Dan per instructions the Academy kit goes together differently than the standard Pz III build. My guess is if the bath tub is built square the kit will go together very well.
The Dragon Pz III N is looking like a ~37 to 38 hours to build. I’d guess the Academy might be 25 to 28 hours?
I’m not a fan of academy but might take a closer look at this kit.
I did look at the schutzen on their later L or M and it looked like 1970s Tamiya thick parts.
70’s Tamiya! That was my first thought after opening the Academy Pz III box and seeing the glacis!
Likewise, not an Academy fan. Probably a good tank build for practice getting back into painting again.
I’ve got their PZ II ausf F and I think its a nice looking kit.
Check it out.
Step 22 - Final Assembly plus Stowage
< 20 minutes >
running total 35 hours 46 minutes
Time to add antenna:). The kit antenna is impressive. I saved it for a lesser project.
Added spare hollow tooth tracks left over from an RFM Stug III G early. Added extra several Italeri jerry cans to round out Dragon cans on rear stowage rack.
Alternative stowage with box in place of jerry can.
Best points: Crisp molding, excellent details, excellent fit of major components, some accessories included.
Worst points: Punch marks on Turret face, terrible instructions, one PE part referenced not included, overall mediocre engineering, punch mark covered link & length tracks. High Premium price for a rehash watered down kit from ~15 years ago.
Would I buy this $80 Dragon kit again? NO 
I’d pass on buying another copy at $50.
Would I recommend this kit? Overall, recommended as I think most will like the level of detail, accept the unfun build experience with good grace, tolerant Dragon’s lousy instruction sheet and be happy with the end result.
Rating 7.5 out of 10 for Neo #5
With Magic Tracks, good PE sheet and coherent instructions this kit would easily be 9 out of 10. Dragon seems to usually find a way to compromise their best kits.
Personal Bias - Happier with the Tamiya Pz III N build at ~27 to 28 hours than this Dragon at ~36 hours. I don’t feel like there’s much benefit to the extra 9 hours of build time. The Tamiya kit was far more enjoyable and fun to build. Adding details to Tamiya’s Pz III proved oddly satisfying in a way the far more out of the box Dragon kit did not.
Will do a side by side of all three models for compare.
About the Academy kit: I built one & felt it was a quite nice kit. There are A LOT of included parts, that are not in the instructions, that allows you to built just about any late-model Pz III. The biggest disappointment for me was the tracks. I bought some RFM workable tracks for it. But IMHO '70s era Tamiya it definitely is NOT.
I would definitely buy the Academy kit again, & plan on doing so. Just the right balance of detail & ease of construction for me.
Damon.
Looks good
@Garrand Hi Damon, appreciate the thoughts and comments on Academy kit.
Do you happen to recall if Academy includes a short 75mm main gun? Maybe this thread ends up as the Four Amigo’s 
@Dan Thank you.
Really wanting warm weather to get started airbrushing again 
No basement? Its 33 here in Central MN and I’m giddy after the cold that we have had lately.
The hull schutzen looks quite thick to me.
It does. If you look on Scalemates at the instructions, it is part # 4 on Sprue D.
Damon.
Thanks!
D sprue #2, #3 & #4 equals another potential short 7.5 cm Panzer III N. Agreed definitely needs a set of different tracks.
From what I gathered on Missing Lynx in the Pz III thread mentioned above, one of the noticeably wrong areas for Takom is the space between the last road wheel and idler. Looking at track links looks like ~3 full links of space on the Takom kit (skirt PE)shown below.
The Dragon kit which is regarded and checked as more dimensionally accurate looks like 3.5 track links
Looking at the models side by side, to me doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. I’m sure there are other visual differences but to me this was the most glaring that once noticed stands out.
My three stooges…Takom left, Dragon middle and Tamiya right.
Specific comparison, Dragon’s PE screen rocks compared to the Tamiya PE screens.
Takom then Dragon
I like the Takom PE skirts. I’d pick up the kit for skirts if cheap enough.
Dragon then Tamiya
For me its really between these two. I’d rather build the Tamiya again out of the three so it wins in my book.
I hope folks enjoyed. My apologies it took two years instead of six months to wrap building all three. Knee surgery, retirement & moving plus other events etc.
Paint, paint, paint. And we don’t want to wait two years. 
Yes to the paint.
You probably could kitbash or build other versions of Dragon’s N’s.
@Garrand Damon,
Wanted share kicked off the Academy Pz III Ausf J this evening and started with cleaning up the road wheels because I loathe cleaning up road wheels and like that wrapped ASAP.
Really cool that Academy only needed two attachment gates where most others use four. The wheels are very well engineered with NO mold seam on tires. Pretty shocked Academy pulled that off!
Cleaning road wheels took over five hours on the Dragon Pz III Ausf N. These road wheels were cleaned to the same standard in 45 minutes for the Academy kit.
I’d budgeted ~ one hour to fiddle with the kit expecting road wheel clean up to roll over into tomorrow. Instead I had time left over.
Step 1 - Lower Hull Box - 22 minutes
Academy even suggests the best assembly sequence! Quality instructions? That’s definitely something I’ve NEVER seen in a Dragon kit. A++ Academy. Holes to be drilled out are called for before construction starts in defacto step 0.
The lower hull literally Rolexed together with minimal clean up. Fit was perfect 
Will fill the two 1/2 punch marks visible on the inside face of the hull sides at the bow next session.
I think you’ll enjoy the kit. I know I did!
Damon.
I’m really interested in your new build.
Thank you Dan!
This is 3 hours 12 minutes on bench time and almost finished with step 4.
With the Dragon kit, I cleaned nothing but hard plastic, nasty mold seam covered road wheels for ~ 5 hours. So the Academy kit build is 
cake so far.
It’s actually a tastier cake build than Tamiya kit at this stage…
The Academy plastic is pretty soft. Someone heavy handed with the “hot” Tamiya Extra Thin might get some unpleasant surprise glue marks. I used Big T ET putting the lower hull together due to the fast setting and have favored the slower less hot Testors Liquid Cement for everything else.
You must have build non neo dragon kits?
I’m curious on how “new” dragon kits have slipped in quality.
