REVIEW: FOV Stug III w/4 figures 80043

[Heer]

The model: This is a stug III G with a 75mm gun. It has a three tone camo and minimal weathering. The only weathering is from a few strokes of dirt that has acummulated on the road wheels. The tracks are barely weathered as well. It has 2 opening hatches, one is the commander;s hatch and the other is the loader/machine gunner. In fron of the loader's hatch is an mg shield. The casting was overall satisfactory. The mg shield has 2 point of impacts and the gun breach has two hits as well. Those were probably from an anti-tank rifle. Some tools were molded on, but they looked pleasing to the eye, nonetheless.

The History: No info is given about this tank regarding it's division. Only one balken cross can be seen in the rear. There is also no tactical numbers present. However, the base plate of the tank says "Eastern Front 1943".

Figures: It seems the most positive element of this release is the 4 figures included. There are 2 crew members present. The commander and the machine gunner are both painted in a Heer uniformand have caps. The commander has headphones and a binocular as well. The other 2 figures are accomponying infantry. One is kneeling holding an MP40 while the other is sitting down with an MG34 cross his lap. Very nice figures.

Pictures:
Here is a product picture from the website I ordered from:




Conclusion:
I purchased this tank for about $40 USD, but I felt that FOV could have spent like 4 more minutes on weathering the hull and the wheels. A light coat of dust would not hurt either. The antennas provided has an odd plastic "thingy" on the end as well. An intersting thing is that FOV provided some kind of giant boxy accessory for the rear of the tank as well( interesting touch). Accessories were minimal and so when I first opened it, it was pretty much a whole lot of nothing (at least include a tank obstacle, gasoline barrel, etc.).

[tmanthegreat]

Thanks for the review on the Stug and I think you share pretty much my same opinions about the vehicle in its stock form. I got this tank at Toys R Us about three years ago when FOV released an "Action Grade" version of it for about $25 (really, its more worth that price...) It came with even fewer accessories and no weathering, but hey, it was a Stug with some very nice figures and that stowage piece.

Shortly after I purchased it, I gave my vehicle some serious weathering to make it look a little more used, but I still felt it lacked something. Then, I few months ago, I customized it further:



I think it looks a lot better with schurtzen

The Schurtzen came from a spare "Italy 1944" Stug III that I got for cheap at K-Mart a year or so ago (so I didn't mind using them). They were airbrushed with Tamiya acrylic Dark Yellow for a the base; Red Brown and Deep Green for the cammo. All colors are close matches to the colors on the FOV tank.

[Heer]

WOW. Nice custom. This is probably one of my more disappointing purchases. All I did was paint a bit more "mud" on the road wheels, because that is what my limited painting and modelling experience told me to do. I was hoping to get the tan Italian version of the stug, however it was sold out and I don't feel like shelling big bucks for that. However, the ardennes stug is one it's way, so I might do a review on that as well.

[tmanthegreat]

Thanks for the comments Its funny, but I always thought of the Italian Stug as being common, or at least the action grade version of it. They were plentiful at one time at TRU and then were once even at Kmart for $8 apiece a couple years back. I picked up a couple: one which I kept whole and the other which I've scraped for parts. There were slight differences in the toolings between the enthusiast and action grade variants, however, namely in the way the schurtzen attached.

[Heer]

Man, you are lucky to have the Italian stug. I checked many stores and could not find one, but its now OK, I have this stug. I was also surprised that this model did not come with any side skirts, maybe FOV was trying to cut back costs. Nevertheless, I purchased the winter stug, and I'm so excited about it!