Rapid Fire! 20mm - 17th Pz Grenadier Division 'Götz Von Berlichingen'; Stug IV Pz Jäger Battalion

The last Militaria Hors-Serie No 95 is dedicated to the US 101st  Airborne in Normandy. Among other nice information and colour plates it shows the camouflage of the Stug IV of the 17th PzGrDiv. that fought against the Screaming Eagles around Carentan. The 17th PzGrDiv. had 42 of these relatively rare Stugs, when comparing with the Stug III.

As far as the images on the article shows try to cover Dunken Gelb with the other two camouflage tones up to 80/90% in big blotches in which the Red Brown always touches the Green.

The models are all Revell exceptuating the one to the far right which is Altaya. They are organised in three companies with a command Stug with two crew visible which is my way of marking the CO in an AFV unit.

The Revell model is quite accurate but with little detail. The most important details missing are the tool box (behind the left side cuppola); the left side extra tank tracks....

 ... and the extra wheels on the left. These last ones were provided by Tim Caspers of Germany, a fellow modeller who produces in resin many of his own pieces and that gently send me a box filled with many nice parts, including stowage,  some you can see in last posts about Tunisia.

 I also replaced the plastic MG with a metal one and placed a (plastic) ammo drum as used in german AFVs.

The foliage is made of Iceland lichen picked nearby, turned into a paste with green acrylic and wood glue.

 The only non-metal MG is this one converted from the Esci MG firer with a new Feldmutze. This Esci guy already carries the ammo drum on his MG and no bipod so he is perfect for German tanks.

This one is already training to enter the Panzer corps ... were he will loose his legs and head most likely as you can see in the previous picture...