After a hiatus of several months, have been trying to
complete a Cyber-Hobby Orange Box Sturmpanzer IV (late), a Cyber-Hobby Orange
Box StuG. III Ausf. F mit winterketten, and a DML Jagdpanzer IV L/70 (6397).
The kit schurzen for the Stupa suffer from being massively thick and also from the fact that mounting points do not correspond to the individual plates. In fact, the whole seems to be inaccurate but with the mounting rails already attached, decided against replacing them in their entirety with a AM set like the Eduard set stashed away for the next build of this kit (if it ever happens). Instead, using the (probably inaccurate) kit schurzen as a temple, made a couple of new plates on each side by realigning the plate divisions with the mounting brackets. Some of the resultant plates look suspiciously narrow, but we'll see how they turn out. Maybe should have checked against Eduard set first.
It is interesting to contrast the more recent JagdPz IV with
its older brethren. Both the Stupa and
Stug had fit issues, particularly between the upper hull and the lower hull
tub; requiring in the case of the Stug removal of the locating tabs (suggesting
warping of either or both hull pieces).
There also were other engineering issues such as the lack of locating
pins to anchor the extended fenders on the Stupa which made assembly more
challenging that might otherwise have been the case (and probably contributed to one being installed in reversed position). In contrast, thus far at least, the JagdPz IV, while much more
detailed and complex in assembly has had great engineering and fit. While the Stupa and Stug are Orange Box
kits, and the comparison might be akin to comparing a VW Bug from years ago to
a current Audi (or an old Toyota Tercel to a new Lexus), the improvement in
Dragon’s kits is impressive. Which is
not to say that the OB kits aren’t worth their lower price; but sometimes it’s
nice to drive a Lexus rather than a Toyota. UPDATE: there were some fit problems between the upper hull and the lower hull/fenders, which required some moderate shaving/trimming to try to get a flush fit.
A pic of the DML Jagdpanzer IV L/70 as WIP:
Cyber-Hobby/DML StuG III Ausf. F mit winterketten (from DML StuG III Ausf. F/8) as WIP:
From what I've read, this kit needs lots of corrections to be accurate, so I probably won't be spending time on it for the foreseeable future.
