Hobby Boss Military 1/35 Strumpanzer VI Sd.Kfz.166 Kit

Former Trident Kit

After success of 15cm Sturm-Infanteriegeschutz 33 on Stalingrad, Panzer IV chassis was developed as next Sturmpanzer to provide direct infantry fire support, especially in urban area.

The Sturmpanzer IV had fixed armored superstructure housing the StuH 43 L/12 gun. This the StuH 43 developed from the best developed Sig 33 15cm infantry gun. It can fire both high explosive and shaped charge rounds. The high gross weight, recoil force of the StuH 43 gun firing, massive armored structure overloaded the Panzer IV chassis and made the entire vehicle overweight and inclined to front. The Sturmpanzer IV often suffered from transmission failures and were underpowered.

The Sturmpanzer IV's superstructure and StuH 43 gun was modified successively to fix flaws that based upon on frontline reports and comments. Therefore, the Sturmpanzer IV had many variations. Production began in May 1943 and continued until March 1945. More than two hundred Sturmpanzer IVs were built in different variations. The first variation rebuilt by Panzer IV ausf.D, ausf.E and ausf.F chassis. All of them are coming from frontlines for After battle repairing. The Sturnpanzer IV saw action in the Eastern Front and rashly joined battle ofKursk. On the Western Front, they were issuedItalytheatre and joined the German final offensive-Battle of Bulge.