This StuG is painted as unit 223 of the 904th Sturmgeschütz Abteilung serving on the Eastern Front in 1943. Judging by the summer paint scheme it represents an early production model Ausf G. The base colour is dunkelgelb with an olivgrün spot pattern. As far as I can tell, the vehicle has been realistically reproduced. The nose has bolted-on plates, as do the flat surfaces on either side of the gun mantlet. The commander's cupola is correct with the hatch hinged to the rear and the thin armour ring on top of where the episcopes would be raised. The monocular gun sight before the cupola is extended out of its hatch as if the unit is engaged in combat. The loader's hatch has the correct gun shield mounted before it for an MG 34 or 42. Two radio antennae are mounted behind the fighting compartment in the correct places. Side skirts, or schürtzen, are mounted on both sides of the vehicle and look fairly well beat up. The outside stowage, including the gun cleaning rods, shovel, crowbar, axe, towing hooks, fire extinguisher, wire cutters, spare wheels and jack are all included.
Now onto construction details. The upper hull and gun barrel are both of metal construction. Everything else - lower hull, running gear, mantlet - are of plastic construction. The upper & lower hull are connected in a very (frustratingly!) complicated manner. The lower hull plate is held in by six screws, but when that has been removed, you will find that the road wheels (including torsion bars) need to be removed before having to remove an inner plastic plate with four more screws holding it in. It is only then that you can get at the rest, i.e. the gun mounting. The gun barrel can be elevated to about 20° but cannot be depressed below 0°. I have heard that through careful modification, this can be corrected - however, I have not figured out how to do this on my own. There are a few more noticeable production mistakes. There is a slim gap between the two nose plates - one of the two screws holding the upper & lower hull together near the front was loose and could not be tightened any further, which causes a slight gap on the right side. The roadwheels are held on with noticable plastic clips that should have been concealed. The radio antennae had ugly black plastic bits at the ends that had to be snipped off. Finally, the center & rear mounting brackets for the schürtzen do not join up snugly with the hull, which cannot be fixed with model glue - the glue I use does not bond plastic with metal.
Here's a profile shot:
Here is a picture of the loader, who is posed holding an MG 34 mounted in the gun shield in a firing position. Spare boxes of ammunition can be seen sitting next to his hatch. The hatch doors themselves are a pain to open and pose with the figure - the rear hatch won't open all the way and wants to come off of its mounting:
The gun mantlet from above. As far as I know, the mantlet looks like this in real life, but is not usually an ugly orange plastic colour! Clearly something that was missed during design and production. You can clearly see the commander's cupola and the monocular periscope in its hatch before it:
The slight gap where the nose plates meet. This is the only thing that takes away from how great the bolted-on plates look. Note the Notek headlight that replaced the earlier headlights of the Ausf F/8 and earlier models:
The left schürtzen with battle damage. While probably not the result of a direct hit, it looks to be a bit of mangling due to the detonation of an HE shell nearby. I'm certain that a direct hit would have caused a bit more damage than that... and would have led to the panel falling off of the vehicle. Note the hideous plastic pins that the roadwheels are mounted on:
The right schürtzen with slightly less battle damage:
Rear engine deck and the back of the fighting compartment. Note that the stowage has received a much better paint job than on some other FoV releases:
Top profile shot:
Lower hull shot. Note the six screws holding in the lower hull plate and two screw holes for holding this to its plastic mounting:
CONCLUSIONS
When I first took this little beast out of its box I was amazed by the level of detail and the quality of its paint job. Of course, back then, I was oblivious to the production mistakes - I didn't care because it was one of my first acquisitions, and it looked a helluva lot better than what I can do on my own. Of course, some time has gone by since then during which I've noticed the flaws that take away from its level of quality.
The details are incredible. Bullet splashes and ricochet marks on the armor plates and side skirts. A loader holding an MG 34 in a firing position using the gunshield. Bolted-on armour plate on the nose that makes it look more rugged. The tracks are weathered really well and move flawlessly along the running gear. With the wash they used they managed to make it look just dirty enough for my taste - there's no sign of the Unimax tendency to overwash here. The weld marks on the upper hull look amazing. The camo scheme looks great too.
However, you have to overlook the gap in the nose plates, the fact that the gun can't depress at all with ugly plastic innards in the gun mantlet showing, the roadwheels with their ugly retaining pins, and the fact that the side skirt mounting brackets aren't even snug with the hull. Most of this can be corrected with some time, patience and powerful glue, but it is a lot to overlook.
I would recommend buying this model if a) you're willing to fix what's wrong with it or b) you're happy with the quality and don't care much for the details. I for one am quite willing to display it along with all of my other FoV armour without wanting to fix everything. I'm actually quite happy with it. It looks great sitting next to the Jagdpanther, and looks tiny compared to a King Tiger in the same scale!
If you're an avid collector, you need to add at least one StuG III to your collection on account of it being one of the most important armoured vehicle in service with the German armed forces during World War II.
The Stug has always been one of my favorite pieces of German WWII armor and as you mentioned above, even with the flaws it is still a great piece.
I recently came across the "Italy 1944" Stug III at Target. While it is the Action-grade vehicle, I thought it still looked pretty good and had some decent weathering. I would have to agree with you that it is a neat little vehicle. The color of the figure was my only beef, but I repainted that 
