borealis

Just received my HL Panzer III from Germany (ebay, 72 € plus shipping).

Very First impressions:

- better decals (now they are not simple stickers: put them on the model, wait 15 minutes then remove the carrying transparent film)
- stinging gun! I put my hand before the muzzle and the bb hit me like the VS gun I mounted on the Tiger. Probably due to the short barrel, anyway nice.
- track pins seem to be a bit loose: they are very short due to the smaller tracks and maybe it's better to fix them with a shadow of glue
- same crap commander than the tiger, will need some modelling to make him hang at the smaller cupola.

Tomorrow I will run it outside and test it on rough terrain.

pattoncommander

Do they have the improved brass gun tube yet?
Bill

karma99

I have the same experience with loose track pins on mine, definately going to need some fixative in the future. Mine starts it's rebuild tomorrow so I'm sure I have plenty more fun/shocks in store!
Must admit, I hadn't looked at the decals that closely yet, I assumed they were the same as the Tiger's.

And yeah, that commander needs help! Fortunately his arms twist off easily and with some glue and modelling putty you can improve him a lot. I REALLY wish they'd lay off that bright pink skin paint though. I've undercoated mine anyway, but for someone who wants to just drop him in the turret and play I'm sure plain green is preferable!

shadopilot

I havent looked at any photos close up yet. Is it an ACCURATE Panzer III L ?? or will it need tons of rework to get it right.

karma99

Off the top of my head.. the rear bin is too big (to accomodate the BB mechanism), the barrel is too wide (too fit the BB's down), the aerial's in the wrong place despite the correct mounting being modelled on the side, smoke switch is on the side in between the tracks and needs moving and hiding, and the exhaust pipes are solid and the smoke just comes out from somewhere vaguely at the back which isn't too hard a fix either.
It's not perfect, but I think it's HL's best effort at modelling to date.

borealis

I still have to make confrontations with my books about the panzer III ausf. L
We already know that due to the gun requirements, the storage bin and the barrel are larger than scale: scale parts which require to abandon the shooting features are already availabre, but that's your choice.
Tomorrow I will start confronting the tank with the pictures, but there are many Pz III versions out there, so you need to check carefully.

ksoc

Were any of the Non-AirSoft items corrected on the Mato version of the Panzer III?

Thanks

Kevin O
<S.C.A.T.>

shadopilot

I would buy one right now on Ebay because of Paypal protection but the only Panzer III seller has 1 feedback and its for something he bought. I'm leery to buy until another seller pops up with more positive feedback. They will flood Ebay just like the other Heng Longs tanks did. I bought 2 Tigers, 2 Pershings, 1 T-34 and 1 Leopard so far on Ebay. They all were near perfect. Only one Tiger blew a board after a few days from me running it too hard in grass, dirt ,etc. ( It was my first one and I had to much fun!)

karma99

They all come the same from what I've seen of mine (Mato) compared to all the pics of them elsewhere. Probably a bit early for Mato to have their own "Super" version with specific improvements.

borealis

I have found a major change to do on the panzer III but maybe some models will come out correct and some not: in my tank I will have to rotate both turret side hatches 180°. They are not molded tho, so it should be easy enough.
Since I have seen pictures of the rc tank with correctly positioned hatches, could be just mine wrong, or random assembling.

Another minor detail are a couple of holes on the side of the mantlet: in the model those holes are too big and positioned a bit low. Maybe it's something due to assembling reasons, nothing annoying.