The Chinese manufacturer has reworked its previous 1/72 StuG.III parts to offer an Ausf.B variant with link-and-length tracks.
Dragon has chosen 1/72 scale (as well as 1/35) in which to represent various iterations of the German Sturmgeschütz III. Beginning in 2010 it offered the StuG.III Ausf.G, followed by the F, C/D, A, E and B. Now, the firm has re-released that final kit in its Neo Pro format, meaning that the previous one-piece running gear parts have been usurped by link-and-length items, with two long track runs for above and below, and individual links to position around the drive sprocket and idler. Dragon also provides styrene former pieces to help set the sag on the upper run of links, but realistically you’d need to heat the links slightly to make them conform to the shape of the jigs.
On first sight of Dragon’s new StuG.III Ausf.B kit (item 7636), you could be forgiven for thinking all is not as it should be. In a confusing scenario for novices on the subject, later StuG.IIIBs lost the ribbed sighting tunnel on the front-left corner of the casemate (previously employed on the IIIA), having armoured added instead.
However, early IIIBs seem to have retained the sighting tunnel, seemingly along with the idlers and b…
