That’s a long winded way of saying a StuG. IV. The Sturmgeshutz IV started to replace the very popular, and very successful, Sturmgeshutz III Ausf. G in early 1944, in time for some of them to see action at the Normandy landings. By this stage in the war the earlier Pz.Kpfw. IVs had been relegated to the “obsolete” bin so the chassis started to appear in use as a platform for various other vehicles. They were essentially a StuG III Ausf. G superstructure mounted onto a Pz.Kpfw IV chassis with a few spacer plates added in to fill in the gaps.
This kit is Basically a copy of the Tamiya kit, right down to the tub with the set-up to take a motor. It even comes in a similar sized tray and lid style box on the same four dark yellow sprues. It offers good clean lines, crisp mouldings and minimal clean-up. No flash, minimal mould lines and most knock out marks are in places they won’t be seen. The instructions are a bit sparse, but as the kit is very simple it doesn’t impact overly on the assembly process.
The superstructure and casement is very simple, being one large piece with separate rear fenders. To this attach the tools, moulded cable, and shurzen rails which are a little overscale in thickness as are the mounts for it. Like a lot of Academy ( and the Tamiya kits from which they are copied for that matter ) this suffers from open sponsons, and open engine grilles which look through into the empty interior.
To top off the casement the gunner’s hatches are separate pieces, as is his MG shield which can be posed up or down. For use with this he gets an MG42 which has some very delicate mouldings which show that Academy can do it if they want to. The cupola is reasonably well done with the separate hatch including the head pad. Some minor interior fittings such as periscopes and base for the figure to stand on are included, but nothing that would pass as a real interior through any open hatches.
The gun is moulded as two halves, complete with muzzle brake and care has to be taken when assembling it to keep it straight and minimize the joint seam. The mantlet is the topfblende, or “saukopf” cast type though it is sorely lacking any sort of casting texture, so a job there for Mr. Surfacer. You get the option of the add on armour plate or the concrete blockwork on the right side of the mantlet, with the concrete block to go on the left also if you go that route. Again these are seriously lacking in any form of passable texture.
The Shurzen armour skirts are massively over scale in thickness but then that is always a failing of trying to make these in plastic. The actual skirts were only 5mm thick which in 1/35 would make them around 0.15mm. But then they’re only oversized if you know that, if you don’t care they look fine and you can always use them as templates to cut thinner ones from brass shim stock if you’re so inclined. They are also moulded as one piece rather than as individual plates so would look more natural if carefully separated.
The suspension set up is very simple with each suspension unit moulded as one piece so will require a little surgery if you wish to reposition any of the wheels to be going over uneven ground. The tracks are single length vinyl “rubber band” style tracks. Academy do make an inexpensive set of individual link tracks suitable for this vehicle which are available separately.
A commander figure is included, wearing the traditional panzer uniform, though he looks a little undersized ( often a failing with Academy figures ) as he scales out at 165 cm ( 5 foot 5 ). Panzer crews weren’t tall men but he does look to be very much on the small side.
Decals have always been a weak point in Academy kits and this one is no exception. A single set of markings is provided though the instructions are somewhat vague on where they all go, and no unit identification is given. The markings are in fact for the 116th Panzer Division, though I can find no reference to the 116th ever receiving StuG. IV, only StuG. III Ausf. G.
Being a lower priced kit this one is good value for money for the entry level or casual modeller. It doesn’t have the same level of detail as the newer Dragon offerings but at half the price it certainly is no lemon. It still makes up into a good kit, albeit lacking in some of the finer detail, but for the average modelling enthusiast that doesn’t care about a high number of parts for ultimate detail, but just wants a good looking kit when they’re done then this kit is definitely worthy of consideration.
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