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Dragon Stug III B ( ? Is it Finished ? )

Heavens Eagle

Heavens Eagle

Well-known member
Yup, time to build something other than planes for a change.

Dug through my stash boxes and came up with a somewhat decent old Dragon Stug III Ausf B kit. I will probably build it mostly out of the box, add a crew fig or 2 and details to fit a photo (once I find one I can use)

Here is the starting photo:

StugIIIAusfB-001.jpg~original


Then I had this mini box of Stug III gaming minis (15mm scale) that actually seem to be some nice little minis. For practice I decided to go ahead and build on these this weekend a little. Mostly need to do painting practice, so this will give me something to experiment on.

StugMini-001.jpg~original


StugMini-002.jpg~original


I probably won't have anything special here, just want to build something and not make it a huge project. Four months should be enough time. (I hope) :eek:hmy:
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

That is cool, I hadn't seen the Plastic Soldier kits before.

Regards,
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

Have a question, This is the first armor odel I have built in years. As such I have dealt with the rubber tracks in ages past. This kit has 3 sprues of individual track links. Have been doing a lot of clean up of the links on the sprues. :blink

Anyway, does anyone have a suggestion on how to deal with getting the links together and wrapped around all the drive wheels. These are not the Magic Track and are still going to need some more clean up before they can be built onto the tank. :bang head

As for how the builds are going, I have 2 of the 5 minis built and mostly painted. For what they are, they look pretty decent. The Ausf B kit hasn't been too bad except for the unclear instruction sheet. Have it mostly assembled and spent a lot of the weekend getting to know my airbrush again. :zen

The bad part is that while I have taken photos. I have not taken near as many as I probably should have. :smack

So, anyone have any suggestions on getting the track links together? I have somme ideas, but want to get some additional input to hopefully keep from a big FUBAR. :frantic
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

I've used Friuls for the most part or the banded type. I used the length and link set that came with the Tamiya PanzerII. Sorry I can't help with these, I haven't been brave enough myself.

:popcorn
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

Thanks for the reply Bob!

I wont be buying anything extra for this, though I might add a little stuff for stowage on the back deck. While the 228 track links are a bit on the rough side I am going to use them. Spent last night watching the old Buck Rogers series on DVD and removing all the micro flshing out of one and half of the 2nd track sprues. There are 3 sprues with track links and each sprue has 76 links on it . :blink :S

Once I have al the edges and flashing cleaned up , I will clip all the parts off and set up a little jig to drill through the alignment pins in the center of the links. The parts have them solid and they are not supposed to be. Then it's clean up the ejector pin marks on each link. :blink :blink

Then finally I will set up a little jig to set the links together and maybe tack them with a "touch" of Weld-on 3 and some tape to hold the links toggether.

Hopefully it won't be a :stinker in the wind. :D
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

Oh there that type of tracks...here's something that might help.

:zen :zen :zen :zen :zen :zen :zen
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

Hey all! Still working on this little beast. Have a number of photos taken of in process and will try and get them up this week.

Spent the weekend working on 226 track links. Got all of the basic cleanup and de-flashing done and clipped them all out. I them proceeded to do a test fit. :blink :bang head

Yup you guessed it, the 3 little male parts were just a shade too large to fit the female part of the next link. (all of them) :facepalm

Good thing I have a fabulous set of escapement files and the nice square one worked wonderfully to clean all that mess up. (y)

Then it was time to clean up the 2 ejector pin marks in each link. :blink :gogo
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

Thats about the time it would become a shelf queen for me :blush:
:popcorn
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

This is where having the tools that I do and being able to make a small jig or two really makes the job go fast. The biggest help was investing in this set of files:

330911.jpg


Which can be purchased here Cas-Ker Co

OK you looked at the price, don't choke! :blink

The truth is you get what you pay for and these beat the cheap files (which I have several sets) any day! (y) :D

I could not have reworked the links as quickly nor as well with any other files.

Last night I made a simple little jig that holds the links sideways so I can drill out that center tab that aligns them with the road wheels. Going to be drilling a lot of little holes. :S
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

I picked up a nice file set at Lowes a couple of months ago, very sharp and nice little handle that really sticks out on the workbench when you get going with things. Nice to have a fresh set.
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

Yeah Bob, I amalways looking for some nice files. I find that the ones that Lowes carries are usually too big, too coarse, or too something else. I even look in the hobby shop, but usually it's a case of they don't have any real cutting surface. Or as many call it, CHEAP garbage. :eek:hmy:

I am thinking about starting a new thread about tools. All types, styles, how to use them, and how to make special tools. What you think? :hmmm
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

I have gotten a fair bit of stuff done on the kit and am just now getting around to posting again. Mostly it is just a straight build nothing fancy, but the track links have been the sticking point. Solved that and am now moving along again.

So here is a restart and an update to where I am now:

StugIIIAusfB-001a.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-002.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-003.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-004.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-005.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-006.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-007.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-008.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-009.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-010.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-011.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-012.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-013.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-014.jpg~original


StugIIIAusfB-015.jpg~original


That's it for now folks. The track link thing had me stymied for a bit :bang head that is all better now (I hope)

Hopefully another update soon.
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

What an update! :drinks

I think by the time you cleaned up all those kit parts I'd gone ahead and used them, considering time invested. But carry on sir :soldier
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

moon puppy said:
What an update! :drinks

I think by the time you cleaned up all those kit parts I'd gone ahead and used them, considering time invested. But carry on sir :soldier
Click to expand...

With all I did they were still "maybe" about half done Bob. I still will have them for emergencies or adding spares if I really need them. What finally killed them was the inconsistancies in the sizes of the center tab. Then to open up that tab is going to be a PITA that I don't want (or need) to be doing at this time.

Also I can't say it's out of the box anymore. :stinker

Thanks Chuck! Actually going to try and finish this on time. :smack
 
An OOB Dragon Stug B and some mini Stug's

$5.99!!!???...Seriously???!!!...Where is this place? I'd have bought ten boxes!

Great update Paul!

Tom
 
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