StuG.III Ausf.G, Part 1

Published on
May 1, 2022
Review Author(s)
Scale
1/16
MSRP
$199.98
Product / Stock #
64009
Company: Gallery Models - Website: Visit Site
Provided by: MRC - Website: Visit Site
Box Art

Opening the Box

Wow was it Christmas or what? This is a smaller armored vehicle in the big picture of things, but there is no doubt it is a big kit, and it is stuffed with sprues. The box is 22” by 13 ¾” by 5 5/8 “. Nope it is not going to fit in the mailbox. There is a single hull piece with 141 sprues (95 of which are the 190 Track blocks in a separate bag bundled in the hull along with the track components), So a rough sprue parts count drives this number up to over 1,105 individual parts. Also included are the Side skirts, clear parts and the copper tow cable and PE parts. Also included is an optional metal gun barrel.

So, if you thought because it’s bigger means less parts your build experience will be just like a well contented 1/35 kit. Nope not a snap-tite kit for sure. However, because the parts are larger, the detail is well executed and crisp with almost no flash whatsoever. The sprue gates and risers are larger so there will be more cleanup

The Instructions

The instruction booklet is 28 pages and includes a parts map. There is very little language, (English or Chinese) consisting of assembly quantities so you know how many need to be built, but little else. There are arrows that show build progression and appear to be pretty useful.

There is a separate color insert that shows 4 color schemes and decal placement, however only two have top views and rear views, so some creativity will be required. There are color callouts for 6 paint lines, Mr Hobby/Acrysion/Vallejo/Model Master/Tamiya/Humbrol. Not all are complete however, so another opportunity to be creative or fallback on your standards.

Things to consider before building:

  1. You are going to need some space to lay everything out as there are a lot of sprues. I used a stepped wire spice rack flipped upside down to hold sprue’s vertical. That helps with space management.
  2. Sanding sticks and files will be your clean-up friends, a sharp X-Acto knife will be useful in conjunction with a “God Hand” trimmer.
  3. There is a lot of seam area, and a generous volume of Tamiya White Top liquid cement gives you better volume than Green top/Yellow top cement. Testor’s black label bottle with the needle applicator may or may not be available, but an equivalent might be available for assembly. I alternated and used both for what I thought would be appropriate based on the type of seam. You want an adequate seam as everything is larger than on a 1/35th kit, and some assemblies actually weigh a bit.
  4. A bar spreader clamp was useful for clamping. Hand clamping was useful, depending on what it was that was being held together.
  5. Surface area. Painting will require a lot of it for priming and painting. If mixing, you will need a lot.
  6. This scale is like the jump from 1/72nd to 1/32nd. It is still an Armor kit but just bigger. Try not to lose parts, I had to fabricate a hinge that I lost. Be careful as your parts box is probably not up to the task of a 1/16th kit.

Thanks to MRC for providing the review sample.

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