Panzer III Ausf. M (Early Production) from 5th Army in Tunisia

The Panzer III Ausf. M. from 504 Heavy Abt. was on his way to Schott position in Mar. 1943. Notice the machine gun on the edge of cupola.

(I am not 100% sure about the version of this Panzer III, whether it is a type L Pz. III or type M? I can hardly make a judgement because of those branches and leaves on the upper structure/turret.)

Another Panzer III Ausf. M of 504 Heavy Abt. was on the cargo ship.

Again, I am not guarantee whether this photo was taken in Sicily Italy or Bizerte port of Tunisia, but we can clearly see the wading muffler of exhausted pipe on left side of rear hull, wading muffler is one of the special characteristics for type M Panzer III.

Another potential concern is this Panzer III Ausf. M might affiliate to 2 Kompany of 504 Abt. if photo above was taken in Sicily island. As we know the 2 Kp. of 504 Abt. had no chance to be sent to North Africa and they stayed in Sicily unitl allied forces launched in later 1943.

The Panzer III Ausf. M with tactical NO. 102 in above photo which affiliated to 504 Heavy Abt., it was one of the command vehicles of 504 Abt. and destroyed by British troops in late stage of African campaign. Its wreck was collected and sent back to Britain.

The body of this Pz. III M has been repaired and delivered back to a German museum in 1986.

The same Pz. III M from previous photo.

Because of some hatches and road wheels were felled off, I guessed this picture was taken after the Pz. III M had been captured and transported by British army.

We can see those engine decks for early production Pz. III M are not fully identical to type J (either early or late version), L and early N version's. However, they are exactly the same as engine decks on late production Pz. III M which equipped in battle of Kursk, 1943.

A Panzer III Ausf. M from 10 Pz. Div. was followed by two late production Pz. III Ausf. J’s.

We can quickly identify the differences between M and late J version based on their headlights (Bosch lights were applied for M version, while Notek light was used by J & L versions) and observation port on the right front side of turret (loader’s vision port on front of turret was eliminated for M version).

By the way, the crewmen of Pz. III M were still worn the European style’s uniforms.

A destroyed Pz. III M in Tunisia.

Here we can see the 2 Bosch headlights and cover of air intake for Pz. III M. According the single digit & painting style of tactical number, I highly believe this Pz III was belong to 15 Pz. Div. of 5th Army.

The wreck of Pz. III M and the rubber of road wheels were still burning (Not sure if this photo was taken in Tunisia. It is very likely that the photo was taken in Sicily or southern Italy based on the background industrial environment in the photo).

The same wreck from another shotting angle. Notice the wading muffler on the rear hull.

The wreck of Pz. III M was surpassed by a M3 Grant Lee.

One of the paints reveals that Early Production Tiger I and Pz. III M from 504 Abt. cooperated with each other at late stage of African campaign.

(I assume those Pz. III are type M and some references do show that Pz. III M were equipped by 504 Abt. in early 1943)

Project starts at this moment ～～～

The lower hull, body and turret are components of Dragon 9113 FlamePanzer.

The FlamePanzer IIIs which equipped by German in Kursk and Italy were actually modified from Panzer III Ausf. M. The structure of FlamePanzer III were probably late version of Pz. III M. The Pz. III M served for 5th Army in Tunisia should be early version, however, I believe the 2 versions of Pz. III are quite similar except for the side skirt armor.

The Bosch headlights, engine decks for Pz. III M, covers of air-intakes and rear hull are spare components from Academy 13531.

Again, I want to say that Academy 13531 is really a generous and lovely kit. It not only offers required components for Pz. III J (Early/Late Production), but also provides all parts that necessary for L, M, N versions and even StuG/StuH. It is really a nice kit for those Pz. III lovers to make modifications.

The plastic sprue of 9000 series Dragon is not that good. A few of plastic parts are little bit soft and crispy.

As I mentioned, I cut the original rear hull of Dragon and use the component from Academy 13531 as substitution.

Honestly speaking, I do not really know the features of early version engine decks for Pz. III M. Maybe the engine decks for early M version are identical to version L.

The turret is coming ～～～

3D printed smoke candles which from RFM were all used up.

Hmm… I should find a spare antenna from Dragon 6000 series. No antenna was available in Dragon’s 9000 series.

The 2 case racks for spare road wheels are from TAKOM 8004 (StuG III).

The barrel is again from Academy 13531, it is pretty sharp and clean.

Extra armor of manlet ～～～ Academy provides 3 different manlets with corresponding extra armor plates for modelers.

This time I used XF-90 Dark Brown as the primer.

The chipping color will be again XF-9 that covers on primer. I am not going to take any photo when I airbrush the chipping color, because of the operation process is exactly the same as any of my previous project.

The top coat and camo have been airbrushed ～～～

The color of top coat was made by myself, it was the mixture of Tamiya XF-15 and XF-90. I am trying to show the brown and light yellow color that applied by 15 Pz. Div. in Mar. 1943.

The camo was XF-49 Khaki. Maybe I should use XF-57 as camo for late stage of Afrika campaign. The dark Khaki color is usually applied to DAK in 1942.

Wading muffler will be painted separately ～～～

The decal of Iron cross and tactical No. 7 were from Academy. I am not very sure if the style of tactical NO. matches with late stage 15 Pz. Div. in Tunisia.

All the tools such as the fire-extinguisher, crowbar, axe and shovel from the original kit were either broken or had a lot of fleshes, so I have replaced them all by using the remaining parts from Dragon smart kits.

After so many operations on airbrushing, I think I probably figure out the formulas of Tamiya’s new DAK colors (XF-92 & XF-93).

These 2 new colors can be generated by mixing XF-15 and XF-64/90 together.

The XF-92 which is the Tamiya’s RAL8000 can be made if we mix XF-15 and XF-64 together, the ratio between two colors are approximately 60% to 40%.

Note that if you prefer darker RAL8000, then add more XF-64 (upper limit is 45%) and vice versa. Pay attention that XF-64 can be substituted by XF-90, but XF-90 is a little bit darker than XF-64, so DO NOT add more than 40% of XF-90 in real practices, otherwise, the mixture will be red brown but not dark yellow brown.

This Pz. I A is brushed by new XF-92.

The Pz. III M I am currently working on is painted by mixture of XF-15 and XF-90. I am trying to use the mixture to simulate XF-92.

I think the brown level of XF-92 is a little bit darker and the mixture is like the coffee color. I do not know which of them is much closer to RAL8000, maybe nobody knows except for the crews of DAK ～～～

The XF-93 which implies the RAL 8020 can also be generated by mixing XF-15 and XF-64/90.

The ratio between XF-15 and XF-64 is around 70% to 30% (or 5:2). Again, if you prefer lighter brown, then increase the amount of XF-15 (upper limit is 75%). The XF-64 should be less than 30% and if you use XF-90 instead of XF-64, then the amount of XF-90 in mixture should be less than 20%-25%.

This Pz. III N was painted by new XF-93.

The renovated Pz. III H was brushed by mixture (XF-15 & XF-90).

It seems that color of mixture is much darker compare to single color of XF-93.

Last major activity will be the track assembly ～～～

The magic track can be considered as the only advantage for Dragon 9113 (Orange box), rest of parts are 100% identical to Dragon 9017 (9000 series Red box).

As most of Dragon’s Red and Orange box kits were produced number of years ago, the plastic parts and decal would be easy cracked or broken due to the aging problem.

The wading muffler of exhausted pipe is installed; one of the special features for Pz. III Ausf. M and late version N.

The S-hook and lifting-jack are settled.

I usually paint the tools separately and glue them on fenders after I finish airbrushing the whole vehicle.

However, it is pretty tough to fix these tools on fenders after airbrushing all the stuffs. Sometime in the past, I have tried to glue them on fenders before airbrushing, but the problem became even more difficult; I could only paint them by using a fine brush and the chipping & weathering issues would be unbelievable hard for me.

Hope I can finish all the tracks in tomorrow.

Project is done ～～～

The Magic Track of Dragon has the supreme quality compare with TAKOM and Border.

The spare antenna is from Dragon 6792 ～～～

7 indicates the Kompany NO. and the style of single digit tactical NO. was frequently applied by 15 Pz. Div.. Actually I did not find any direct evidence to support that Pz. III M was equipped by 15 Pz. Div. or 1 Kp. of 504 Abt.; the only photo I have is a Pz. III M in Tunisia with tactical NO. 6, so I infer that Pz. III M might also be equipped by 7 Kp., however, I cannot figure out which organization they came from.

Moreover, I believe the total quantity of Pz. III M in North Africa was pretty low if they have been served in Tunisia. The HQ of German Army initially placed order for 1,000 Pz. III M, but only 250 have been produced in the end [1/4 of order was canceled due to the lack of resources in building Panther & Tiger and a lot of Ms were modified to StuG (165), FlamePanzer (100), and version N (213)]. Most of Pz. III M did show up in Sicily Island (49) and Kursk, so there was very few of Pz III M left that could be showed up in Tunisia.

Another assumption of mine is the Pz. III M have never been to North Africa, they stayed at Sicily and waited to be sent to Tunisia (2 Kp. of 504 Abt.), unfortunately, the 5th army surrendered to Allied forces in early May 1943, so they did not have chances to ‘travel’ to Tunisia. All the backup supplies on Sicily Island were then distributed to Hermann Goring Div., 15 Pz. Gren. Div. and 2 Kp. of 504 Abt..

The Pz. III Ausf. M from 15 Pz. Div. of 5th Army in Tunisia 1943.

The 21 Pz. Div. was dismissed in late 1942 after DAK retreated from Egypt to Tunisia, the new launched 10 Pz. Div. and prior 15 Pz. Div. have merged to 5th Army. In other words, formation of DAK was no longer existed after second battle of El Alamein.

So far I have collected version H, J (late production with spaced armor), M and N of Panzer III from North Afrika campaign.

The last Pz. III I am going to build will be version F from 5 Leichter Div. in mid of 1941.

An easy diorama was completed.

Materials which I have used to make this diorama: Fine sand, dust and small rocks from community’s park, clusters of static grass, PVA glue and tap water.