Barcode: 0 89195 86749 0
Case Pack: 20 kits
Box Size: 9.6" x 15" x 3.1"

• Newly designed 15cm Sturm-Infanteriegeschutz 33 rendered w/intricate details
• Realistic stowage boxes installed
• s.IG..33 cannon can be assembled in different elevations
• Gun travel lock reproduced
• Superstructure produced by 3-directional slide mold
• One-piece slide-molded lower hull w/exquisite detail
• Fully detailed weld seams on hull bottom
• Full detail on lower hull sides
• Injection-molded fender and support for maximum realism
• Newly produce 40cm DS tracks
• Slide-molded engine deck
• Newly tolled slide-molded engine deck
• Slide-molded cooling-air intake
• Photo-etched air intake grills
• Photo-etched deflector plus starter crank port cover can be assembled open/closed
• Fenders w/pattern detail on both top and bottom surfaces
• Aluminum gun barrel designs for s.IG.33
• Slide-molded hydraulic shock absorbers are fully detailed
• Final-drive housing covers are separate parts for maximum detail
• Accurate drive sprockets
• Road wheels w/accurate detail
• Delicate idler wheels and track tension adjusters

The Sturm-Infanteriegeschu"tz 33B was a German infantry assault gun. It featured a 15cm sIG33/1 infantry gun fitted in a boxy superstructure that was mounted on a III chassis. Just 24 of these 21-tonne weapons were produced by AlkettThis self-propelled gun was used exclusively on the Eastern Front. Half fought in the bloody Battle of Stalingrad from October 1942 onwards, where their heavy guns could effectively demolish buildings in the bitter urban combat. The remaining vehicles deployed with the 23rd Panzer Division trying to break the encirclement of the 6th Army.

Dragon’s new 1/35 scale model of the Sturm-Infanteriegeschutz 33 completes the ‘33B’ family. A new part is the front plate with its two associated hatches. It shares the same slide-molded fighting compartment superstructure, internal details such as the mount for the sIG33 gun, and large stowage boxes on the rear deck. The metal gun barrel even has realistic rifling so that it looks exactly right. The running gear and DS Tracks have been borrowed from Dragon’s newest Panzer III kits, meaning they’re of the highest quality. With this assault gun, Dragon has delivered a fantastically well-engineered model.

Reviews:

Kit Review: Dragon Models Limited 1/35 scale '39-'45 Series

Kit No: 6749; 15 cm Sturminfantriegescheutz 33 - Smart Kit;

720 parts (645 parts in grey styrene, 72 etched brass, 2 DS Plastic track runs, 1 turned aluminum);

pre-order price US$54.99 via Dragon USA Online

898 parts (602 in grey styrene, 216 "Magic Track" links, 58 etched brass, 18 clear styrene, 2 pre-bent steel wire, 1 turned aluminum, 1 twisted steel wire); pre-order price US$49.95 via Dragon USA Online

Advantages: major redo of kit 6713; includes an interior for the fighting compartment

Disadvantages: no interior for the driver's compartment or ammunition stowage

Rating: Highly Recommended

Recommendation: for all fans of German "Stupa" fire support weapons

As I noted with the first new kit (No. 6713) The German s.IG.33 15 cm howitzer was a handy weapon, providing a big "bang" for a relatively small size and weight. As a result, the Germans spent a good portion of their armor conversion work on trying to find a good way to get it forward under fire where it could do the best work. After trying Pzkw. I and Pzkw. II and later Pzkw. 38(t) chassis with mixed results - either too heavy a load on the chassis or too light armor protection for the gun crew - they hit on using the more spacious Pzkw. III chassis with more weight bearing capacity for ammunition and armor protection.

Their final effort was a quick conversion - basically little more than a Stug III Ausf. E or F/8 chassis with a new rectangular superstructure and the 15 cm mounted slightly to the right of the center of the casemate. While it solved the armor protection problems, it turned out to be clumsy in its own right; the Germans were only finally happy when they switched to the Pzkw. IV chassis and the "Brummbaer" or Sturmpanzer IV. As a result, only 24 of these conversions were made by Alkett between December 1941 and October 1942. All apparently served in Russia as close-support weapons for panzer regiments.

For reasons best known to themselves, DML took their recent kit (released as s.IG.33 auf Fgst.Pz.Kpfw. III(Sfl)) and has now redone it completely as a 15 cm Sturminfantriegescheutz 33. This is in line with the late Tom Jentz' research on the vehicle. As before it comes with a "slide molded" casemate and uses bits from their Pzkw. III Ausf. J Early Production, StuG III Ausf. F/8 and later, and s.IG.33 kits with 171 new or changed styrene parts. The fighting compartment is provided with the gun, radio sets (from the StuG III), and other details; however, there are neither driver's compartment nor any engine compartment components provided in the kit. In the case of the former there are three reasonably large hatches on the top and rear which are optional and the viewers and hatches at the front, but for the most part the gun blocks out a view of the driver's compartment area.

The 15 cm howitzer comes with a new B modification sprue of parts to adapt it to this mounting, and the entire thing is designed to fit in the StuG III compartment (as did the actual gun with a few modifications). No ammunition is provided nor ammo stowage; whether the information was not available or DML simply ignored it is an unknown factor.

Construction follows the "Smart Kit" Pzkw. III/StuG III kits. The kit comes with individual torsion bars and road wheel arms as well as all of the external details on the lower hull such as shocks and bump stops. Each idler wheel consists of five parts with twin brass inserts between the plastic castings. All wheels are detailed to the point of having the rubber tire manufacturer's data readable.

The brass is provided only for those bits where plastic cannot do the job, such as the aforementioned wheel rims and the air intake and exhaust grilles on the engine radiator air exhaust vents.

All fender details are separate and go on in subassemblies. In point of fact, most of this model consists of subassemblies, which is how it gets its tremendous level of details. This also shows in the sprues, as for example the "A" wheel sprue still consists of seven sub-sprues.

The kit comes with a high level of interior parts, including the gun, commander's cupola assembly, floor, and the radios and stowage racks for various bits on each side of the casemate. Likewise the engine deck consists of several subassemblies combined to form the deck. Note that every hatch on this vehicle can be opened for display of the interior, but there is no engine or transmission provided.

The kit now includes the DS Plastic track runs which are most popular with modelers short on time or not interested in the time required to assemble single link Magic Track runs. DML does not indicate the proper length for these tracks as they do with their 1/72 "Armor Pro" line so there is no way to determine if they are short or long.

Final assembly again has a number of different modules combined into one final assembly - lower hull, fenders, engine deck, interior, gun, casemate, and tracks. Oddly enough, while the radios and antenna bases are supplied, there is still no comment made about antennas for them!

Input on this kit was provided by Minoru Igarashi, Tom Cockle and Gary Edmundson.

Two finishing options are provided which cover the two companies which used these vehicles: StuG.Abt.177, 1942 (grey with whitewash and crosses); Pz.Rgt. 201, 23rd Panzer Division, Eastern Front 1943 (tricolor large patches over sand - red G2). A small targeted sheet of Cartograf decals is provided.

Overall, while I had not heard any massive complaints about the first release of this model DML has provided a complete reboot of the kit.

Thanks to Freddie Leung for the review sample.

-Cookie Sewell-

6749: 15cm SturmInfanterieGeschutz 33

1/35 injection plastic kit with decals and photo etch From their experience during the blitzkrieg era and the then current experience in Stalingrad, the Germans realised that it was necessary for the infantry to have heavy armored support to destroy buildings and pillboxes without delay. The Sturm-InfantrieGeschutz 33 auf Pz III (s.IG 33) was the third AFV to mount the 15cm infantry gun, the previous chassis being the Panzer I and II.
Importantly it was the first design with a fully enclosed fighting compartment,a feature well suited to its debut in the deadly street-fighting of Stalingrad.
A total of 24 were built in October 42, using repaired chassis from StuG III Ausf F or earlier. All guns were deployed and lost in southern Russia.

The first dozen were supplied to 177 Sturmgeschutz Abteilung who used and lost the vehicles at Stalingrad. The second dozen were assigned to a Sturm-InfantrieGeschutz batterie (assault infantry gun company) attached to XVII Armee Korps, and later to Panzer Jager Abteilung (tank destroyer unit) 140 serving with the 22 Panzer division. When
this unit was disbanded in April 1943 after the heavy fighting near Kharkov, the remaining seven s.IG were incorporated into Panzer Regiment 201, 23 Panzer Division who lost its last vehicle in October 1943.

CONTENTS

This 2013 release is in the popular Smart Kit format. It features parts unique to the s.IG 33, such as the upper superstructure (casemate) and some upper hull parts. The lower hull and suspension are common with other Smart kit StuG III/Panzer III releases.
The interior of the kit includes the 150mm s.IG. 33 gun's mountings as was seen on the 2011 release 6714: s.IG. 33 auf Fgst.Pz.Kpfw. III (Sfl.).

This 2013 release includes the one piece Dragon Styrene Tracks to speed up assembly. These new 40cm tracks have open guide horns and no chevrons on the outer face, a profile which is accurate for the s.IG 33.

Photo etch includes the air intake grills, exhaust deflector, five parts for the fender supports, centres for the idler wheels, rear fender ends, the base for an aerial (optional), some detail on the gun cradle, and a shot deflector below the gun.

This gun barrel is turned metal with the crisp ridges and deeply hollowed out and subtly rifled muzzle from careful milling.

The gatefold instructions have 16 steps of line drawings that are clearly laid out, jsut remeber to check the errat insert. The few injection marks are placed so that they are hidden on the finished kit.. Clean up of this kit's part should be very quick and experience with related kits indicates it is rewarding to make and the parts fit together smoothly. As the s.IG 33 were produced before zimmerit was introduced, this kit lets you build a front line vehicle straight out of the box.

SUPERSTRUCTURE & FIGHTING COMPARTMENT

The bulky superstructure is slide-molded and has an integrated roof plate. You have the option of leaving the hatches open to display the detailed internal fighting compartment. The hatches have detail on both sides. The front plate of the superstructure is built from several plates, which reflects how the thick armor was built. The face plates have the bolt heads and weld marks where the plates were cut.. The shield which was coupled to the gun can be made to slide with the gun.. The fixed aerial base (PE option) and rod are both included.

This kit has a meaningful amount of interior detail which will meet most modelers' expectations. The 150mm gun has parts unique to the s.IG 33. The gun is quite detailed with the breech, sights (clear plastic parts), elevation mechanism, hand wheel, recuperator cylinders, and cradle with small detail and PE. The gun is designed to have positive alignment such as the use of angled joins to eliminate the problems of butt joins often seen on field guns. It is attached to a realistic mount which was built out of steel girders and plates to raise the gun above the floor, which has anti-skid plate, recessed handles for the access points and a transmission tunnel.
The rear firewall is included along with the commander's seat from a StuG. The forward MG34 has a workable ball mount and internal detail. Some modelers may want to add further detail such as 150mm rounds, gas mask canisters, small arms, most of which can be found in spares boxes.

HULL & ENGINE DECK

Typical of many s.IG 33, this kit has a hull with features of a StuG III Ausf F, such as the separate tow points on the front and east-west louvers on the slide molded engine deck which is unique to the s.IG 33. It also has the thick frontal armor which was bolted on during the conversion.

Like with other Dragon 1/35 Smart Kit StuG/Panzer III, the hull is very well designed. The lower hull is a one-piece tub with slide-molding used to provide detail such as weld seams on the bottom. The brake access hatches are separate and are the hinged design fitted to StuG III Ausf F. The suspension arms are separate and linked to the separate internal torsion bar suspension arms. The rear idlers have photo-etched rims and the road wheels have the tyre and rim as one piece.

Separate parts are provided for small detail such as the track tension adjusters, rear bump stop, exhaust deflector (PE), and starter port cover. Many of these parts are slide molded and the exhaust pipes have hollowed out ends.

The side fenders have an anti-skid pattern on the upper surface and underside and integrated front fenders. You need to drill some of the holes yourself using the guide recesses on the underside. The axe has the brackets and clamps cast on. The spare wheels are stored on the fenders. Personally I would add a bit of electrical wire to feed the Bosch headlight on a front fender as per a StuG III F.
For the tow cable stowed on the engine deck, you have a pair of cable pieces which have the closed clamps and guides integrated to give a realistic look for little stress. Alternatively it can be left off and other parts fitted to model the empty clamps and guides. The kit includes several plastic end eyes, which could be used with picture frame wire (not included) and hitched to say the front and rear tow points.
The engine deck is based on a slide molded frame and has separate parts for small detail like tie downs and the louvers over the vents on the hatches. Two large boxes, unique to the s.IG 33 are bolted over the engine deck. Photos show that these were basic metal boxes. The kit parts have the hinges nicely detailed and the boxes can be built with the lids open, giving you diorama options.

DECALS

The instructions profile the two different schemes seen in wartime photos. The decal sheet is from Cartograf.

The second scheme is from StuG Abt 177 at Stalingrad and is solid dark grey with Balkan Crosses. This is the gun in the box art and matches the two photos I have seen of a s.IG from that battle.

The first gun is red G2 from 23rd Panzer Division in 1943. It is painted dark yellow, with an overspray of green and brown and Balkan Crosses. Photos of this gun and other from the unit, show the crew wearing short sleeves and the terrain is dry and dusty and a lot of stowage including spare wheels.

RECOMMENDATION

Dragon's s.IG 33 auf Pz III has all the strengths of the Smart Kit format. The kit is accurate, crisply tooled and includes key interior detail. The new Dragon Styrene Tracks expand the appeal of a kit which lets you make a front line AFV out of the box. Definitely recommended.

-Neville Lord-