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SU-76i Wehrmacht

Previously, Francesco Giovagnorio already previewed the three releases of the SU-76i by Attack and built one of them.
In this construction review we focus on a SU-76i captured and used by the Wehrmacht. (This means that the Panzer III chassis was first captured by the Russians and after conversion was re-captured by the Germans).

Based on the kit and the few available pictures, the vehicle was based on a PzKpfw III Ausf. J/Tp hull from the August-November 1941 production batch.

Construction

The comments in Francesco review almost universally hold for this kit as well, as they are very similar. Some points to which I would like to draw attention:

• The alignment of the lower hull alignment needs care. In some areas some plasticard is needed to avoid gaps between the components.
  
  
• The towing holes in the forward hull extensions need to be drilled out.
• Two pins were added to the rear towing shackles. They were made from copper wire.
• The kit offers a mix of early and late shock absorbers; one shown is apparently shown upside down in the instructions ?
• The roadwheels not perfectly centered. The drive sprockets, idler, return rollers and roadwheels have a very weak connection to the hull. The rubber on the roadwheel is molded with a visible bevel when viewed head on. I decided to add some wear and tear to hide it as best as I could. The way I built the kit, the return rollers are actually glued to the tracks and not to the hull.
• Attack didn't forget that the roadwheels on the left and right side of the Panzer III were slightly staggered (due to the use of a torsion bar suspension).
• The tracks are provided as four long stretches and four pre-bent resin parts for the idler and drive sprocket. The latter don't conform perfectly to the idler and drive sprocket without some sanding and cutting. The long ends are ok, but the top run needs to be shortened.
• The exhausts are molded with a convincing open end, but the mufflers have some sink marks. The exhaust deflector (part 47) is needed for this version, but marked optional in the instructions. I noticed too late that the cut out at the bottom was smaller than that seen on the real vehicle.
• There are no location indicators (holes/pegs) on the rear plate for the towing eyes, idler mounts and mufflers.
• The instructions don't tell you that the deflector ring for the turret and two small pegs that are normally just behind the turret need to be removed to accept the new superstructure.
• I sanded down the reinforcement strips between the new fighting compartment and the standard Pz III hull, and added new ones from strips of plasticard, as I failed to get the joint right.
  
  
  
• There is no mesh for the lateral engine grilles. I took mine from Voyager (set 72028). As the vehicle had a tumultuous career, I heavily damaged the PE parts to show the abuse.
• The spare roadwheels that are supposed to go on the rear fenders fitted badly. A retaining bolt was added.
• The stowage on the fenders is completely different between the kit and the real vehicle. Furthermore, most of the tools need to be removed to fit the boxes on the fenders, leaving areas with badly damaged anti-slip plates. I added fictional extra stowage to hide the damage. The trapezoidal box on the fenders are lower in the pictures, compared to the kit parts.
• The bolts on the fenders are very prominent and slightly sanded down.
• Unless major surgery is your thing, all crew hatches will be difficult to open.
• The gun mantlet went together very badly and I ended up completely rebuilding it. The gun shield was thinned down. It seems different configurations of the mantlet existed. (Compare the half cylindrical version see here with this version or this version.)
• Lifting eyes (from copper wire) were added to the superstructure.
• I lost the periscope (on top of the fighting compartment) and did my best trying to create a new one from scratch.
• The kits comes with many spare parts, some of which could be used to convert a T-34 into a Beute version
• My instructions didn't show all the parts or how to use them, and a part of a diagram didn't get printed. Part numbers are only mentioned in the instructions, not on the sprues.
• Parts that are not mentioned in the instructions, but are needed to represent the vehicle in the pictures are
  • 2 antennas and their mounts. These were scratchbuilt.
  • Spare tracks for the glacis. These were taken from a Revell kit.

Something that is not immediately obvious is that the driver's visor on the SU-76i was moved outwards with respect to the ordinary Panzer III.
(Compare the SU-76i with the Panzer III and pay attention to the deflector strip in front of the visor. Another good illustration can be found here.)

Based on the available pictures, there might have been at least two vehicles (re-)captured by the Wehrmacht (which is the hypothesis that the instructions in the kit accept) or the pictures might show the same vehicle in different stages of its operational life.
Whatever is the case, I painted mine as the vehicle seen here, but with a heavily worn whitewash. The decals for this option seem to be pure black, while the picture clearly shows a white edge. For that reason I replaced the kit decals with some from the spares box.

For the figures, I chose AB figures that closely resembled the crew seen here.

Preview sample provided by Attack.

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Article Last Updated:
15 December 2019