Zvezda Panzer III G Review

Panzerkampfwagen III Sd Kfz. 141 Ausf. G

Otherwise known as Panzer IIIG. It is a German Medium tank built from 1938 to 1943. It was armed decently and had reasonably thick armor. In battle, it proved superior due to German tactics!


The models I have built today are five Panzer III tanks made by the Russian company Zvezda. The vehicles are lower detail models designed to be playing pieces for the board game Art of Tactic. The kit has few pieces and is very easy to assemble. Detail is lacking, but at a $5 cost and some stowage from Battlefront and PSC they will look the part! I replaced the barrel with a brass version as well. They will work good for my late 1940 German Panzer force!


Unfortunately some time has passed since I purchased these kits. Since then Plastic Soldier has released their own version in plastic which has much higher detail, more options and included stowage for a similar price. Due to this, I do not recommend this kit at all, unless it can be found for under $4. Even at that price point, the alternative PSC version hold a much better value.

... Mitch

Heavy Gear UMFA #7

Dirty Half Dozen

I used some Vallejo Sepia Wash and applied a liberal layer to to the GP Squad Gears. I'm going to do a drybrush tomorrow of middle stone to lighten up the scheme. There isn't much else to say since this is a very minor update! Onto the pictures:

Heavy Gear UMFA #6

Three Tone Camouflage

I applied the camo on the GP Squad, and I do like how it turned out! I used Vallejo Middlestone as the base, Vallejo German Green for the first accent and Tamiya Red Brown for the second accent. I am partially doing this as practice for my Flames of War army. This weekend I will be detailing the small thing like weapons, power core and bits. The first picture is how the figures looked last night with just green stripes and the rest show the Red Brown stripes.

Heavy Gear UMFA #5

General Purpose Squad

(This post should of been UMFA #3)

My GP squad is the second group of figures I am working on and boy do I like how Hunter 'Gears look with Frag Cannons. All this wouldn't of been possible without the help of flintlocklaser from the official DP9 forums. 

The first thing I decided with this army is how does it mesh with other components of the force. Considering I have a really great Fire Support squad featuring three long range equipped Grizzly's I a decided to do a close range blocking style force. The group is a Sabretooth, Tiger and four Hunter's with Fragcannons. This combat group should excel at dealing with close threat to my Fire support and Infantry threats. Nothing says more then a Shotgun with an AOE! Incase tanks come close? Heavy hand grenades should do the trick!

Here are some WIP shots of the squad so far

... Mitch

Plastic Soldier Sd.Kfz. 251c Review

Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251

The Sd.Kfz. 251, also known as the Hanomag is one of the most well known armored fighting vehicles from WW2. It was used in all fronts, and over 15,000 were built. The mostly carried Germany's elite soldiers known as panzergrenadiers. It is generally armed with two 7.92mm machine guns and has good protection against small arms fire. It has an engine that allows it to travel over 30mph and weighs almost 8 tons!

Now that is exactly why I plan on using 15 of them for my mechanized force!

I originally purchased the Zvedza version of these wonderful halftracks, but the detail was disappointing! I sold them online for a good deal and purchased these from a local hobby store. The ones I bought are the C version which is appropriate from 1940 to 1945. Production did cease in 1943, but units were still equipped until the end of the war. I built 13 with the standard features and made 2 up gunned versions for my platoon commanders! 

The kit itself was amazing and all parts fit together as they should. You do get a gunner, and 6 passengers per vehicle. The stowage included is a spare tire, two fuel cans, various personal kit including bedrolls. All a very good value for about $5 each! The only downside to the kit is the MG34 included is very flimsy since it is cast in proper scale. Because of that, I did replace most of the machine guns with ones from different kits or metal ones.

Anyone building a German force should really consider purchasing these wonderful vehicles. The value on them in amazing. For $100 you could purchase 15 halftracks and 130 infantry from Plastic Solider. In Flames of War that gives you your HQ, and 3 platoons of infantry! Add in a pack of 5 Panzer IV tanks and you have a near complete army.