Kit Review: Dragon 6688 StuG III Ausf. E in 1/35

[@petebesch]

all your reviews are awesome Adam, you don't pull any punches, for sure. As for Dragon, they would do a great service to all of us German armor enthusiasts if they would make a 252 halftrack which followed most Stug. units AND include the AN-1/2 ammo Trailor to boot.

[@AdamMann3D]

I appreciate that. And I agree

[@petebesch]

Well, I'll be. I'm (my name is Pete by the way) surprised no one mentioned it but DML has got an Sd.Kfz 252 Leichte Gepanzerte Munitions Kraftwagon w/Sd.Ah 32/1 Trailor. It's DML- 6718 and I just picked one up at Internet Hobbies this morning. Would have gotten a couple of more but for the price.

[@HalidonDioramas]

Good review Adam, I think the whole DS track thing is interesting, I'm a bit more ambivalent about them myself but completely understand why some really dislike, I think the thing that annoys me more about Dragon in particular is that they just don't seem to listen to their customer base, given that they are not at the low end of the market when I buy a kit I sort of expect to get value for money and something that I don't have to do a heap of "scratch building" on to turn their existing moulding into the bits I need to build the kit they claim to present on the box. But it's a business for them so unless sales are impacted I can imagine them saying "our customers hate DS tracks, but they keep buying our kits, so stuff them". KUTGW, love your reviews mate 👍👍👍

[@fisharmy5785]

Great review Adam and welcome back.

[@AdamMann3D]

Thanks, got another one and some new type videos coming up.

[@patrickmodelnut526]

Gotta love that Volstad box-art. These short barrelled stugs have lots of character. thanks for the video!

[@AdamMann3D]

agreed.

[@jjab99]

Great review Adam and it looks like a great kit too. Many thanks for sharing. Have fun, Joe

[@AdamMann3D]

you're very welcome, thanks for watching.

[@Android-rz8mb]

Very good review going to buy this kit based on what you said 😊..... One of the issues I have with Dragon is they came out with a Stug IV final production And they literally have me cutting pieces up so they would fit properly

[@Duececoupe]

Great to see you again kiddo! Great video and review....totally agree with you here....

[@AdamMann3D]

I have returned, Hopefully I can keep it up.

[@Duececoupe]

Adam Mann I'm sure you will buddy! 👍👌👏

[@DNModels]

You probably read my review. Mine came with both options. Tracks I mean. Which was later announced to be an first buyers bonus. Or whatever. I really enjoy this kit. Sits in its box so far, but it is a pleasure to look at it.

[@AdamMann3D]

I did see yours. It's a shame they didn't include them in all of the kits. It may change the way people feel about Dragon, but they're still reusing parts the modeler has to modify and DS tracks. Very disappointing.

[@DNModels]

Adam Mann aftermarket track producers are happy though. And a lot of people are already complaining about Dragon for the last couple of years. But what can you do... this is the way it is nowadays.

[@AdamMann3D]

Mitko Nikitov Agreed, but I tend to review mostly Dragon. That may change if Meng and others continue to start to overlap on Dragon and Tamiya.

[@Kitmaker]

Very nice! Thanks for the review! :)

[@AdamMann3D]

Thanks Jim, I was a little rusty, but I got there.

[@MrGameengineer]

You were fine. Felt like one of your normal reviews.

[@claytonmcclain182]

sweet looking kit Adam, as always great review. nice to see no bandaids on your hands lol.

[@AdamMann3D]

It's good so far.

[@SgtBones]

Definitely agree with you on that DS issue, if I want something unusual like Ostketten then I don't mind paying extra, but for an early war vehicle, at that price point, no, just absolutely no.

[@AdamMann3D]

agreed.

[@Felisbarcinonensis]

Great review Adam. Looks like a pretty nice kit but DS are poison for me as well unless I'm building a US vehicle with no sagging. No magic tracks, no buy

[@AdamMann3D]

Thanks, I completely agree, although I have a stash of Magic Tracks to use should DS find their way in to my house.

[@MojoDevirus]

Thanks Adam. Next one in my purchase list. =)

[@AdamMann3D]

Excellent.

[@northfox2803]

I bought this kit last week. It has two sets of tracks - DS-tracks and magic tracks.

[@HamilkarBarkasScaleModelling]

the idea behind this kit is good, but it is still lacking some effort by the manufacturer. not as bad as the panther v1 kit for example, but as cool as dragon was in 2007? no way! i´ll stick with the old imperial series kits, because they are fun and quick to put together and even look fine to me. if this kit here came with magic tracks it would change a lot of things for me.

[@AdamMann3D]

And that's what I don't think Dragon understand. A lot of us simply will not buy kits with DS. I looked on ebay for a while for a Hummel. There was a magic track version and a DS version. I would never buy the DS version, just on principle.

[@HamilkarBarkasScaleModelling]

Adam Mann indeed. for a 60 or more € kit i can simply expect to probably even have both DS and magics, but at least magics.

[@HollywoodModelling]

Been looking at that kit, since I love short barelled stug iiis... now let's see if it's a nice kit shall we :D

[@AdamMann3D]

It's tolerable. That's about all I'll give it. But it is heavily based on the F and F/8 kits which look great when assembled.

[@Panzermeister36]

Yeah the F/8 was awesome!

[@freewill51]

I do 't understand what you are saying at the end about dragon not having a stug short barrel other than the imperial series (9014). I'm sitting here looking at my stash and I have a 6008 B version and a 6009 C/D version. Can you please add some detail to what they are and why they don/t qualify as early stugs? Thanks. Great review anyway.

[@AdamMann3D]

Those are imperial reboxes of a Gunze kit from 1994. The only new short barrel StuG kits based on the 2007 new tooling are this one and the new C/D (6851). Check out Scalemates timeline if you want to know where kits come from.

[@freewill51]

Adam Mann Okay. I looked at scalemates and I see what you meant. I didn't realize that some of the imperial series came out later than the 39-45 kits. If you don't want the ds tracks, I would definitely send you the individual tracks out of my 6008.

[@GrandMasterAbe]

Subbed. Reminds of my childhood years putting together an ME-109

[@AdamMann3D]

Outstanding. That's why I'm here.

[@ennisanderson2719]

I'm curious about something. You mentioned that a number of part trees from the F8 kit. I have an F8 kit (Cyber-Hobby edition #01). My kit doesn't have anything at all like any of the trees you have. So why is mine different ? I've always heard that the only difference from one company to the other was the box it comes in and it's "Value Added" kit. Mine has the loading crew in it. Mine also has Magic-Tracks,too.

[@AdamMann3D]

Yours could be the old Imperial F8? Is it an Orange Box?

[@ennisanderson2719]

Adam Mann No it's actually in a white Cyberhobby box. I'm inclined to agree with you on it being an old kit. it's more like the Ausf B kit from Dragon I built not long after it came on the market. Nothing but the Commander's sighting scope and the gunner's sight. There's no open space on the sides for the radio either.

[@Startrooper5555]

Anyone know why the Stug ausf E never carried a spare wheel? Well this kit does not and the Bronco kit does not.But I have seen pictures with the spare and without.

[@JoseDanielMassterOzymandiasMx]

Nice review Adam!

[@AdamMann3D]

thank you.

[@oddball3673]

Great review Adam,to be honest,the bronco stug. kits are a lot better than the dragon kits.

[@AdamMann3D]

I'd have to build one, I was really not impressed with that Panzer III A I did of theirs. I don't doubt they went for higher detail, but the fidelity of their molding didn't seem to match their ambitions. Have you built one?

[@oddball3673]

Get over it Adam.

[@AdamMann3D]

oddball Ok then.

[@andrewjerome6582]

I got this kit a while ago, it looks great!

[@AdamMann3D]

I'm half done with it already.

[@ImperialesProjekt0815]

Boxarts from Ron Volstad are so beautyfully!

[@jonnyzboyz]

Hi, very nice reviews, how would you compare the Dragon kits compared to Tamiya? In detail / Parts / Quality.

[@AdamMann3D]

Detail is better, parts are far more complex, and quality of those is good. But the instructions are awful on a Dragon kit. Tamiya is more simple, but Dragon can be hard for no reason. If you haven't done a Dragon kit there are a few I could recommend.

[@jonnyzboyz]

Thanks for reply, No i haven't done a Dragon kit yet, i have done one Tamiya Stug IV very old kit that was reboxed i think, and now the Tamiya Panther ausf g steel wheel version. This two will be great test bed for my airbrush learning :) A nice Dragon Panther would be nice but there are so many. I don't mind paying more for a kit that gives me some extra goodies aka superkits, like metal parts etc.

[@AdamMann3D]

I have a lot of the Dragon Panthers. Some of the older ones have Magic Tracks, But I personally would avoid the "Premium" kits of the Panther as they're just old reboxes with goodies. The newer G series is what you want. The engineering and part fidelity is top notch.

[@jonnyzboyz]

If you would recommend a Dragon Panther ausf A and G, which one would it be?

[@longlance67]

blue, blue, blue electric blue lol that's a lot of blue in that kit, but it does look nice as a kit !

[@AdamMann3D]

It looks alright. It's awfully blue though.

[@Z3kyTw0]

when we getting a new Tiger build video Adam!!!! ??

[@AdamMann3D]

I know...I've been really busy so I haven't done anything like that. I have a plan though.

[@TheSuperdavid1942]

Adam! I wrote you one e-mail about dragon models. Please answer it.Thank you

[@AdamMann3D]

Are you the guy asking about instructions?

[@TheSuperdavid1942]

Yes,I am :)

[@opsimathics]

are ds tracks really the end of the world. I ask after having seen numerous dioramas where the modeler has coated the tracks on every hue and texture of mud, dirt and sand, and none of the wonderful track details can be seen.

[@freewill51]

I like the ds better on small tracks like this one. On large tanks I like the magic tracks.

[@AdamMann3D]

I prefer magic tracks or workable. I understand that not everyone does. Both would be ideal.

[@AdamMann3D]

I think people overdue sag sometimes, but if you look at this pic of an Ausf. A it's pretty much what I try to get on my Panzer III vehicles. Very hard to do with DS or Vinyl, and as a Panzer fanatic that's very important to me. Might not be to everyone. But keep in mind you're talking to a guy that owns a good number of actual Panzer III track links. www.matrixgames.com/forums/upfiles/21308/795E712AFA61458389C1BF2F1D67CD0E.jpg

[@opsimathics]

You are right, being subtle with track sag is the most difficult thing with non-mechanical tracks.

[@1-35SCALE]

Review 👍

[@AdamMann3D]

danke

[@eazyazpie3767]

All of Dragon's kits use the same sprues over & over again....that's a smart business approach. The detail of their parts are top notch...so why whine about it & give them bad review scores ? Your not a reliable reviewer if your gonna whine like that. Some people love the DS tracks..but you whine about them...so your opinion is one sided. Unless the sprues come from Imperial series kits [part's that they did not produce] ...I wouldn't whine. Dragon does seem to skimp now on their re-releases though, I have noticed. Kits that came with metal barrels do not now....DS tracks replacing Magic Tracks..now that is something to complain about.

[@AdamMann3D]

I don't think I came across complaining about old sprues. I actually totally agree with you about how that's not a bad idea. I just like to make sure people understand what is in there. I have been told in the past I come across like I hate what I'm doing, but that is sort of just how I speak.