Hey all! After a 4 month bending and soldering adventure I'm pretty much ready to get back to some good old fashioned glue and plastic model building.
This little fellow caught my eye when it was released...so without too much thought I decided to give it a go. Though tempted, I've resisted purchasing any aftermarket items (so far) and intend to do this build OOTB - with any detailing coming from the spares box or scratchwork - just a clean, quick build.
Box Art....
As the box was arriving in the mail, our weather here in Oregon turned decidely fall, with early rain and cool temperatures in town and snow advisories in the nearby Cascade Mtns.....of couse I'd have to build a winter panzer.
I decided to that Kharkov would be the perfect "winter paradise" for my panzer to play...so after a little research I found some information from Das Reich's involvement in the battle. On February 1st 1943 the divisioin had 66 Pz III's, on March 4th that number was reduced to 11. In May 1943, the surviving Pz lll's were retired in preperation for re-equipment for Operatioin Citidel.
One of the surviving Pz III's from the Kharkov battles was # 864. I found this color plate of 864 in Tigers in Combat II, pg. 335., by Wolfgang Schneider, Stackpole Books.
...photograph of #864 from Kharkov, (Tigers in Combat II pg.125)
And so with the introduction out of the way, let's build!
Rick
Threaded Mode
