Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 7:42 am
Herman’s Krieg Schwein and 43Rd RecceReg’s Asiatam Stug IV got me interested in a Stug build. TankArmy had a bit of a run-out sale on them and so Santa lobbed one in my Xmas stocking.
Normally I’d consider a Stug as interesting as a ham sandwich. But I knew the Finnish army put them to good use in their struggle against the Russians, and the Finns are good friends of Estonians, so I gained some interest. A Finnish Stug, or ‘Sturmi’ as they tagged them, would make a straightforward but rare build based on a Heng Long. I could only find two other Sturmii conversions, one done by Buckeye back in 2012, which was excellent, but there was no build story.
I did a little digging into Sturmi history and found a comprehensive collation of info and photos on Andreas Lärka’s Finnish armour website. After the Winter War against the invading Red Army in 1940, the Finns received little or no support from the ineffectual League of Nations. They had to cede more than 10% of their country to achieve a ceasefire. With no other countries offering help, they went to Germany to purchase fighting equipment. Although Finland was not part of the Axis powers, Hitler was willing to supply them as it meant that the Russians would be busy on another front. Stugs were utilitarian and comparatively cheap and the Finns bought 30 ausf Gs in 1943 and another 29 in 1944. Based on their experience against the Russians, and realizing that they would have to be self-sufficient, they modified the Sturmis to suit themselves. The fact that the Finns didn’t lose, meant that plenty survived in Finnish service long after the war, and are still around as ‘gate guards’ with plenty of good quality reference photos and details on Andreas’s website. These do have to be used with some caution, as the Finns made several changes to their Sturmis in post-war service, including removal of the concrete add-on armour.
This clean photo of Ps531-22 is a rare period photo from 1944, showing no zimmerit. Interestingly from my point of view, the Finns donated it to an Estonian military museum in 2008:
Typical Finnish mods included:
• Bullet splash shield around the mantlet
• Driver’s visor shield
• Use of captured Russian Degtyaryov ‘DT’ machine guns
• Modified loader’s shield to suit mounting the DT
• Relocating the spare road wheels from the rear deck to the upper hull sides
• Storage box where the spare wheels used to be
• Deletion of ‘schurzen’ side armour and grenade launchers
• Armour plates bolted between the return rollers
• Use of frontal concrete armour
• Deflection armour around the commander’s cupola
• Relocation of some tools
• Centrally mounted front Notek light only
• Finnish camouflage
First batch features included:
• Square gun mantlet
• Smooth drive sprocket caps
• Rubber track return rollers
• North-south split of the loader’s hatch
Second batch features differed with:
• Saukopf gun mantlet
• Bolted drive sprocket caps
• Steel track return rollers
• East-west split of loader’s hatch
What will really make this happen are some of the aftermarket bits available for Heng Long Stugs, especially the Atak concrete armour kits, and a DT machine gun made by Diorama Freak.
A Sturmi build is in the making…
By the way, I just love this photo. It shows a Finnish crew (commander Börje Brotell, gunner Olli Soimala, driver Sulo Kauppi and loader Armas Launikko) and their Sturmi Ps531-10 sitting in the summer sunshine in a brief moment of happiness. Its worth clicking on just for the rare clarity of a wartime image.
Normally I’d consider a Stug as interesting as a ham sandwich. But I knew the Finnish army put them to good use in their struggle against the Russians, and the Finns are good friends of Estonians, so I gained some interest. A Finnish Stug, or ‘Sturmi’ as they tagged them, would make a straightforward but rare build based on a Heng Long. I could only find two other Sturmii conversions, one done by Buckeye back in 2012, which was excellent, but there was no build story.
I did a little digging into Sturmi history and found a comprehensive collation of info and photos on Andreas Lärka’s Finnish armour website. After the Winter War against the invading Red Army in 1940, the Finns received little or no support from the ineffectual League of Nations. They had to cede more than 10% of their country to achieve a ceasefire. With no other countries offering help, they went to Germany to purchase fighting equipment. Although Finland was not part of the Axis powers, Hitler was willing to supply them as it meant that the Russians would be busy on another front. Stugs were utilitarian and comparatively cheap and the Finns bought 30 ausf Gs in 1943 and another 29 in 1944. Based on their experience against the Russians, and realizing that they would have to be self-sufficient, they modified the Sturmis to suit themselves. The fact that the Finns didn’t lose, meant that plenty survived in Finnish service long after the war, and are still around as ‘gate guards’ with plenty of good quality reference photos and details on Andreas’s website. These do have to be used with some caution, as the Finns made several changes to their Sturmis in post-war service, including removal of the concrete add-on armour.
This clean photo of Ps531-22 is a rare period photo from 1944, showing no zimmerit. Interestingly from my point of view, the Finns donated it to an Estonian military museum in 2008:
Typical Finnish mods included:
• Bullet splash shield around the mantlet
• Driver’s visor shield
• Use of captured Russian Degtyaryov ‘DT’ machine guns
• Modified loader’s shield to suit mounting the DT
• Relocating the spare road wheels from the rear deck to the upper hull sides
• Storage box where the spare wheels used to be
• Deletion of ‘schurzen’ side armour and grenade launchers
• Armour plates bolted between the return rollers
• Use of frontal concrete armour
• Deflection armour around the commander’s cupola
• Relocation of some tools
• Centrally mounted front Notek light only
• Finnish camouflage
First batch features included:
• Square gun mantlet
• Smooth drive sprocket caps
• Rubber track return rollers
• North-south split of the loader’s hatch
Second batch features differed with:
• Saukopf gun mantlet
• Bolted drive sprocket caps
• Steel track return rollers
• East-west split of loader’s hatch
What will really make this happen are some of the aftermarket bits available for Heng Long Stugs, especially the Atak concrete armour kits, and a DT machine gun made by Diorama Freak.
A Sturmi build is in the making…
By the way, I just love this photo. It shows a Finnish crew (commander Börje Brotell, gunner Olli Soimala, driver Sulo Kauppi and loader Armas Launikko) and their Sturmi Ps531-10 sitting in the summer sunshine in a brief moment of happiness. Its worth clicking on just for the rare clarity of a wartime image.