Since we did not get together at the end of November (my call) I thought of adding an additional piece of armor to our eventual Saving Private Ryan reenactment. I recalled a field gun besides the Tiger in the battle. A little movie research showed a Marder III that was acquired and used in SPR (it was a Marder III Ausf M, but more about that later). As soon as I opened up the box I knew it would a treat to build. Good detail and instructions showing the different schemes based on the war time period.
1944 - period correct for SPR.
The first thing I did was to paint the tracks on the sprue with black and a black/steel mix.
As I did with the Tiger I, sprayed two camo colors, Dark tan lightly over Sand (Testors Camo Colors).
I assembled the wheels/tracks and attached to the chassis too late at night! Major Boo-Boo! The next morning when I could not mount the top chassis platform is when I realized that I had "glued" the wheel assemblies on upside down😖 D'oh! Okay, don't panic, think! I slid the xacto blade and reached the pins that held pieces together (fortunately that were my only two glue points). I was able to slice through, turn the chassis over and re-glue with cyano. Crisis averted.
Armor plate assembly can now continue.
I love the gun detail. Six parts altogether (look close and see the two control wheels already attached - close up later). The only odd thing was that the gun was molded without the muzzle brake bored out. Oh well, drilled it out myself.
More armor plates attached - I love the rivets! Now its time to consider the crew.
Again, nice detail. The crew will be in the Field Gray uniforms.
Detail painting is done on the sprue for ease of handling. The uniforms will be painted after the bodies are put together.
Detail parts added - here you can see one of the gun adjustment wheels.
Here you can see the shells and casings laying on the bench (previously painted on the sprue).
Front details are added next - track, machine gun, tow hooks etc.
This is about the time my brother sent this pic from the movie as a molotov cocktail is tossed into the open cab - whoosh! This is why you don't enter close quarters with a long range tank destroyer. the point is Bob was asking whether I was going to number the Marder 102, as in the movie. I'm glad he caught that detail, but it presented a small challenge. The decals included did contain the red on white numbers but only 1s, 2s and 3s - no 0s.
It is here that I realized that this Marder III is different than my Marder III. The movie Marder III is a Ausf M, whereas my kit is a Ausf H, Oh well, let's see what we can do.
The decal numbers were paired, so I put on the 32, cut the 1 off of the 31 and added it in front. Now all I had to do was convert the 3 into a 0. ( got out my super fine tip brush and went to work on the white). Next a touch up of the dark tan. Also added are the Balken crosses.
So far, so good! the result comes later.
Here is the assembled and uniformed crew! 
Now for the final camo and weathering using my dark red mix dry brushed with a Q-Tip, plus the Tamiya Soot "makeup" - great stuff.
Here is a shot similar to the movie still that Bob sent. You can clearly see that the red has been filled in on the number "0".
Now we add the commander and she is ready to roll with her companion Tiger 1.
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