The Panzer

The Panzer III was built by Daimler-Benz, and the A models were first produced in 1937. The first mass production version was the Ausf F, which entered service in 1939, just in time for Poland.

The Panzer III was upgunned and armor added due to the experiences in Russia in 1941 and ‘42. The Ausf J, the model preceding the L, was equipped with the 50mm KWK L39/60 gun, which could penetrate the T-34s front armor at ranges under 500 meters.

The L had the same armament, but the armor was increased to 50mm, with 20mm plates on the front and rear. This made the L pretty safe from the T-34 at longer ranges, but the KV-1 could still put it in the hurt locker. Also, with lighter side armor, even anti-tank rifles could penetrate from closer ranges at the flanks. The Ausf M was often equipped with side skirts for the hull and turret.

As the Panzer IV achieved decent production numbers in 1943, the Panzer III was increasingly relieved of anti-armor duty and put into infantry support after the Battle of Kursk. By the end of the war, there was almost no front line use of the Panzer III, and many units had been returned to the factory to be converted into Sturmgeschutz IIIs.

The Kit

The sprues come nicely packaged in a plastic bag, with the accessories in a separate bag, with each item in its own bag which is taped to a slotted card. This is wonderful, as it allows you to see the decals, the PE, and the tracks separately, and they don’t get lost waiting for their time in the assembly process. All of the plastic parts were cleanly molded, flash free, and with decent surface detail molded on. In 1/72 scale, it’s hard to get the axe, the bolt cutter and the jack to look right if they’re separate parts.

Assembly

The assembly instructions are a series of pictures with part numbers and arrows showing where those parts go. The first thing I did was paint all the parts Model Master Panzer Yellow, since that was the basic scheme I was going to do. Then I separated the bogies from the sprue and painted the black rubber tires. This took a while, with 24 tires, (6 to a side, inner and outer wheels) but it wasn’t an odious task.

After they dried, I glued the inner and outer wheels together, and attached them to the suspension. The one-piece hull and suspension is a great idea, as getting things lined up on a multiple–part hull can be demanding. As it is, the drive sprockets, the bogies and the large idler wheel at the rear all lined up nicely for the tracks. Excellent design helps.

I had some trouble aligning the side parts for the upper hull until I discovered that the turret ring assembly provides support and alignment for these parts.

From my experience, it’s a lot easier to put the tracks on before you mount the hull top and fenders. There’s not much room between the return rollers and the fenders, and getting the track in there was a bit nip and tuck.

At this point, however, comes one of those “makes you smile” things. The kit provides photoetch parts for the intake screens on both sides of the hull. They really look great. I used Gator’s Glue for the PE parts, and had no trouble with them.

The rest of the assembly was pretty straightforward. I had a little trouble fitting the turret bustle, the turret hatch halves took some work with knife and file, and I spent 20 minutes looking for one of the headlights after the tweezers launched it, but everything else fit very well.

Painting and Decals

After mostly assembling the kit, which was already Panzergelb, I decided on the yellow/dark brown scheme from the 13^th Panzer Division, south Russia, 1942. I put some Future in the areas where decals were going, and let it set overnight.

The decals were great. They came off the backing paper cleanly, stayed together during the poking and prodding needed for alignment, and then stayed where I put them. I used a little Micro-Sol under each decal, and that seems to be the method that works.

Finishing

I sprayed on a coat of acrylic clear flat, then after that sat for a couple of hours, added the machine guns and tracks. As noted, there’s almost not enough room for the tracks above the return idlers, but I used a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the tracks into position.

I used a black wash on the wheels and the areas around the access hatches, to get them to stand out a little and to try to pop out the details.

And it was done.

Overall evaluation

Highly recommended. The kit has no real problems as far as fit, it’s an interesting subject, the photoetch and decals are very good. This kit is listed as an “Armor Pro” kit. Any experienced modeler can turn out a presentable Panzer III in a short time. I enjoyed this project.

Thanks to Dragon Models USA for the really nice kit, and to Steve and IPMS/USA for the chance to build it.