Stug III F8 HG Div.

Hunter Cummins
Me like alot 😄

H K
Thanks 🙂

Fabian D.
What´s that cage on the gunsight? a special feature of Hermans StuGs?

John Van Kooten
The cage on the gun sight is an extra measure of protection. Those cages were fitted starting from January 1943 on all StuG's. It was not so much to protect the scope itself but to prevent enemy soldiers from lobbing grenades / other explosive devices into the relatively large opening for the gun sight.

This is a REALLY nice kit btw! Well done so far, Herb! 👍

John Van Kooten
Actually, to be completely exact, starting from January 1943 extra armor was added to the plating of the gun sight, making the hole smaller. And the cage was another addition to that improvement.

And when I say "fitted on all StuG's", I mean, optionally. Not all StuG's had this cage fitted. In fact, I think it may even be hard to find photo's of StuG's that actually DO have them fitted 😛

Gábor Bélik
Following.

Christian Meyerhoff
On my to do list as well. Will follow with interest.

H K
Regarding the cage, I have one photo of Stug Nr. 35 with the cage and one without. The pictures from the fighting on Sicily show other Stugs without it. At first I thought I leave it off, but the plastic part is really nice, so I added it ( PE version is also included btw. but you have to bend it yourself)
PS: Reference pictures for the fighting on Sicily are hard to find. I have Concord`s " Panzers in Italy 1943- 1945" ( only a few photos) and luckily Firefly Collection Nr. 3 " Fortress- German Armour in the defence of Sicily"