Zvezda 1:100 Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. B

A closer look at the 1:100 STUG III Ausführung B made by Zvezda, a modelcompany from Russia. This is an expansion box for their "Art Of Tatic" wargame, but (I may have written this before) you could use the included model in every 15mm ww2 wargame if there are rules for this tank.

But before we are going to examine this kit, please let me say that today it is the 10th anniversary of the World War 2 Modelzone (even when I wrote only approximately 3,5 years in that time), and this is great.
I never thought that I would continue this blog after I had a harsh break in my life some years ago, but after I returned to modelbuilding, it was a logical step to continue this blog as I explained in this Rügen'46 post.

Everyday people visit this blog(*) and I am thankful and happy if some of my posts may be entertaining or helpful. I think my old English teacher would kick my butt if he would read this gibberish, but

 
Are there any plans for the future ?

Sure, getting more models, build and paint them and write reviews about some of them, playing both "TANKS" games and write some more battlereports, more custom units for both games, more wartime pictures, all that mixed with the usual shit I am writing about.

But to go in detail, the planes expansion and a lot of new custom units should come over the next weeks (rules ready/cards not), the Britons for cold war "TANKS" will stay in focus next year (Easter?), my mate Olli and I created some funny gamemodes (Senshado anyone?) which will get tested, and much more.

Not to forget to mention, that over the next year I should be done with (p)reviewing the whole range of Zvezda "Hot War" and "Art of "Tactic" 1:100/1:144/1:200 game expansions. According to my list, there are 76 (?) kits fitting in that scheme (even a ship), of which I already have 21 reviewed (including this), 20+ are in preparation to be reviewed soon, but as soon I have time for regular posting, I will lower the frequency of kit (p)reviews.
(If you ever ask why I link to the Boardgamegeek hub for that game, the official site is not existing anymore.)

While there is a plan, it all depends on the amount of time to spend for this hobby and I almost always priotorize the building itself to posting about it.
I should have used the auto-publishing function earlier, and now, since I am using it, there are here and there some posts that got lost (Leo 1 comparison), or, like last weekend, a T-34 turned into a Leopard 1, but all in all, it works.
Any lost post will be re-added to the list of auto-published posts that they sooner or later will appear.

While the first post in this blog was about a STUG III, I would like to start the next decade of the World War II Modelzone with another STUG. III. But without spending any more words, since this is a (p)review, let us take a look at the plastic kit which is included in this game expansion:

The kit comes as a single grey sprue, made from the usual material which is used by Zvezda. For me it feels minimal softer than the stuff other companies use. As a regular reader you should have read my impression on this in previous posts about these 1:100 Zvezda kits.

Some tools and the towrope are moulded onto the hull, and they look good. Beside the wellmade roadwheels, even the tracks are not as bad as usual, what does not mean that they are great, on the last picture you get a better view of them

In best Zvezda tradition, the boxart was taken from their 1:35 STUG III modelkit, but this time it fits and shows indeed the model which can be build from the box, this is not always the case, for example their 1:100 Katjusha modelkit differs much from its boxart.

All hatches can only be build closed, but that is ok since there is no commander miniature on the sprue which could be used. I think you could modify this but I did not try this on my STUG, maybe I will get another of these kits in the future, then I will try if this would work.

I built this kit as addition for my Afrikakorps platoon, the construction was uncomplicated due to the simple but good instructions on the back of the box, and this is the result:

I like its look and and it fits perfect to the colorscheme of the other tanks from that platoon, there are still 2 or 3 models to get, then, when it is finished, I will write at least one post about them, but back to topic.

This model can be a useful addition to every early or mid war German army. Sure, there are other STUG kits like the Plastic Soldier Company STUG or the Battlefront Miniatures STUG, but this should do its job pretty good. As you can see on the picture above, the tracks are not as plain as on the general Zvezda 1:100 tank kit, we will see similar tracksets in later posts.

Some decals would have been nice, but "Art Of Tactic" tank kits never have them included. 

As usual, you can get this kit (at least in Germany) for below 4 Euros. If you would need more STUGs, you could get a PSC or BFM Stug 3 platoon-sized box, you would not only get decals (not sure if there are decals in the PSC platoon boxes) and tankcommanders with those boxes, you could build different versions of this tank (see links above). But their construction is way more complicated as with this Zvezda kit and would need glue, what is not needed to build this modelkit.

In the end, it is always your decision, get whatever you like, but I recommend this kit.

This Saturday we will take a look at another 1:144 plane expansion from Zvezda and the day after tomorrow we will see another 15mm T-34. Since I have some time over the next days, I will prepare the next batch of posts for the coming weeks.
In the next days I will close this blog for some hours to do some maintenance and a decent redesign, but I will keep you informed about that.

But before this is happening, my mate Olli and I are going to play a little game of "TANKS The Modern Age" this afternoon, that battles report will get posted on Monday. While I made a small 101 pt. French list, I have no idea which nation will be my opponent.


(* Funfact: if you use privacy addons for your browser, you are invisible for that counter it and do not get counted.)

Blog Update November

I was watching a ww2 documentation and (just for fun) tried to find some more UHU advertisements from war time, just as the one on the upper right corner of this blog.
And as you can see, I did, and this thing is a good example for indoctrination and propaganda of totalitarian regimes. If you want to know what it is about, you have to go for yourself, I will not translate it, but I may integrate this picture into this blog.

(By the way, it took some time to restore the picture to its actual state, the original was an old and faded piece of newspaper. Using this as template I could eventually "upgrade" the original UHU advertisement from this page to a higher resolution.)

But back to topic. I went through several struggles and changes in the last weeks, and I did not find neither the energy nor the time to write new postings, since writing them takes more time than you may think.
What does not mean, that I did no models. The Montagsmaler are still busy and we may get another (third) member. Also, in the past few weeks I collected lots of new material for this blog, but I had more important things to do than  writing for this blog.

I can not say, how much time I can spend for blogging in the next few weeks, but in the next days I finally have some time to spend exclusively for blogging.

What means, that I will use the autopublishing function exessively because there are lots of kits which will get a closer look, but my time to write will be rare.
At the moment I have more then 40 minireviews in the make, cosisting of lots of Zvezda kits and ww2/ww3 TANKS expansions. And then there is the usual content like 3D prining, both "TANKS" games and Rügen'46, whenever I may find time I will post about this stuff.

To give you a rough number, I am preparing the posts for some PCS models, more than 10 TANKS expansions and 30+ Zvezda ww2/ww3 kits, like the new Brummbär, the Abrams, the Tiger and lots more, which resulted in almost 300 pictures I would like to share with you.

(I may have mentioned it, I want to give all available Zvezda 1:100 tank and each 1:144 and 1:200 plane model kits a closer look and according to my list, there are arround 80 kits in these ranges, and I already own a little more than the half of them.)

Due to my limited time, my plan is to use the autopublishing function for all these new posts which I will write the in next days, the schedule should be:

On Tuesdays 20:00 a closer look at a Zvezda Axis 1:100 tank kit.
On Thursdays 20:00 a closer look at a Zvezda Allies 1:100 tanks kit.
On Saturdays  15:00 or 17:00 a closer look at a Zvezda 1:144 or 1:200 plane kit.
On Sundays 15:00 or 17:00 a closer look at an expansion either for ww2 "TANKS" or "TANKS The Modern Age".


Following this schedule there is a lot of content to come over the next 2 or 3 months. Some of these posts will contain comparisons with other models, so I hope this will not get to dry.
But before this will come, I will continue where I stopped, the next posts will be dedicated to German cold war tanks before I will start with all that reviews.

Beside that, the new custom units for the games will come whenever I will find time for it. Not to forget to mention the plane expansion for ww2 "TANKS", of which I am writing for a long time. I hope that I will finish the work on it this year.

Finally, on the first or second weekend of next month I am going to shut down the blog for at least some hours. After the first 10 years it will be time to change the layout of the ww2modelzone.

TL;DR So many models, so little time.

Update:
I updated/changes the scheduling for autopublished posts.

Blog Update August

In the past few weeks I did not find a silent moment to update this blog, but some things happened on my workbench. In this post you will get some infos about future posts.

First of all, I found many pictures in my backup folders which will be added to existing posts, and I see at least 20 more "Faces Of War" posts incoming in the next months(/years).

Two more playtests of my upcoming plane expansion for "TANKS" were made, one final playtest will follow and then it is time to actually write the expansion.

Each nation will at least get one plane with various weapon options and  two different AA vehicles. You may expect this expansion sometime in the autumn. Maybe the plane expansion for ww3 TANKS will come with that, if not, it will come close after that.

But before that second expansion is done, some more custom units for "TANKS The Modern Age", this time armoured AA tanks, will be released.

A lot of closer looks at kits will come soon and with them a lot custom units for "TANKS" and "TANKS The Modern Age".

I already took pictures of the kits on the picture above, this weekend I will upload them and start to write some small reviews.

Also, there are some more kits to show which are not on the picture. And yes, I like the works of William Gibson.

My mate Olli and I continued our roguish Montagsmaler sessions, one of the results from these mettings was Ollis Tiger shown on the first picture of this post. Actually, we may meet next week the first time since months on a Monday.

Maybe we will welcome a new member to our small group, another friend of mine likes "TANKS", not only he joined some normal games, he also helped with testing the new rules for planes.

Last but not least, I finished my French forces for "TANKS The Modern Age", and while this was done, two new French custom units were created. They are not shown on the picture above but they will be published soon, right after the closer look at the remaining French expansion for the game.

Blog Update March

This will be my last posting for March. I need some time after some very sad news. The death of a friend is always a devastating loss and I need some time to overcome this.

The closer looks at the Revell 1:100 Hind and at the "TANKS The Modern Age" Hind will have to wait some more time.

This is for you friend, whereever you are.