Very cool kit with many options from the box. Long or short barrel, with or without Vorpanzer, early and later style tropical engine deck + some hints of things to come ie. deep wading muffler for M/ N variant, all steel return rollers for late Stug III G.
As a modeler who's never built an Academy kit, this video really impressed me. This model looks like a huge step up from the last academy model I handled. If I can find this at a significantly cheaper price than the Takom offering, I'll definitely be getting it.
This looks a nice and tidy offering from Academy. WWII is my favourite period with German Armour at the top spot. The Panzer III in all variants is my particular addiction. This will be on my Xmas list. Thanks Andy.
You asked for our favorite era of armor modeling? Mine is undoubtedly Cold War, NATO vs. Warsaw Pact. I can't get enough of that era, whether armor, aircraft, or ships.
I love doing North Africa tanks as well they are very enjoyable to paints. My newest kit I have is a 1/35 trumpeter sturer Emil which I got for around 35$ 🇨🇦cad including It is nice quality. The only turn off for some modeller a big plastic gun barrel.
Academy's is pretty good too, and was a bargain when it released. Not so much now. From memory Tamiya's is a mid or late. Academy also do an early as well as their late. I have both. They do build nicely out of the box, but both benefit from PE. I used Artwox on my late. No internals, so only small crew hatches open if filled with Commander etc.
It might be helpful one day to give a little explanation of how the molds are made and the decisions the model makers have to make to enhance detail vs. ease of construction. Sometimes I scratch my head asking why they did it that way. The bathtub hull vs. panels always makes me wonder.
Panzer 3 towing cable thing is most likely due to their shape. They would be very hard to get into the right shape if they were made of string or metal.
In answer to your question, about favourite armour kits, I have only built a Hobby Boss KV-1. That was to get some xp before I attempt to build a collection of various eras Canadian armour. Mostly, Shermans, Centurions and Leopards for now.
Hi Andy, this qas a excellent review, I may even be 'forced' to get it when it comex out in Australia, buf my main armour interest is for modern armour, stay safe and keep well best regards from Australia
Academy is such an underrated model maker. Seriously in between Tamiya and Dragon on most of their stuff and usually competitively priced with the former.
@PanzerandCoffee I did the Abrams and was blown away by the quality. Especially when considering it's about $20 cheaper than the Tamiya. I haven't done much modern armor but that K2 looks sweet.
Reality check required. Academy new mould and boxing vs Tamiya new mould and boxing? Academy have made one or perhaps even two armour kits worth consideration on price when their price point was half that of Tamiya, but Academy kits really aren't even in the same race as Tamiya, let alone better than them. Not a fanboy, just not emotional about fact. And Academy have become uppity with their price points. Zvezda new moulds are on par to better to Academy, but for less. At least with their Ferdinand and Elefant kit,s Zvezda got the respective model tracks right included in each box.
@@theblytonian3906 Nah sorry buddy you're definitely a fanboy. Academy runs 10-20 dollars cheaper and almost always include photo-etch and link and length tracks. I understand the increased difficulty may turn some people to Tamiya but Academy is superior. Also 80% of their kits aren't decades old. Their new m4 vs Tamiya's m4... Tamiya may as well be a Monogram lol. Especially considering the 20$ difference.
@@SCM223Prescription glasses and psych eval required methinks. Clearly the fanboy is on the other foot here with your hero worshipping of Academy. Get some perspective. You're comparing an ancient mould Tamiya kit with a new Tamiya mould as balanced eval? ROFL. Link and length I'll grant, but Zvezda, Trumpeter, Border et al are doing that today, and as well if not better than Academy -for less. PE in Academy kits if any is token. A part, two if being generous. And only in kits from circa 2012 beginning with their Hetzer. I build Dragon in armour mainly, so its not about the cleverness of Tamiya's design simplicity. For the now paltry price difference, Academy aren't worth the compromise most of their kits are. And they do have a pretty dreadful back catalogue. Their tawdy looking gossy box art and flimsy boxes with gumby instructions must really appeal to you for some unfathomable reason? It can't be the plastic. o.O
Hi Andy great review never built a academy kit but I do like this one looks coòl also like Afrika corps and British 8th army western desert be safe buddy. All the best Gary from the UK.
Well I must say I'm surprised and hope they have got things correct as we need more panzer 3s out new molds! I have borders new panzer 4 Ausf J last production but Academy have a bad rep on getting detail wrong so hopefully this kit restores that reputation for them! Does anyone remember there dreadful Tiger haha!
Hi Andy, grerat review of the new Panzer III. My main armour interest is german WWII but also Bundeswehr, sometimes i like US armour too. Stay safe, greets from Germany
For now, most of models what I have built is modern armor and modern gun platforms. But looking at this and other kits I have an small itch for WWII era armor
Excellent preview of this great kit!!! Afrika Korp!!! Excellent Andy , this looks really sweet. Will have to have this kit to collection , very nice , you going to build and paint it as well? My fav genre is US WW II Armor close second German Armor then 3rd Soviet Great video Andy love that Armor , N Africa colors and type Go Andy!!!!!
I bought the takom kit (as well as the Stug), so I'm all good for panzer IIIs. This looks good though. Great review as always. Now, somebody please make me an injection moulded kit of an A11 matilda please. with link and length track.
Hi everybody, forgive the unrelated topics, but I’ve been searching for WWII 1/35 scale warplanes and so far haven’t found any, if you gentleman can direct me to links where I can find it, I’ll be eternally grateful, thanks in advance and once again sorry for the inconvenience.
Hey there Andy, I'm surprised that not a lot of well known UA-camrs in the scale modeling community aren't talking a lot about AK Interactive's new controversial weathering book titled "Condemnation" The whole thing is just shocking, nobody asked for it but most importantly they used real footage of the holocaust and other genocides to market their weathering products. Would you consider making a video about this topic and voicing out your opinion on it? I believe it's a very important subject to talk about because other major hobby/modeling channels would pick up on it. Please consider it, more people in the community need to know.
I haven’t done much in the way of armour as I’m more into fantasy but I’ve loved the WW1 stuff I’ve done as I love the crudeness of the appearance compared to later tanks.
Academy used to be *the* cheap compromise. First armour kit I remember which was still well priced but a cut above rivalling others out there was their initial 1/35 38(t) late Hetzer released sometime around mid 2012 if I recall accurately. Academy armour moulds & kits are improving, but they're coincidentally getting disproportionately dearer with it. Zvezda have since taken that affordable armour model crown, but done it better with less compromise than older Academy did, at least in terms of detail and fidelity. For the modest difference in price now between Academy and Tamiya, I'd rather buy Tamiya. With Takom and Border Models making a splash around the same price point, Academy really need to bring their A game. Good to see their Ausf J kit gun barrels are slide moulded and moulded moulded tow cables provided. Guessing they've done the Ausf J as it was the most produced whose time period lends itself to both North African and Soviet Union theatre options. But then why the decal choice of North Africa only? Why not both? Unless the promise of an Afrika Korps scheme (boxart) just outsells everything else? Smelling an obvious Eastern Front version reboxing coming next. Colour coded dumby friendly instructions? Meh. Regardless, I've always found with Academy kits one needs to double check everything as their technical writers don't and proof reading doesn't feature in their production process.
I only have a few Academy kits. The Hetzer is one of them and still sealed. I did get their latest Tiger A. Yes their price has gone up. Here Zvezda is distributed by the same importer that distributes Tamiya and some of the larger kits are expensive; prices I would not pay for Zvezda. The dollar change rate is one thing but in Canada we seem to have distributors changing a lot. Dragon now comes from the USA, we had 2 previous importers. Same for Italeri, we are on our third importer. Revell has gone thru several changes. Airfix is now in the hands of the Tamiya importer.
@@garfieldsmith332 A problem when one regional distro is effectively a brand cartel and can manipulate the market. In my neck of the woods, for those not to lazy to use a search engine, Zvezda can be had locally at competitive pricing as I mentioned. FWIW, if your local pricing on Zvezda kits sucks, there are some *reliable* dealers in Lithuania and Russia who ship internationally at super competitive prices inc shipping. They're on eBay and have been for an aeon. I've bought half a dozen kits from them, and I'm a lot further away than the US with a currency in worse state than the CAD. Trumpeter are competitively priced where I live too. My local Tamiya pricing is fair I think, but Dragon has reached a new zenith and Airfix locally, ROFL, is beyond a joke. Revell sit pretty much around the Airfix price now. Must be the same distro I think. Italeri? Not much Italeri I'd buy, but what I would is so overpriced my $$$ would go elsewhere.
@@theblytonian3906 I agree you have to shop around. I am in a small city and few hobby shops so I need to shop around. Bigger cities more competition and better prices. Some items we can bring into Canada with no problems. I can get CDs and DVDs, books. However occasionally customs will stop a package and apply duties and taxes. In fact our tax laws state that anything ordered by mail from other countries is subject to tax at the Canadian price. Where I live it is 13%. A fellow modeler in the east got hit with taxes, plus import duties on some model kits he bought. And he also got hit with a brokerage tax. Cost more in fees and taxes than the kit itself. Still I have ordered modeling stuff and have not had to pay any duties or taxes so far. Another factor here is the volume. The number of modelers in Canada is small compared to the USA or Europe, so pricing is higher. Thanks for your advice and I will check out the dealers in Lithuania and Russia. I had some model supplies from Poland and the price was good, and a friend of mine has found excellent prices with DVDs in Russia, so I will search out a little more. Regards to you and take care.
Hopefully they didn't screw up, like they did on the M10, M3 Lee, Stuart, M7, and Sherridan...not to mention ANY 1/35 figure they ever produced, since they almost look like anime.
@@joeshmoe9978 well.....the new Zvezda kits are good too. I've built their T-34)76, T-34/85, SU-85 and SU-100. Great kits. Don't write off Academy.....they are a premium manufacturer.
Very cool kit with many options from the box. Long or short barrel, with or without Vorpanzer, early and later style tropical engine deck + some hints of things to come ie. deep wading muffler for M/ N variant, all steel return rollers for late Stug III G.
As a modeler who's never built an Academy kit, this video really impressed me. This model looks like a huge step up from the last academy model I handled. If I can find this at a significantly cheaper price than the Takom offering, I'll definitely be getting it.
I stoped modeling a few years back and andy got me back into it so thanks man!
This looks a nice and tidy offering from Academy. WWII is my favourite period with German Armour at the top spot. The Panzer III in all variants is my particular addiction. This will be on my Xmas list. Thanks Andy.
You asked for our favorite era of armor modeling? Mine is undoubtedly Cold War, NATO vs. Warsaw Pact. I can't get enough of that era, whether armor, aircraft, or ships.
Thanks for showing the tank it was very well detailed in tan cullers I have seen some amazing tank models in my time.
I like Academy kits....they have stepped up their game.
Excellent kit. I enjoyed the Academy Tiger 1 Exterior, and even with rubber tracks it came out well. I will definitely be making this one.
I love doing North Africa tanks as well they are very enjoyable to paints.
My newest kit I have is a 1/35 trumpeter sturer Emil which I got for around 35$ 🇨🇦cad including
It is nice quality. The only turn off for some modeller a big plastic gun barrel.
German armor is my fav. I'm working on the Tamiya Hetzer and it's an amazing kit to put together.
Academy's is pretty good too, and was a bargain when it released. Not so much now. From memory Tamiya's is a mid or late. Academy also do an early as well as their late. I have both. They do build nicely out of the box, but both benefit from PE. I used Artwox on my late. No internals, so only small crew hatches open if filled with Commander etc.
It might be helpful one day to give a little explanation of how the molds are made and the decisions the model makers have to make to enhance detail vs. ease of construction. Sometimes I scratch my head asking why they did it that way. The bathtub hull vs. panels always makes me wonder.
Panzer 3 towing cable thing is most likely due to their shape. They would be very hard to get into the right shape if they were made of string or metal.
アカデミー、ドラゴン、タミヤ。皆いいね！3号戦車のキットは沢山作ってなつかしい❤️
Can’t wait to see you make this one
Great vid. Keep up the good work! I need RFMs future Panzer 3 J with full interior
In answer to your question, about favourite armour kits, I have only built a Hobby Boss KV-1. That was to get some xp before I attempt to build a collection of various eras Canadian armour. Mostly, Shermans, Centurions and Leopards for now.
Hi Andy, this qas a excellent review, I may even be 'forced' to get it when it comex out in Australia, buf my main armour interest is for modern armour, stay safe and keep well best regards from Australia
Academy is such an underrated model maker. Seriously in between Tamiya and Dragon on most of their stuff and usually competitively priced with the former.
@PanzerandCoffee I did the Abrams and was blown away by the quality. Especially when considering it's about $20 cheaper than the Tamiya. I haven't done much modern armor but that K2 looks sweet.
They get better with ever new release, like the latest style instructions
Reality check required. Academy new mould and boxing vs Tamiya new mould and boxing? Academy have made one or perhaps even two armour kits worth consideration on price when their price point was half that of Tamiya, but Academy kits really aren't even in the same race as Tamiya, let alone better than them. Not a fanboy, just not emotional about fact. And Academy have become uppity with their price points. Zvezda new moulds are on par to better to Academy, but for less. At least with their Ferdinand and Elefant kit,s Zvezda got the respective model tracks right included in each box.
@@theblytonian3906 Nah sorry buddy you're definitely a fanboy. Academy runs 10-20 dollars cheaper and almost always include photo-etch and link and length tracks. I understand the increased difficulty may turn some people to Tamiya but Academy is superior. Also 80% of their kits aren't decades old. Their new m4 vs Tamiya's m4... Tamiya may as well be a Monogram lol. Especially considering the 20$ difference.
@@SCM223Prescription glasses and psych eval required methinks. Clearly the fanboy is on the other foot here with your hero worshipping of Academy. Get some perspective. You're comparing an ancient mould Tamiya kit with a new Tamiya mould as balanced eval? ROFL. Link and length I'll grant, but Zvezda, Trumpeter, Border et al are doing that today, and as well if not better than Academy -for less. PE in Academy kits if any is token. A part, two if being generous. And only in kits from circa 2012 beginning with their Hetzer. I build Dragon in armour mainly, so its not about the cleverness of Tamiya's design simplicity. For the now paltry price difference, Academy aren't worth the compromise most of their kits are. And they do have a pretty dreadful back catalogue. Their tawdy looking gossy box art and flimsy boxes with gumby instructions must really appeal to you for some unfathomable reason? It can't be the plastic. o.O
Hi Andy great review never built a academy kit but I do like this one looks coòl also like Afrika corps and British 8th army western desert be safe buddy. All the best Gary from the UK.
Great set from the Academy. The quality is growing. Well done. As they say-you need to take!
Looks to be a well designed and molded kit. Looking forward to your build video(s)
Thanks for this. My first look at what you do and I'm really impressed.
I'm into tank destroyers. Cables are molded because of the way they are stowed on the tank. Beautiful kit and instructions.
My favourite kits is the stug and the panthers tanks I just love the stug this looks like a nice kit
Love North African world war II theater. Most of my models are related to this area.
I'm surprised how Academy instruction manuals have changed
Especially after building one of their older kits. Looks really good definitely buying this
I've stayed away from academy this far, but this kit looks incredible. Might have to get 2
US Armor, 1945 until now. During my time in the Army, 71 - 99 I worked on 7 versions of MBT.
I have a panzer tank model from the academy co. It seems to be well made. Good definitions.
It looks like they’re going to be making a Mark III Ausf. M. I think I saw a Ausf. M exhaust on the parts tree.
Seeing the sprues, definately some other variants and StuGs.
Instructions look great.
Love your chan. When it comes to armour and aircraft, it’s got to be WW II.
Well I must say I'm surprised and hope they have got things correct as we need more panzer 3s out new molds! I have borders new panzer 4 Ausf J last production but Academy have a bad rep on getting detail wrong so hopefully this kit restores that reputation for them! Does anyone remember there dreadful Tiger haha!
That looks great, can't wait to get my hands on this kit.
Thanks for the review Andy👍
Amazing video Andy I have been wanting this kit for a long time to come out. Thank you for doing this😀😀
Wow Tetra Fire extinguisher marks!
Great looking kit by academy very informative video Andy my main interest build are German and Russian armour of world War 2
Nice review and instruction booklet.
Wow that might actually be worth building. I had probs building academy kits. Enjoy modern armour and WH4OK models.
Hi Andy, grerat review of the new Panzer III. My main armour interest is german WWII but also Bundeswehr, sometimes i like US armour too. Stay safe, greets from Germany
I will make this kit in polish markings from africa. Thanks Andy
Did those tracks have hollow guide horns? Did not see a single pic of thatvpart of the tracks.
Hi Andy
This kit looks great, I do like the short barrelled Panzer III.
Can you tell us if the tracks have open guide horns or not.
my favorite genre is ,, whatever dad buys ,, :D
Great inbox review Andy! 😊👍
Great review Andy....Looks like a nice kit, I'm gonna have to get one!
For now, most of models what I have built is modern armor and modern gun platforms. But looking at this and other kits I have an small itch for WWII era armor
Wow I want one, That one is going up near the top of my to buy list
@Svannuta I want to find the old Aurora kit of the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima
Hi Andy, thanks for the great review. I prefer WWII German armour. Thank you.
Excellent preview of this great kit!!!
Afrika Korp!!!
Excellent Andy , this looks really sweet. Will have to have this kit to collection , very nice , you going to build and paint it as well?
My fav genre is US WW II Armor close second German Armor then 3rd Soviet
Great video Andy love that Armor , N Africa colors and type
Go Andy!!!!!
Yes!
Good review Andy stay safe 👍👍
Looking forward to get it!
Hey Andy, my favorite armor is German heavies and allied mediums
I like the Russian winter genre of armor, Andy.
Thanks. Hope there's a Stug somewhere. I like Russian... so pretty east front. Desert is good though.. i like the weathering.
I bought the takom kit (as well as the Stug), so I'm all good for panzer IIIs. This looks good though. Great review as always. Now, somebody please make me an injection moulded kit of an A11 matilda please. with link and length track.
Great video
I think I will stick with the Dragon....
Awesome model!
To me this is the year of the panzer III
I'm currently on a phase of doing 1/16 scale What If/1946 armour.
Thanks Andy, btw, where do you get those 90 degree tweezers you use in some of your builds?
I didn’t know your store was in Arizona !
Do the academy mig 29a fulcrum!
All major combatants -- German, British, American and Italian == in North Africa are what I fancy as a genre.
Looks like a nice kit!
My favorite genre of kits are the one from the battle of kursk
my armor genre is Russian armor, from the 20s thru to today. Tho my favorite campaign is the Western Desert.
My favorite is German tracked vehicles of WWII
Quick question..... Isn't it 'link and length' ?
When does this kit become available?
We will have them this coming week
Not sure about pricing overseas BUT in the UK the new Academy kits are not far behind tamiya and Trumpeter and not as good.
Same in Canada. And in many cases Dragon and Trumpeter are more expensive than Tamiya.
@@garfieldsmith332 Same here. See my other longer post about Academy and this kit in that regard.
Andy to answer your question: I prefer to build 1/35 ww2 Armor with the occasional ww1 tank.
Andy, any word on when Dragons 1/72 Saturn 1b will be out? Awesome review Andy!
Looks like its open for a stug version
Hi Andy
good review!
My favorite is 1970's-1980's US Armor in Europe
Hi everybody, forgive the unrelated topics, but I’ve been searching for WWII 1/35 scale warplanes and so far haven’t found any, if you gentleman can direct me to links where I can find it, I’ll be eternally grateful, thanks in advance and once again sorry for the inconvenience.
Hey there Andy, I'm surprised that not a lot of well known UA-camrs in the scale modeling community aren't talking a lot about AK Interactive's new controversial weathering book titled "Condemnation" The whole thing is just shocking, nobody asked for it but most importantly they used real footage of the holocaust and other genocides to market their weathering products. Would you consider making a video about this topic and voicing out your opinion on it? I believe it's a very important subject to talk about because other major hobby/modeling channels would pick up on it. Please consider it, more people in the community need to know.
The box art tracks are not the ones the kits gives, so bad.
Andy. Where you been?🇨🇦
Xlnt review. But... you changed the showing-the-sprue music. Where am I gonna go to get my weekly Blue Danube fix?! :-P
Panzer i love this tank 😃
Do you do give aways? You should that would be really cool
More building
I haven’t done much in the way of armour as I’m more into fantasy but I’ve loved the WW1 stuff I’ve done as I love the crudeness of the appearance compared to later tanks.
I like the L version better, that long 50mm gun looks better, just my opinion
Could u please try a land rover btw big fan from wales
Oi wheres the volvo man? I love you other stuff but i rwally want to see the volvo
Academy used to be *the* cheap compromise. First armour kit I remember which was still well priced but a cut above rivalling others out there was their initial 1/35 38(t) late Hetzer released sometime around mid 2012 if I recall accurately. Academy armour moulds & kits are improving, but they're coincidentally getting disproportionately dearer with it. Zvezda have since taken that affordable armour model crown, but done it better with less compromise than older Academy did, at least in terms of detail and fidelity. For the modest difference in price now between Academy and Tamiya, I'd rather buy Tamiya. With Takom and Border Models making a splash around the same price point, Academy really need to bring their A game. Good to see their Ausf J kit gun barrels are slide moulded and moulded moulded tow cables provided. Guessing they've done the Ausf J as it was the most produced whose time period lends itself to both North African and Soviet Union theatre options. But then why the decal choice of North Africa only? Why not both? Unless the promise of an Afrika Korps scheme (boxart) just outsells everything else? Smelling an obvious Eastern Front version reboxing coming next. Colour coded dumby friendly instructions? Meh. Regardless, I've always found with Academy kits one needs to double check everything as their technical writers don't and proof reading doesn't feature in their production process.
I only have a few Academy kits. The Hetzer is one of them and still sealed. I did get their latest Tiger A. Yes their price has gone up. Here Zvezda is distributed by the same importer that distributes Tamiya and some of the larger kits are expensive; prices I would not pay for Zvezda. The dollar change rate is one thing but in Canada we seem to have distributors changing a lot. Dragon now comes from the USA, we had 2 previous importers. Same for Italeri, we are on our third importer. Revell has gone thru several changes. Airfix is now in the hands of the Tamiya importer.
@@garfieldsmith332 A problem when one regional distro is effectively a brand cartel and can manipulate the market. In my neck of the woods, for those not to lazy to use a search engine, Zvezda can be had locally at competitive pricing as I mentioned. FWIW, if your local pricing on Zvezda kits sucks, there are some *reliable* dealers in Lithuania and Russia who ship internationally at super competitive prices inc shipping. They're on eBay and have been for an aeon. I've bought half a dozen kits from them, and I'm a lot further away than the US with a currency in worse state than the CAD. Trumpeter are competitively priced where I live too. My local Tamiya pricing is fair I think, but Dragon has reached a new zenith and Airfix locally, ROFL, is beyond a joke. Revell sit pretty much around the Airfix price now. Must be the same distro I think. Italeri? Not much Italeri I'd buy, but what I would is so overpriced my $$$ would go elsewhere.
@@theblytonian3906 I agree you have to shop around. I am in a small city and few hobby shops so I need to shop around. Bigger cities more competition and better prices. Some items we can bring into Canada with no problems. I can get CDs and DVDs, books. However occasionally customs will stop a package and apply duties and taxes. In fact our tax laws state that anything ordered by mail from other countries is subject to tax at the Canadian price. Where I live it is 13%. A fellow modeler in the east got hit with taxes, plus import duties on some model kits he bought. And he also got hit with a brokerage tax. Cost more in fees and taxes than the kit itself. Still I have ordered modeling stuff and have not had to pay any duties or taxes so far. Another factor here is the volume. The number of modelers in Canada is small compared to the USA or Europe, so pricing is higher.
Thanks for your advice and I will check out the dealers in Lithuania and Russia. I had some model supplies from Poland and the price was good, and a friend of mine has found excellent prices with DVDs in Russia, so I will search out a little more. Regards to you and take care.
WW2 Normandy, both sides
Western Europe is my favourite
Length and link
workhorse of the Wehrmacht
Hopefully they didn't screw up, like they did on the M10, M3 Lee, Stuart, M7, and Sherridan...not to mention ANY 1/35 figure they ever produced, since they almost look like anime.
These were all older kits. Their new pziv and stugiv are fantastic. They have moved on. Have you? 🤔
@@steviegibson5847 Even Zvezda is putting out better kits than academy.
@@joeshmoe9978 well.....the new Zvezda kits are good too. I've built their T-34)76, T-34/85, SU-85 and SU-100. Great kits. Don't write off Academy.....they are a premium manufacturer.
@@steviegibson5847 OK ✌.
The track links horns are not hollow, what a big disappointment.
Kursk 1943 Bulge 1944 and Berlin 1945 1/35th scenes
I like german flak kits
Great model kit. Don't like the tracks. Aftermarket.