StuG III return roller housings

Adrian Harris · Post by **Adrian Harris** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 11:20 pm

I've just received the Dragon StuG C/D kit and the return roller housings have a different mating face than the kit supplied ones.
The picture below shows that they are more square/triangular shape:

However, although a couple of kits seem to have the same shaped housings, I can't find any photographs in my StuG books which show this type of housing. Really late Ausf G vehicles with steel rollers seem to use a rectangular faced housing but none I've found today have this particular shape.

The front roller is also aligned with the others, albeit at a slightly lower level - it's not rotated as on the Panzer III.

Does anyone have a reference that can point me to which corroborates this type of housing ?

Adrian.

Tim Bowman · Post by **Tim Bowman** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:10 pm

Hi Adrian

The only ones I have seen are conical shaped with three bosses protruding where the mounting bolts are. The photo below is from an ausf G and it looks like the only difference between later and earlier versions is a flange that runs around the perimeter.

Best regards
Tim

Adrian Harris · Post by **Adrian Harris** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:06 pm

Thanks Tim - I've not found any photographs of vehicles with return rollers which match the pattern on the kits either.

It's wierd that several different kit manufacturers appear to have used the same design, even though there's no real life precident.

Adrian.