In 1935, a proposal for developing an assault gun (Sturmgeschutz - Stug) for infantry support was put forth for the German Army. This would be equipped with a 75mm gun on a tracked chassis. This would provide striking power and mobility not available with a standard howitzer. While it did not have a rotating turret, the gun could be moved through 30 degrees of vertical and horizontal traverse. Daimler-Benz began development in 1936 and based it on a Panzer III chassis. The forst model featured a short barreled 75mm L/24 gun. The superstructure had 50mm of armor protection on the front and 30mm on the sides. 30 Ausf A guns were completed by May 1940 and were sent into combat against the French, where they did rather well. The Ausf B was the first mass-produced version with a Maybach engine which allowed 40 KPH top speeds. 250 ausf B guns with improved tracks and wheels were made between June 1940 and May 1941. Many of these saw action in both the Balkan and Russian campaign where it was able to provide support against Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks.

THE KIT

Typical of Tamiya kits, the engineering appears to be top notch. You are provided with a full hull onto which to attach the various bits, a commander figure and with this boxing, a small photo etch fret that provides an antenna holder brace, headlight covers, and a couple of screens. You are also provided with a metal gun barrel.

As is normal with most armor kits, you start by assembling the lower hull with the suspension. Lots of small road wheels and return rollers to paint. This kit has a fairly well done interior that can be seen by taking off the upper forward hull section. The next set of construction steps deals with this interior and includes the gun mount and breech. If you have no plans on ever showing the interior, you could easily save several steps by eliminating some of this. You'll have to at least build up the breech as this is attached with polycaps so it can move in elevation and azimuth.

During this evolution, the upper hull section is attached along with the tracks (which are the one-piece vinyl variety). There are the usual mass of hatches, pioneer tools and other external accoutrements. You could pose some of these hatches open to view the interior and if using the figure as shown on the box art, you'll need to have at least one open.

The kit provides markings for five vehicles, all from 1941 and all in overall panzer grey. Two are from the Eastern front, two at training bases in Poland and one in Greece. The fairly large decal sheet is nicely done and even gives some optional markings. As usual, the instruction sheet is of the 'road map' variety and provides only Tamiya paint references.