1/72 Dragon 7283 – Stug III Ausf G Early

I must confess I have a soft spot for winter camouflages. I had this kit in my stash for quite a while and I decided to give it a try. It is a little gem, all parts fits very well and you don’t need too much aftermarkets to build a perfect Braille Stug; it is literally a scaled down 1/35 kit.

I started with suspensions, road-wheels and the rear panel. I replaced the exhaust deflector sides with others made from a beer can. Unlike Revell, Dragon provides the PE mesh screens for air intakes and that’s a good bonus.

But not all things are perfect with this kit and, inexplicably, Dragon decided to shut down the driver’s vizor. This is not a major fault, but it’s some how odd to drive a tank with this vizor closed. It was not an easy task to open it, but in the end all the effort paid off.

I continued with the superstructure and added a few details, such as some spare tracks from a Revell kit. As for the commander cupola, the trap is a little too thick if left open but it can be replaced with one from Extratech.

After that, my model was ready for paint:

Until recently, all my models were brush painted, so I was unable to try the hairspray technique, which is impossible without an airbrush. My Stug received a a good coat of white as “base paint”, and then I dry-brushed the dunkelgelb over the white. I was quite happy with the result:

After decals, fitting the tracks and some weathering with oils and pigments, the Stug really came to life.

In conclusion, this is a highly detailed kit, very easy to put together; a “must build” for every Braille lover.