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Testors Sturmtiger Complete!!!

A

Adam Baker

Active member
Glad this one is a 1 yr campaign, I'd forgotten all about that I'd put my name in on this one.

Kit is the Testors 80th Anniversary boxing, I got it for Christmas last year, and I'm finally starting it. I've been told this is the old Italeri boxing, but I dont know that for sure 100%. So far fit is fair, not not too incredibly bad, but that could change.

Ok, the requisite date shots.

Sturmtiger-002.jpg


Sturmtiger-003.jpg


Got started last night, and was able to make some progress.

Of course, they'd decide to put the punch marks on the outside instead of the inside, where they wouldnt be visible. Filled them w/ my preferred method of punched styrene disks using my leather punch. Used .010" sheet, then sanded smooth once dry, worked out quite nicely.

Sturmtiger-006.jpg


Once that was taken care of, I started gluing. A few seams to fill, but not as bad as some I've had to deal w/ in the past.

Sturmtiger-007.jpg


Sturmtiger-012.jpg


Sturmtiger-011.jpg


Got a few decisions to make w/ the build. It includes an almost complete interior, but I don't know whether I'm going to include it or not. There are a lot of punch marks on the interior hull sides, and I don't know if I feel like filling all of them and cleaning them up, so I'm leaning toward just skipping the interior parts all together, and gluing all of the hatches closed, and then I don't have to worry about it. It also includes a basic engine and engine compartment. Depending on how much is visible through the engine cover, I may delete that as well.

Got a friend coming over to help put a counter top up in our craft room tonight, so wont be much progress made tonight, but hopefully I can get more progress made this weekend.
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

I always wondered about these kits, didnt know if it were just slick marketing or if there was anything really in there. :popcorn
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

Cool beans! I've always had a soft spot in my head for this tank- and the Brumbar. Looks like a decent kit- have at it, man! :ro:
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

Its a pretty nice package. Its the complete kit, and then there's also a clear plastic display case included w/ the kit, which I thought was pretty cool, so I'll have someplace I can put the model when its done.

moon puppy said:
I always wondered about these kits, didnt know if it were just slick marketing or if there was anything really in there. :popcorn
Click to expand...

Thanks Chuk! It definitely has a very different look to it, w/ that stubby barrel sticking out of it. I think I'm going to enjoy working on it.

chukw said:
Cool beans! I've always had a soft spot in my head for this tank- and the Brumbar. Looks like a decent kit- have at it, man! :ro:
Click to expand...
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

Adam,

This is a re-boxing of the Italeri kit (with whom Testors has a relationship for MANY years). If you want to add any PE for external details, look for sets designed for the Italeri kit as they are a drop fit.

Now, looking at the box top, I see something hard to believe. It states you have box 1 of 2500, making this a true collector's item!

TestorsSturmTigerLE1of2500.jpg


Regards,
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

Yea, I thought it was the Italeri reboxing. I also have the Jagdpanzer IV kit, and remember seeing a buildup article where a guy used the Italeri PE and it was a perfect fit, so I figured it would be the same for this one. Dunno if I'm gonna bother w/ PE, but I guess we'll see. It depends on time, money & interest.

And yea, I saw the limited edition thing, but since there were like 30 of these at the discount store my mom got it from, and as of 2 weeks ago, they still had some of these kits, I'm not too concerned about building a collectors item, haha.
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

adam baker said:
I'm not too concerned about building a collectors item, haha.
Click to expand...

:pp

The way it was printed, I think all the boxes state 1 of 2500!

Anyway, it is a good kit which was outclassed by the AFV Club offering. I find it strange that Dragon hasn't released one yet but instead releases more Tiger I production batches. If you ever plan on building another Sturmtiger, save the interior for the AFV Club kit. The Tamiya kit already comes with a partial interior too.

Regards,
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

I did some searching, and found that Voyager makes a nice detail kti which includes a new barrel. And AFV club did an interior kit that includes a resin transmission among other things.

Both are tempting, but I think I'm just going to stick to doing this one OOB.
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

Was able to make some progress last night after getting the counter top up in our craft room.

Got the sides & the engine deck glued in place, and glued together the top, which is just set on in the pictures. The barrel goes on from the inside, so until I can get that assembled, I cant glue the top on.

Sturmtiger-013.jpg


Sturmtiger-015.jpg


I'm doing it w/o the interior like I was thinking about, just so I dont have to worry about it. So far I've been pleasantly surprised w/ the fit, only a couple minor issues, that I was able to correct w/ a little bit of extra pressure when gluing. The only thing I've had to make sure to do, is to sand all of the mating edges, as the edges tend to be a little bit rough, but other than that, its been good so far.
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

Made some decent progress today.

I got the barrel completely assembled and then glued into the body, as well as gluing the MG-34 in place. The MG-34 is currently glued in place, and the main gun barrel will be also, but I havent decided quite what position I want it in, whether in a level position, or angled upward firing position which is what I'm leaning toward.

Still havent glued the upper body in place, I've got several things that will have to be blocked off so that you cant see through the empty body once its complete. I'm probably going to wait till I have the suspension in place, and all the bits & pieces glued to the rear hull wall, before I glue the top on, so I can check to see what needs to be sealed off. I'm also going to have to cap off the end of the barrel. Since I decided to forgo the interior, I didnt put any of the breach components on the end of the barrel, so you can see through it, and I want to make sure I take care of that as well.

Sturmtiger-018.jpg


Sturmtiger-017.jpg


Did make one goof up today on this. I decided to drill out the gas vent holes in the barrel, just for grins & giggles, and I ended up breaking my drill bit in one of the holes, and unfortunately it broke off just below the surface of the plastic. But in the save of the century, I realized that the exterior portion of the barrel wasnt glued in place, and I was able to pull it off and bingo, out fell the broken piece of bit. Got about 8 more holes to drill, and hopefully I can get them done w/o breaking any more bits.
 
Re: Testors Sturmtiger

Progress!!

Been able to make quite a bit of progress over the last couple of days.

I finally glued the top of the hull in place, after sealing off all the openings so that you cant see any light shine through it.

Glued the barrel in what I thought looked like a decent firing position. This one is a bit on the rough side, but I'm moving a lot faster than normal, and this is just a shelfer build, so as long as the final product looks good, I'm not worried about some of the smaller issues that have cropped up during construction.

Might possibly be far enough along to get paint down on this by the coming weekend, but we'll see.

Pictures!!

Sturmtiger-019_zps31b85c53.jpg


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Sturmtiger-022_zps78dfc5ce.jpg


And had to get a little bit creative. Broke 2 grab handles while cutting them from the sprue, so pulled out some .025" rod and made my own. Not too bad if I do say so myself, haha

Sturmtiger-023_zpsa5682e69.jpg
 
Testors Sturmtiger

Boy, here's another one of my threads I'm digging from way down.

Pulled this one back out last week and started working on it again. Most of the hull is done, so I started working on the tracks. Got all the wheels cleaned up, which thankfully didnt take as much work as I was expecting, since there are so many of them! Just used a medium grit emory board, and it went pretty quick. ALso got the sprockets assembled & cleaned up.

Sturmtiger-025_zps31e30df9.jpg


Once that was done, the fun task of the tracks began. The fun part is there are 3 punch marks on each track, and some of them area recessed and some stand proud. Since this is just a basic for fun build, I didnt worry about trying to fill in all the recessed punch marks, and I only sanded down the ones that were proud, so that they wouldn't interfere w/ the road wheels.

Got the first side assembled yesterday afternoon. Assembly went ok, but I could have used a half a dozen more hands to hold everything in place while trying to get it glued up, haha.

Sturmtiger-027_zpsa5afc6a4.jpg


Hoping to get the tracks for the other side glued this afternoon, but I had a family function for today dropped on me last minute last night, so no clue what, if anything, will get done today.
 
Testors Sturmtiger

Looking good Adam!

If i modeled armor, a sturmtiger would be high on my list!
 
Testors Sturmtiger

Thanks Warren!

Got a lot done tonight. Construction is finished, got all the last bits glued on tonight.

Sturmtiger-028_zps38301803.jpg


Sturmtiger-030_zps9f771bc7.jpg


Now I have to look through my collection of paint & see if I have colors that are close to what the instruction sheet calls for. It gives the specific German colors, and I know for sure I don't have any of those in my collection. If I've got colors that are close, then I'll go w/ those, but if not, I'll have to wait till the weekend before I'll have the money to get the paints. I'm hoping the painting will go fairly quickly. I'm not sure what I plan on yet for weathering. I'm leaning toward very light weathering just so I don't have to bother w/ it, but I could change my mind.
 
Testors Sturmtiger

wouldn't go too light, those things would kick up a lot of dust just from firing.
 
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