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THINGS ABOUT 3' s (July 26th Update)

Brokeneagle

Master at Arms
PANZER 3 - DEVELOPMENT HISTORY, INTERESTING ODDITIES AND MODEL STUFF
As the title suggests this will be a post on the German Panzer 3 and its myriad of development changes from the 'cradle to the grave'.
This all started for me during December and is the reason for my abscence of late. During my break from painting (after my long term Last Tiger project) but before getting serious about building my UBOATS, I suddenly got an urge to just build some tanks.
I had just picked up the Panzertracts issues on the Mk3 Panzer and started reading ......and off it went from there.
Panzertracts No 3-1 (A to D)
3-2 (E to H)
3-3 (J to N)
3-4 (Command vehicles in D,E,H,J,K series)
3-5 (Conversions and variations)

These are very detailed but also very interesting and 'tailor made' for the modeler.

I also purchased 2 photo ref books from PEKO - Panzer 3 on the battlefield 1 & 2
BOOK 1.jpg BOOK 2.jpg

These books are fantastic if you want to have a good broad set of large clear photos for Pzr 3 builds - highly recomended and I personally have found them a must for this project.

I had a large collection of Panzer 3's and new it was my mission for the end of 2021.
(I actually have more than shown here but you get the idea)
A3a.JPGB pz3C.JPG Dpz3D.JPG 20220105_215527.jpgE F20220105_215606.jpgG mk3GT.JPG

H20220105_215639.jpg20220105_215309.jpgJ early J late20220105_215348.jpg K20220105_215727.jpg 20220105_215328.jpg L 20211011_200506.jpg M N Africa 20220105_215912.jpg 20211229_150226.jpgN Late Sig331027014_orig.jpgSU-76i20220105_215754.jpg 1/16 large JDWK16002.jpg
The A will be built standard (German Grey) and I am thinking of having it on concrete with a technician in a white coat standing marking a board
The B will be built as standard in German Grey for early war in France, 'sporting a German grey and Brown cammo scheme.
The D I am thinking of Finland in German Grey or 1945 in tri-color(I have a weird photo of one behind a wall in late '44 or '45 as defence.
The E will be a grey converted into a command vehicle (because it is very similar to the F) for Greece.
The F will be standard in Grey - not sure yet of the actual setting.
The G will be now be built as a Tauchpanzer version from the 18. Panzer Division in the East 1941 (German Grey).
The H will be in desert yellow over grey for North Afrika.
The J will be done over 3 models - early Funklenk version, early 50mm L60 (long barrel) version, late Befehlswagon(command) - all Russia
The L will be a mid version in dark yellow and red brown or a late grey - Russia.
The M will be a complete update in tricolor, with all shields, a second version with turret shields but no side shields from the 2nd Pzr Div in green and Dark yellow - probably Kursk and maybe Italy.
The N will have a desert version from Pz. Abt 501 in Dersert Yellow with sandbags etc, another will be from a unit in Italy and the last will be a late model from 1945 surrendered in Norway with Zimmerit and full shields.
A Sturm artillery Sig 33 howitzer mounted on a Panzer 3 chassis in an armoured box - developed initially for Stalingrad.
There will also be a Flammpanzer version(Flamethrower) mounted on a 'Frankenstien' assembly of parts at the end of the war. I have 2 references for these from 1945 that seem to be desperate measures to meet a requirement created from parts available. I will be doing the same and creating this one from all my spare parts collected from all of these builds combined with a touch of scratchbuilding.
Finally there will be an SU-76i which will be in Russian green peeling off German grey. These were a unique vehicle being a captured panzer 3J that was modified by the Russians then recaptured by the Germans who re-mounted a Panzer 3 cupola onto the replaced Russian superstructure. Yeah, crazy stuff but one of the most interesting builds.
So, I realise I have a lot of other models to build as well, so they will be built first without painting, then a scenario worked out and then painted etc at a later date, (in between a Uboat build), this way I can achieve both I hope. In fact I have already completed 6 of these tanks over Xmas and are curently working on number 7, so I will be posting up photos as I get to each build in the post.
This will be a fun ride of tanks facts and builds that will encompass the life of the Mk3 during WW2. Please stay tuned as the Panzer 3 is a fascinating story of changes and improvements so typical of the German approach to manufacturing war machines in the early 20th Century.

ABCD in a nutshell.
In the beginning there was an A......
3a.JPG
The initial A series was only a run of 10 vehicles, B series 15 vehicles, C series 15 vehicles - Pretty low numbers and a reflection of still being in its 'teething' stages of development.
The A was light but to slow and underpowered but had the larger style roadwheels(10) that would influence from the E onward.

The B gained a little more speed but was still slow, however its chassis provided the basis for the Stug 3 prototype. An additional return roller was added (now 3) and the road wheels(16) were reduced in size as the suspension was changed to leaf springs. Smoke candles were introduced on the rear plate of the engine deck.
pz3C.JPG
The C was produced at the same time as the B but a different leaf suspension setup was used. Other small changes were incurred but the main cosmetic changes were the grills on the engine deck, muffler change , a slight redesign of the Drive sprocket and the smoke candles at the rear were dropped.
During all of these changes there were still ongoing issues with the suspension, track design and speed.

Finally the D appeared late in 1938 with 30 vehicles produced, which addressed the armour thickness issue by increasing it to 30mm standard and improved the cupola. This increased the weight though to 19 tons, so an improved gearbox was added. All was not right still and the suspension, speed and wear on the wheels needed to be improved.
pz3D.JPG
The D had become the final form for this early series and was as close to the familiar form of the Mk3 [that we know] as it was going to get without some re-design .
At this stage I only have the D from these early designs - Miniart Panzer 3 D....... but will do the B at a later date as I just bought one last night.
But I won't be starting with these - they will have to wait in line!
 
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Along came an E - 1939
96 Vehicles produced from December 1938 - Ooctober 1939 but mass production had not yet started.
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The E was a major improvement with the suspension issues being solved by torsion bar suspension (which was then seen on nearly every other model of German tank that followed (except its close relative, the Mk4, which retained its dual wheel leaf spring approach, dropped by the Mk 3 development Engineers)).
The E saw the redesign of the engine deck and mufflers to be basically what is seen on the N, just with added armour panels and hatch configuration changes.
It retained the 3.7cm gun from the D, which proved to be a problem in Afrika and Russia but we will get to that later.
It was also the model which introduced the vision port on the turret sides and the hull escape hatch, along with 30mm frontal armour, new rear disc idler wheel and drivers vision block. It was now 20 tons but had been 'powered-up' with a new engine (Maybach HL 120TR and Gearbox, achieving 25mph.
I want to model this one as a Command vehicle (Befehlswagen), which makes it quite different from the typical tank and changes it enough to be a different looking model from the F. All the Befehlswagen photos I have seen all show the E version with the upgraded armoured cooling vents on the front glacis that came out with the F series, so I will need to add these. I think that the command vehicles were produced during the upgrade program at the end of the E series and must have recieved these then.
You may also notice that the E command vehicle has the later style armoured drivers visor. I have not found a photo of an E command vehicle without this later modification, so I am modifying my vehicle to have this feature, rather than the earlier visor with the rain guard (but I will have this on the F so it will just mean the vehicles have more unique features, which is exactly what I want). The Pivoting drivers visor was designed for the G model but except for a few early command E's produced before Sept. 1939 it was installed. Because the E, F and G series were manufactured as overlapping models, cross over improvements can be expected, especially on command vehicles which were being modified already an the fact that their commanders were a commidity in shorter supply.
E command1.JPG
E command2.JPGPanzerBefehlswagen_III_Ausf_E_rear.jpg
I found a great photo of a D command vehicle in France that had run over a mine, so I thought I would base my model on this but make it Greece. I found another with a 'comandeered' Citroen that I want to add to the scene.
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I also found this cool looking Citroen with some E's that had been 'comandeered' as a staff car. I think I will have this pulled up next to it seeing if the comander needs a lift. :)
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This was going to mean some major changes and 'cross kitting' to modify it, but Dragon had provided the means to do so without having to buy another model.
CROSS-KITTING TIME
I had already purchased the Pzr 3K kit from Dragon when I started looking into doing a command version of the E.
I figured that the K kit would have extra sprues, as Dragon does this when combining previously released common details into a new release of the same Mark Type. The K kit had sprues from the J, M and even the H variants. Because the K was a command version, Dragon included common sprues from the H command version, which had a lot of common command features with the E as well.
.....Bang - I decided to 'rat out' the command parts from the K kit that would not be used(only for the H) and put them on the E. I know, it starts to get messy but you just have to make notes and keep track on the instruction sheets.
I then needed to source the H instruction sheet so I could understand how these parts go together and where, as well as making sure I don't take essential K parts. I initially struggled finding the instructions for the H kit but ended up finding them on Ali Express from a seller who was selling the H kit and for some reason, had posted scans of every page of the instruction sheet as well.
20220106_131829.jpg


I was now in business to create a command version of the E.
Some unique details about the early Pzr 3 command tanks
The early command tanks had very unique features that seperated them from the 'gun tanks',
1. they had no gun! The D, E and H comand tanks all had dummy main guns and an additional dummy machine gun next to it.
2. the long range antenna is mounted behind the turret in the form of a metal frame, in the same way as the early command half tracks in North Afrika. They also had 2 additional wip antenna, one on each side and an extending pole antenna [for extra long range] that could be deployed through the additional hatch in the turret roof.
3. The turret was fixed and bolted to the superstructure roof, with no turret ring on the inside but a larger opening in the superstructure, giving the crew more room inside.
The lack of main gun allowed room for the additional radio sets.
THE MODEL

This model is going to be the hardest build of all I think as I now have to monitor the Kit parts for the E version, the common Command parts for the H version and mix in some updates as well to make it more sexy.
Voyager fenders for the mine damage
Voyager fenders.JPG
TREX Disassembled drive sprocket - I decided to damage the front sprocket as well after seeing Johns very nice brumbar damage.
Trex set 1.jpg
Mig panzer 3 stowage Box - I have some pics of these tanks having a large one inside the Antenna ring.
panzer 3 large stowage.jpg
CUTTING AND MODDING
I started off by 'modding' the E superstructure with the H top plate. The extra parts from the K also include an interior that can be seen through the turret hatches, so this has to be incorporated as well.
Below you can see the unique superstructure top. I removed the vorpanzer bracing molds with a hobby chisel. The nice bolt detail will be on the inside of the turret edge and the turret does not have the typical turret bottom or ring.
20211104_180128.jpg

The superstructure underneath the top plate was from the basic E and had to be cut to match the top plate.
20211104_180139.jpg

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20211104_180120.jpg
As a result of the modifications to the top plate, I had to add some plastic strip to repair the top edge. Still a little more to do.
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Along came an E - 1939 continued......
Back again with some chassis and turret progress on my E command vehicle. The Dragon Pzr 3 chassis are very nice but overly complicated if you are not wanting to display a fully viewable interior with the torsion bar floor. Also they provide no advantage to the torsion bar assembly as it is not workable.....a real pitty/ lost oportunity. If you cut some locating pins on the outside housing detail it would probably be possible.
This chassis has the straight sheet metal join at the top that was changed to a 'scolloped' type with the H model. Nice crisp detail everywhere - a very nice kit and probably still the best Pzr 3 on the market but the most fiddly.
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The roadwheels on the E were still the 75mm thinner type But with the F this changed to 95mm.
Correction to the image below.

The rear idler did not change in production until during production of the H model, though there was a backfitting program that could have a wide variety of changes after the tanks were issued but I am trying to keep the manufacturing details unique as much as possible.

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I am currently applying the modifications to the turret roof. The K kit only had one roof part that I could use and this was the long range antenna mast cover. I also needed to cover all of the mounting screws in the roof for the gun as this does not have a gun.
I used another piece off the sprue, sanded down to simulate the armored cap with the holes and scratched up the shape in white card for a detail that I have no idea of what it is. Thanks to Actung panzer that I could refer to a drawing for this. Still more work to go........
20220106_131428.jpg
The next detail to modify is the gun mantlet. The comand vehicle still has the E mantlet but with a fake gun and fake Mg, however, it shouldn't be to hard. Sometimes I get to into the detail and fail to see the easy route. With this one I started to modify the H command mantlet until I stopped and thought about it , checked the details again and realised the normal E manlet will require less work to add the details rather than take them away. I need to make sure.
The later H command vehicle had a dummy 50mm L/42 rather than the 37mm.
20211104_184553.jpg 20211130_011914.jpg
20211128_154315.jpg

The rear plate is still the earlier type but to keep it interesting I modelled the starter crank hatch cover open.
20220106_130622.jpg
 
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Thanks for following Boyz.....Bob, Mike Paul and Eric !:dude:.
Now its time to get 'F 'dd.......
1339327775184bdeec88bba4e86f80fc.jpg

Panzer_III_61316.jpg

Also known as the 5.Series, the Pzr 3F was the first mass produced order for the Panzer 3 production record(435 vehicles), running from August 1939 (overlap of 3 months with the E) to May 1941.
Basically identical to the E except for a few minor external details and some internals such as -
- the magnetos for the Engine, changing the motor designation from HL 120 TR to HL 120 TRM.

- the armoured brake cooling vents on the front glacis plate
- a deflector guard for the turret ring (the photo above is one of the exceptions of early production)
- a signal port [on the left side of the turret roof] without a fake periscope guard
- vision port on the right of the upper chassis for the Radio operator (which could mean its an E model with upgrades - maybe?)
- smoke grenade rack on the rear plate of the engine deck.
- the roadwheels were widened from 75mm to 95mm but varying supply meant that these could be mixed. The drive sprocket pattern remained the same but recieved a spacer if the wider track was installed (38cm to 40cm). Again these can be mixed where wider wheels were with the old skinnier track.
pz3ef17-2b3fcf9714ef92c329f4b3e149112002.jpg

Now , as usual, German tank production was a 'mixed bag' on these and produced multiple variations during a series, as upgrades from the field were applied to the production line and existing parts had to be used before the new ones were applied. This is the case with the right side vision port, as well as the turret bullet spalsh deflector and even the brake cooling vents. The right side vision port missing is the rare one though, as this meant it was a very, very early hull produced at the end of the E series.
I have pictures of Pzr 3F's with each of these features missing from the early production vehicles, which makes it very hard to tell them apart from a late model E in some cases. By the end of the run, E models were being upgraded with all of the F upgrades and the right side vision port is probably the only way to tell with the late production ones.
These upgrades continued well into the J series, for surviving older models as part of the Umbewaffnung program.
Oddities
There are also a few odd ones that would be fun to do and I may yet try one such as this F from Normandy 1944.
An F model with all possible upgrades except the cupola. It has the gun upgraded to the short 50mm introduced with the J series, added 30mm armour from the H series, late model track, which would mean a J Drive sproket (and possibly Stug steel return rollers), turret roof ventilation fan and 3 color cammo sprayed over the original German Grey.
Pretty darn cool!
I have a picture of one from 1945 that has all late model Stug 3 running gear with the early superstructure.
Panzer_III_tank_of_Panzer-Kompanie_Mielke_Kampfgruppe_Knaust_in_Oosterhout_September_1944.jpg


The model so far........
20220105_215606.jpg

As I stated in the E section, I made the earlier E a command vehicle so that it would stand out from a simple mid production F model, which is what I am doing here. The E is still going and has a lot more work than this one, so I thought I would keep it all moving and show you the progress on the F, list the info and allow you to see the changes from the E.
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The Chassis and turret are very similar in their raw form to the E and the detail is magnificient.
You can see here the turret roof surface details showing the mounting bolts (that I had to delete for the E command version). Also the super-fine surface texture on the chassis is also evident.
An issue I did run into (not with the newer E/F kit used for the E ) was the fit of the rear plate. I needed to file out some rounded grooves to fit the exhuast outlet pipes from the engine, as seen in the images below. This worked OK but as a recomendation if you are looking to build a Mk3 F by the E/F (2 in1) kit (6944)20220105_215527.jpg
as they obviously fixed the problem since this earlier kit,
the straight F (6632).


20220105_215606.jpg

Other than that the instructions having the usual DML bad visuals (why? Instructions are visual that is their purpose), where details and fit placement are not clear and because they are sometimes combining earlier kits in the series, they get their numbers wrong. Just look closley and make sure you are very clear on what goes where and how and test fit.
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I have completed the basic engine deck which has nice hatch detail of the early configuration (E - early J) and allows you the option of leaving it open if you have an after market kit to put inside.
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The torsion bar suspension is in place, as well as the hull side escape hatches and evenly spaced return roller mounts. You need to attach the third one, closest to the drive sproket, to make them evenly spaced (E- Late G versions only). DML have been clever here in leaving the others molded in place for all models.
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Wow, this is fantastic! Timely too as my SoCal AMPS club has started a PzIII Group Build for the next Orangecon here is SoCal.

Gonna watch this one!
 
That color scheme would be neato. Wouldn't you love to know the history of that tank, how it came to have all those upgrades.
Absolutely, it would be great to find out.
Wow, this is fantastic! Timely too as my SoCal AMPS club has started a PzIII Group Build for the next Orangecon here is SoCal.

Gonna watch this one!
I hope I can help with this lengthy post. :good:
 
My Latest update on the F - all finished apart from a couple of pieces tied in to the gluing of the upper hull to the chassis, which won't be happening until I finish the weathering of the tracks.
so here are some more progress on the back deck. The red primer color is where I have painted the inside of the vents before I attach the mesh PE covers.
20220120_172500.jpg20220120_172537.jpg
After this stage I went 'flat out on finishing this one so that I can do some more on the E model and start the info blog on the G.
So, as I stated earlier, the F model would often have a mixture of the early 75cm road wheels with the later 95mm road wheels seen on all the later models. Often this would mean more later style ones but on the E's it was common to see less later style.
Here is what I did for the F, showing 3 on one side and 2 on the other...
20220127_000055.jpg


It's now complete but I still need to glue the upper and lower halfs together after I paint and weather the tracks and wheels. The tracks are not properly joined in one section on each side so I can take them off.
After which I can finalise the small details such as the copper wire holding the front spare track, add the headlight wires, clear lenses and front guard retaining hooks.
Some other small points are I attached chains to the tow cable pins at the front and back (using micro chain from a railway store) and used a spare Tamiya Jack block on the guard because I lost the kit one. Same with the grey handle on the roof - a spare Tamiya from the stug B kit. I have never built this earlier stuff before but because I am basically making a history of the Panzer 3 I am really enjoying these builds that I can come back to and paint later.

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On to the G................ or another one.
 
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