I've got the Stug bug

Widely used throughout the war, and one of the classics of the German defence of the Normandy invasion, the Sturmgeschutz III, or Stug assault gun. Not technically a tank, if you want to be pedantic it's self propelled artillery. Anyway, it's one of the most recognizable German armoured fighting vehicles of WW2. I understand it scored more hits on enemy tanks and AFV's than any anything else fielded by the Germans.

This is a cracking kit, the first 1/56th vehicle I've built despite doing my fair share of Esci 1/72nd (remember those?) and of course those 'big beasts' 1/35th kits from Tamiya.

Nostalgia. I had one of these...

Dived straight in to this one, and once again an old skool approach, no airbrush. Did they paint real tanks with an airbrush? Brush, use a bristly stick dammit! Undercoated black and then layers of dry brushing in a lightish base green/stone. Sometimes using my phone camera, so colours might look weird due to the light bulb, sorry.

I try to replicate the hazy edges of air brushing by using very thin paint, almost wash thin. If necessary I build it up, almost like doing a watercolour picture.

Just realised I've gone to all that trouble painting the sides, and of course they won't even be seen once the armour skirts are fitted. Oh well. Tracks on. Crisp parts mean easy assembly and a straightforward build, thus far.

Painting on the hull is going quite well, got the basic camo scheme done.

Most of the heavy lifting is done in terms of painting and assembly of the hull, it's been quite a quick build. Next thing are the skirts. I'm going to do a bit of mangling on these, starting with scratching and roughening them up with sandpaper.

I took the scalpel to the skirts to separate one of the plates, so it can be hung at a slightly jaunty angle.
Also melted some scores and dents into them with a heated sculpting tool, and turned the edge of one of the plates out a bit. Looks like one of those nasty collisions with something large and immovable in Tesco car park. It's a lot of extra work, but the schürzen are taking the brunt of the incoming. It was always part of the plan on this build, so at least I can say I stug to the plan. Geddit?

A small photo because I'm handpainting markings instead of using decals and they're a bit shaky.

They nicked some plates off another Stug with a different scheme.

Okay,  the Stug is finished, and I did cave in and use some decals. I wasn't happy with my effort at the Lehr marking, it looked like a demented GBP sign minus something. Also used some numbers. Not absolutely sure if Lehr ever fielded a Stug numbered 153, I just like the numbers. Anyway, for what it's worth, here it is.