Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. L (190 Pz. Abt. in Tunisia)

Two of Pz. III L’s from 190 Pz. Abt. in Tunisia.

The photo was probably taken in Nov./Dec. 1942 when group of Pz. III’s from190 Pz. Abt. reinforced 501 s.Abt. in an operation. 

In this photo, we could see the 3rd Pz. III L in group. Unlike the first two Pz. III’s in previous photo, the 3rd one seemed to be painted in RAL8020 as its cover coat was a little bit brighter than the first two vehicles. 

Refer to this photo, we could clearly identify some details of the Pz. III L from 190 Abt. (first Pz. III in this group).

It had pretty darker cover coat, so it should be painted in RAL8000. A lot of spare road wheels were placed on both sides of fenders. The tactical NO. for this vehicle was likely to be 312. More interestingly, the smoke launchers were installed on edges of turret, it was not very common feature for version L, because most of Pz. III J & L’s chose to install their smoke discharges at the rear of vehicle. 

The group of Pz. III L’s from 190 Abt. and we could see all 3 vehicles from this photo. 

On the right bottom of photo, we find one of Pz. III L’s captured by U.S. army and it was transported back to New York harbor in May/June 1943 after Axis surrendered in Tunisia.

We can see its tactical NO. was 822 and it also had smoke discharges on turret. No information for the affiliation of this Pz. III, but I guess it was one of members from 21st Pz. Div., because the printing style of its tactical NO. was not same as 10th, 15th Pz. Div. or 190th, 504t Abt..  

Start to build ~~~ 

The smoke launchers were spare parts from Dragon; the extra road wheels and jerrycans were bought from a secondary market, they were the products of Bronco and Border. 

I also chose to add some Dragon’s clear parts to the cupola and driver’s front vision port. Actually they could fit with old Tamiya kits pretty well.