Classy Hobby M5A1 Stuart RC conversion

[MonsieurTox]

Hello,

Some weeks ago I found Louis's awesome conversion of the Classy Hobby Stuart and I decided I should give it a try, the Stuart is one of my fav tank !

Here's one I've seen last week at the Saumur Museeum :

Unfortunatly I haven't taken any pics during the building process, however it's pretty much what Louis did on his Stuart.
I turned on a lathe brass and aluminium bushing and axes. I have also used the lathe to get the idler and road wheels perfectly flat (removing the mold line and the slight slope).

I first used the kit drive sprocket, I 3D modeled and 3D printed an insert but I messed up when I glued them into the kitparts, they turned not very round (but the tank was still running well).

I modeled and 3D printed new drive sprockets, I need to modify the 3D model a bit and print new ones so I can insert the drive shaft 1mm more into them.

Some pics of the model, the suspension are pretty simple (like Louis did), the idler wheel have a spring (from a 1/12 Tamiya F1 car ).

I will try to turn on a lathe new Browning barrels. Or I'll buy some Aber !

I initially bought Heng Long steel gearboxes for the Stuart, however I decided to used them on my Heng Long Sherman and used the plastic Sherman ones in my Stuart.
The gearboxes fit like a glove, I just have to mill a bit the frame at the front but I did not have to grind the plastic hull like Louis had to do.

I'm using a 2 in 1 rotation and elevation unit from a 1/25 Tamiya Chieftain kit. I had to create in 3D custom parts so I can attach the unit to the hull and so it can be screwed to the turret. As for now, the turret rotation is working nicely, nice speed and all. I haven't linked the gun to the elevation shaft (it works with a magnet for those who are not familiar with that Tamiya unit). This means I can do 360° rotation without the need of a slip ring because there's no servo or motor inside the turret for the barrel elevation. The bad thing is that I don't have recoil, I may add it at some point though and sacrifying the 360°turn.

I am waiting for a small speaker I found on Aliexpress and some micro LED for the lights.

Let me know if you have any questions of want to know more details about this build !

[Rob1970]

Oooh, very nice! I got that one as well, an early birthday present from SWMBO. I was also considering using stock HL gearboxes, care to share the STL file for those drive sprockets?

[MonsieurTox]

Oooh, very nice! I got that one as well, an early birthday present from SWMBO. I was also considering using stock HL gearboxes, care to share the STL file for those drive sprockets?

I will when I have the final design done !

[Rob1970]

I will when I have the final design done !

Nice! I'm working on a Sherman to Lee/Grant conversion myself, and I am slowly leaning towards making it 3D printable as well, instead of my original plan of scratchbuilding it all. Unfortunately I am limited by the software I use (Tinkercad). But I will share what I produce as well when it comes to it.

[tankme]

Very cool conversion. The M5 Stuart was what got me back into tanks. When I was a kid I used to drool over the Tamiya tanks in the catalog and I built a lot of 1/35 scale models (not very well I might add). I bought a 1/6th M5 21st Century Stuart on a whim and while I was looking for detail parts of it I ran across the Fort Snelling Military Museum restoration of a real one. I became a volunteer at the museum helping restore tanks, started scratch building paintball tanks, and then got into 1/16 tank builds/battling.

This is U-Go...a fully restored version which has now moved from Minneapolis to the east coast (I'm the one filming it inside the arena as I was driving the M42 Duster that day):

phpBB [video]

[MonsieurTox]

I will when I have the final design done !

Nice! I'm working on a Sherman to Lee/Grant conversion myself, and I am slowly leaning towards making it 3D printable as well, instead of my original plan of scratchbuilding it all. Unfortunately I am limited by the software I use (Tinkercad). But I will share what I produce as well when it comes to it.

That's great, I'll follow it with interest I'm planning a Priest conversion on a HL Sherman and at some point a Lee/Grant too !

[MonsieurTox]

Very cool conversion. The M5 Stuart was what got me back into tanks. When I was a kid I used to drool over the Tamiya tanks in the catalog and I built a lot of 1/35 scale models (not very well I might add). I bought a 1/6th M5 21st Century Stuart on a whim and while I was looking for detail parts of it I ran across the Fort Snelling Military Museum restoration of a real one. I became a volunteer at the museum helping restore tanks, started scratch building paintball tanks, and then got into 1/16 tank builds/battling.

This is U-Go...a fully restored version which has now moved from Minneapolis to the east coast (I'm the one filming it inside the arena as I was driving the M42 Duster that day):

phpBB [video]

I'm very jealous because you have a 1/6 21st Century Stuart and because you are restoring tanks (and driving them it seems, the Duster is a great looking tank too !). Thank you very much for the video of the M5, you guys did an awesome job on it. It's great to see it working that fine, it seems to be in pristine condition ! You are very lucky to have been able to work on this beauty

[lmcq11]

Excellent,
The Stuart is a sizeable model, I’m pleased to see that you have been able to install a regular but light RC Gearbox inside, but I suspect the HL gearbox could be hard on the fragile plastic tracks if it kicks in with too much energy at once.

The static kit itself is also difficult, I see you were able to achieve good results with the tricky periscope guards and the PE grills at the back.

Louis

[MonsieurTox]

Excellent,
The Stuart is a sizeable model, I’m pleased to see that you have been able to install a regular but light RC Gearbox inside, but I suspect the HL gearbox could be hard on the fragile plastic tracks if it kicks in with too much energy at once.

The static kit itself is also difficult, I see you were able to achieve good results with the tricky periscope guards and the PE grills at the back.

Louis

Thank you Louis, your build has been of a great help!
The plastic tracks handle well for now, I even did several trials in the garden on rough terrain and grass. Of course I am much more careful when I usually drive it and I'm gentle with the sticks!
I have more concern about the idler fork tbh, but if it fails I'll machine a new one out of Aluminium.

Yes the kit has some flaws, some of them are the small handles or whatever they are that are all over the hull. There are 4 per sprue but I found that the 2 middle ones were all broken on the sprue (fortunately there are something like 16 sprues), I think they broke when the sprue was ejected out of the mold.
Several of the parts for the periscope guards were also broken on the sprue, I had to cut the unbroken ones very carefully off the sprue with several light knife passes on the both sides. I also did not cleaned the mold lines until they were glued, the parts were much stronger and could survive the abuse of cleaning.

The engine PE grills were also a challenge, I used 0.5 styrene to build a recessed frame on which could sit and be glued the grills, this way they are pretty strong.

[MonsieurTox]

Hello guys,

I'vet started to paint the Stuart. Unfortunatly I notice the paintjob is washout by too much sunlight in the pics... Well, there're more nuances
Please disregard the MG, I used a very old tin of Revell Dark gray that said "MATT" on the lid, unfortunatly it turned out to be glossy (and thick ). I have removed the paint since then.
I have also masked the wheel in order to paint the tires.

Next step will be the weathering.

Ah yeah, forget the screw in place of the hull MG... My 5 years old had obviously some fun