The Sturminfanteriegeschutz 33b or StulG 33b is a fascinating vehicle. The heavy street fighting at Stalingrad in the autumn of 1942 resulted in the troops' urgent request to mount the 150mm slG.33 infantry howitzer in an enclosed armoured vehicle. Within a few weeks of receiving an order, Alkett had fitted the slG.33/1 to twelve repaired StuGIII chassis and built a very crude box superstructure to protect the crew. The twelve reached Stalingrad by the end of October. A month later, the second and final batch was issued, but by this time the city was cut off so they were used as part of the relief force. Of these, only seven vehicles survived the winter and were used throughout 1943. Production was not continued as the decision had been made to build a purpose-designed vehicle using the Panzer IV chassis. This new vehicle would eventually roll out as the 'StuPa' or often misnamed 'Brummbär'. Dragon first released a StulG 33b in the early 1990s. The model was considered good for its time and was recently re-issued by Dragon as an 'Orange Box' value kit. Now we have an all-new version with no parts taken from the 1990 release. Superficially, this new release can be viewed as three kits.
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