeschutz III” or simply “STUG
III”. My initial goal for creating a
“blog page” was to give a final reminisce and probably a parting commemoration to all
my childhood scale models which are primarily “aircrafts”, however, I did felt
some despair when I deduce the unviable condition of my old “STUG III” model, it
could have been an interesting post for me mainly because for its personal
novelty. Originally the “Stug III” was never really specially set-aside for
blog posting but rather sorted out for scrap parts for other builds and an imminent trip to the
trash bin.
It’s not my birthday nor it was Christmas,
my family is in a “chain” books store shopping for supplies for the upcoming
school opening when I came across some model kits displayed on the store's minor toy section glass shelf,
after realizing that there are no “aircraft kit” on the display and its not the instant for indulge buying; I just contented myself on appreciating the box arts. I was about to give my attention
on some really cool “car” shaped pencil “sharpeners” and erasers when I saw my Father nearby and pointed out the kits display, he promptly look at them and told me that I can buy one, I’m not keen on buying a “land vehicle” model
kit so I just casually choose the “STUG
III” which I though was a “Main Battle Tank” in the kit line-up of armoured cars, heavy artillery and Japanese tankettes; this was more or less than Forty years
ago, I tried “research” the kit’s “brand” for this blog feature with no
success.
Fast-forward to present
times … while on one of my leisurely adventures on the mega-city’s countless
shopping malls, in one small, inconspicuously located but very crowded
knicknackery shop I found some small boxes labeled “4-D model tank in 1:77
scale” as most other details are written in alien characters (Chinese, Korean
or Japanese?). There are several tank
models to choose from; one box picture
show a familiar appearance of a “STUG
III”, despite having doubt that its
scale is probably too small I still bought the so-called “4D” model out of curiosity on the real contents of the
small sealed box; besides also being fairly affordable. After eating dinner the same
day I got the 4D Stug kit, I opened the box to see the contents expecting a few
seconds snap-on type of assembly with wacky and disproportional final outcome.
To my surprise, the 4D-Stug III
turned out to be a very humblingly different model making experience, it’s
a multi-dimensional jigsaw "puzzle" much
like making a “LEGO” model only with more life-like surface details. One could say that it’s another level down to childish endeavors but because
each part of the 4D-puzzle is unmarked, dark shaded and tiny, It is quite
a struggle for a man my age to connect together as you only have to rely on an
also very small “visual only” instruction manual, there could be written
instructions but most are in uncomprehendable foreign characters, in short it
did not took a few seconds to solve, and took me several operation of assembly
and dis-assembly to be able to build
the what technically is a “puzzle” in smooth systematic sequence.
The completed 4D-Stug III model
is not as angularly well proportioned, part accessorized and panel details are
not finely sculpted as most regular kit but this deviations are hardly noticeable and quite tweekable, when I realized that its identical in
size to my forty years old STUG III, I
decided to give it a paint job, make accessories and kit-bash from my old Stug III then feature it as one
of my vintage series scale models on this Blogpage, somehow fulfillling a part of one's infantile goal.
First put into action in 1940, the Stug III in the true sense of
the word is not a real “Tank”, but more appropriately classified as a “self
propelled assault gun”, meant to support
advancing infantry against minor obstacle like pillboxes, fixed machinegun
nest, and artillery concentrations. It is developed from the concept of “support
vehicle” mounted high Velocity guns, however as “Nazi Germany’s” battle tank
production started to wane due to
constant Allied bombing, more and more
STUG III type weapons was produced essentially as they are easier and cheaper
to build than a standard configured
battle tank..
Because of the absence of a rotating turret the STUG III will be in a
grave dis-advantage if its to do a “seek and destroy” combat with the
latest fast moving mid-size tank of the
American equipped “Allies”, the STUG III is more effective as a long range
ambush weapon; and because of it’s effectiveness on this kind tactics
especially if use in large formations against swarming groups of Allied
tanks, thus it earned the mis-termed but popularly used pseudo-name … “tank
destroyer”. Plenty of STUG IIIs ended up in the armed forces of Eastern european
nations after War War II, the Soviet Union (Russia) donated it’s “war booty” machines to Syria were it was used up to the Golan-Heights battles as
fixed defensive stations during the 1967 Pan-Arab war against the
Israelis.
Completed and painted 1:77 scale 4D “Sturmgeschutz III” (“STUG
III”). No decal or figure were found with the 4D model so standard insignias had to be custom made using an ordinary printer and decal paper. The figure on this post is from an old stock of scrapped parts. At the background is the author's old Stug III (circa late 70's).
"it’s
a multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle much
like making a “LEGO” model only with
“life-like” surface details"
"It took several processes of trial and error assembly to make this video look fairly smooth phased"
Raw 1:77 scale 4D STUG III molded in "Gray" PVC like resin in comparison with my forty years old "bookstore" Stug III model kit with the "Tan" tint (cannot remember the brand).
Glueing, painting the base (primer) colors and kit-bashing parts from my older model of the Stug III.
