TankCraft 44, StuG III Assault Gun – German Army, Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe Units, Eastern Front, 1944 breaks the StuG III’s (Sturmgeschütz, abbreviated as StuG, also known as the Sonderkraftfahrzeug 161) long service life into the closing struggles in the Eastern Front in 1944. Older and newer StuG IIIs and IVs fought side by side on all fronts as the Allied ring closed in on Germany. This book focuses on the StuG IIIs on the Eastern Front, which is fantastic as it complements an already published book of StuGs on the Western Front (TankCraft 19: StuG III & IV, German Army, Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe, Western Front 1944-1945) and hints at a StuG IV book.

This 64-page book is outlined in the familiar TankCraft format and is loaded with incredible black and white photographs, color illustrations, supporting text and detailed captions, modeling references and a bibliography in the following chapters:

Box Art / Packaging

HobbyBoss present a 100% new tooled German Panzerjagerwagen in 1/72^nd scale in their normal rigid top opener box. The contents are well packed and protected with additional foam wrapping on sprues which contain delicate parts. The condition of the contents as delivered were excellent with no parts off sprue, no broken parts and nothing warped due to inadequate packing.

The kit itself depicts the rail mounted Panzer IV which was generally mounted on a BP 44 armored train and would normally be seen mounted with the dozer blade in forward position. Technically the only part of the Panzer IV used here was the turret as the casemate it was paired to was not a Panzer IV chassis but was specifically designed for the BP 44 train.

The Kit

The kit is comprised of 6 sprues in total, Sprue A x 2, which contains all the parts for the railroad base.

The origin of Pen & Sword Books is closely linked with its sister company, the Barnsley Chronicle; one of the UK's oldest provincial newspapers, established in 1858, and one of the few weeklies still in private ownership. The first books published by the company were in response to public demand following of a series of articles published in the newspaper: Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks told the story of crash sites in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park, and a further weekly feature on the history of two Kitchener battalions, known as the Barnsley Pals, aroused a thirst for more information. Following on from the success of those books, a number of local history paperbacks were produced along with a series of battlefield guidebooks. Battleground Europe proved immediately successful, and the company made the decision to launch a book publishing arm of the group.

OKB Grigorov is a modeling company headquartered in Bulgaria. They do 3D printing, resin and photo etch items. Their inventory includes complete kits, track sets, figures and detail sets. I have now built two of their resin kits and have found them to be of the highest quality. There is no flash, no huge molding blocks to remove and the detail is very finely executed. Don’t go here looking for another Panzer IV or Tiger kit as they specialize in some rather esoteric subjects.

The subject of this review is their 1/72 scale kit of the U.S. Honest John missile. This was the first missile the U.S. produced capable of delivering an atomic warhead, although it could also carry a conventional one. It was ballistically “guided”, launched from a truck-mounted launching rail and was used by numerous countries, only coming out of the front-line U.S. inventory in 1983.

ICM continues to be prolific with both kits and paint sets. The Acrylic Paint Set for WWII US Navy Vehicles is no exception and consists of six 12ml paint bottles, that are surprisingly not dropper top style, but rather are wide mouthed. The colors include:

• Natural Steel (No. 1025)
• Blue Grey (No. 1032)
• Rubber Black (No. 1039)
• Deck Tan (No. 1055)
• Camouflage Green (No. 1071)
• Varnish Satin (No. 2002)

Painting instructions are on the side of the packaging, stating