Hi guys.
It’s been a long time since I last posted on this forum. Let’s say I was fed up a bit with modelling and more interested in playing the guitar. Anyway this summer brought new desires and new projects. One of them beein one StuH of the Ausf F « vorserien » self propelled 10,5 cm howitzer. The prototype was built using one stuG III Ausf E and nine pre-series vehicles were built on StuG III Ausf F hulls that were sent back from the front to the factory for major repair. The design proved to be so successful a series was later built using Ausf G hulls. I decided to use whichever kit was available in my vault, namely the old DML #6033 kit. This kit is old and suffers from the comparison with the new smart kits yet I still think that with a minimal amount of work the result can be, at least to my standards, almost as good looking. I also decided to use the old Lion Roar E35048 PE set. Again a bit old with many oer sized parts but still good enough for what I had in mind.
Then came my favorite part : researching this rare SP gun. Hilary Doyle was, as usual, of great help but I must say that some other friends’ contribution was far from being negligible and if I may brag a bit around the forum, led to an important ( ??? ) discovery. When I started my research only three pics were known. Two (almost the same) showed one StuH with soldiers around, the StuH painted white over the grey base coat and « wearing » Winterketten, a third one showing the same StuH from a distance with no one around in a snow covered scenery.
That was about it. But when I started posting on my usual French forum someone posted a pic to discuss the possible fact that these weren’t painted grey. The pic, aleady published in some book by Trojca seemed to show some StuG IIIs Ausf F somewhere in Russia. Obviously these weren’t grey but … when closely looking at the pic we discovered that a few of the StuG Ausf Fs in the column were in fact StuH Ausf Fs. I share the pic with you and you’ll see that this is a much customized version compared to the one I chose for my model. It might inspire some of you …
This one has a non regular stuH muzzle brake yet it seems to be one regular 10,5 artillery muzzle brake as seen on the Saumue Wespe.
Back to the kit now gentlemen.
This kit is far from being flawless. First it is based on one Ausf E so the driver/loader front plate is not of the correct shape.
As it is :
As it should be :
a few conical bolts are missing so I scratch built them :
The added armor plates typical of the late Ausf Fs also had to be added :
The towing cables brackets are a pity but the Lion Roar parts are too big so I left the kit as it was since the engine deck will most certainly be covered with a lot of stuff.
The real down point of the kit is the mudguards. One can’t build them without destroying the anti-skid pattern. One pic shows snow on the mudguards so I won’t
but this means it’s almost impossible to built a decent ausf E or F without using after market fenders.So here we are now …
Looking at these pics I see flaws that will have to be fixed such as the driver’s visor which is too thin and some others that will have to remain un fixed such as the gun cleaning rods brackets offered by Lion Roar which hold only three rods when there should be four … I’ll live with it.
The build is now only 95% and I still have to add smal details so … if you guys see some mistakes or overlooked details please fell free to say so before it’s too late.
Of course the 10.5 gun will be added using the one from the DML #9058 unless someone can point at good after market gun barrel and period-correct muzzle brake …
