RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Good morning Herman. I'm not sure if this offer is a help or a hindrance to you, but I have an unused saukopf mantlet from a Bandai StuG IV kit that you're welcome to. The kit is 1/15, but when I compare the mantlet to a 1/16 resin one (from Profiline, I think), it looks like if you shortened it by about 12mm at the rear end; it would be very close to the resin one. If you don't have a better prospect, it might be worth a try. And, you wouldn't lose anything if it didn't work. Let me know. -Mike

sassgrunt wrote:Good morning Herman. I'm not sure if this offer is a help or a hindrance to you, but I have an unused saukopf mantlet from a Bandai StuG IV kit that you're welcome to. The kit is 1/15, but when I compare the mantlet to a 1/16 resin one (from Profiline, I think), it looks like if you shortened it by about 12mm at the rear end; it would be very close to the resin one. If you don't have a better prospect, it might be worth a try. And, you wouldn't lose anything if it didn't work. Let me know. -Mike

Hello Mr Sass, thanks for your generous offer Sir, on this occasion though I shall politely decline.
I managed to find on under an obscure description in Germany, so its on its way by the now well entrenched slow-post to arrive when it does & not a moment sooner
Thanks again for your offer of assistance..................

PainlessWolf wrote:Herman!
Following along because as you know, "We did not choose the StuG Life...It chose us!"
regards,
Painless

It seems to have chosen me once again eh

EAO wrote:Herman,

Thats a very interesting Stug to replicate. Another build worth watching...just saying!

Cheers,
Eric.

Thanks Mr E, it certainly has a lot going on.
Right now, Im making a plan on what gadgets & gear will fill the void between the outer schurzen and the actual armour.
The late war Stugs with pendulum schurzen had close fitting sloped panels on the casemate sides, no room to bung any kit there.
These ones seem to be spaced very wide off the casemate with leading edge panels that close in to the front casemate edges, loads of space to chuck what-have-you's into !
I'm assuming the stowage normally located on the rear deck is stuffed in here, or, could be further augmentation to protection by using wooden beams, jerry cans full of dirt, spare track runs, who knows what else
Any ideas folks, feel free to chime in with suggestions

After looking at the Panzer Wrecks pictures over and over, I keep finding little details that are not 'normal' each time.
The right side drive sprocket has a late bolted hub centre- the left side has the early smooth profiled cover.
The front upper armour over the driver and gunners heads has what appears to be concrete or steel shot deflectors added to eliminate the flat face at the joint of the sloping section where it touches the roof front.
I'm working on steel due to the relatively small section visible. Concrete would have been far to fragile in that size.
This one has no evidence of a barrel travel lock being ever fitted next to the Notec light.
This one has the normal G towing attachments which dont have the little dropped profiles on the underside which I assume is to thicken the area under the clevis hole.
The bolted armour plates over the driver and gunners positions are not bolted, that is the drivers vision block has holes but no bolts, the other side has no holes. I assume they were welded in place and the bolts cut off ??
Not a single visible link of spare track anywhere on it. Could be the stuff they had was wedged in the gap between the schurzen and the casemate, but from the pictures I will never know.
Other vehicles in the same unit showed profound amounts of track and T34 track as extra armour, but why not this one ? There is not even any evidence of hanging points for any.

So ??....................simple tank project I said

heya, herman, i will follow this with interest

for the saukopf take a look also at mk-modellbau, is this item?



in the page it says it's for a stug iV

https://mk-modellbau.de/main_bigware_34 ... degenerate

they have also this



https://mk-modellbau.de/main_bigware_34 ... degenerate

well, you can contact Martin at info@mk-modellbau.de and ask about your needs

best regards

Thanks Mr Jussek, thats what Im after.
Got one coming from Germany now from Tank Modelblau.De. Carsten.
This specific StuG was fitted with the mount for the remote M.G. but not the working unit.
It has the funky spaced armour M.G. shield laid flat on the roof. That will be a build by itself to get looking right !

I could have probably made a Saukopf out of the box mantlet if I had to, but for a bit of a wait, and $27AUD, why not get it right ??

Thanks for looking in mate

Now I have a box of removed bits on one side, and the empty carcass of the Stug on the other
Ive filled the hull penetrations and removed the bolt heads from the lower hull glacis plate.
I tore off, yes tore, the bolted plate off the upper glacis as no matter what glue de-bonder I used, it did not work.
Jammed a screwdriver into the joint & got my twist on
Paid the price for that, but its off, repaired, and now a thin 0.5mm section of styrene over the mess to recreate the look of the later front hull armour.
Mr Mcq11 did this process on his winter Stug a while back, but used a Taigen lower hull.
Its the only way to get the later thicker armour to look right.
Im staying with the H/L hull due to simple economic sense of not shelling out on poor currency rate and high postage down here.

Things like the tools molded on the guards will be ground off & replaced by others with a better look & left over PE sprue brackets.
Most of that wont be seen behind the schurzen anyway.
I was intending to do the conventional Zimmerit with a hot screwdriver, but I may go another route(NOT Atak) yet.

Lots to do even though its a small machine

Bit much re on the lower hull today.
A lot of grinding off and sanding to get the thing looking right.
Again the mini-vac was the best tool in the house !
The track tension units were fitted a lot easier this time than on my Krieg-Schwein StuG ages ago, I had the drilling template this time.
I’ve had bits for this for 3 years & not paid any attention to them as I gathered other bits along the way as they came up.
Now I find out that the idler wheels I have don’t fit the tensioner’s
Some minor engineering required to overcome that. No replacement parts available down here so adapt and overcome it will be.
Also found the road wheel tyres are perished
Again , I know I can get replacements but only from overseas and not in a day or so.
One half of one road wheel is also missing. I be assume at the time I bought them, years ago, new and open the bag to find half an F’n wheel missing

It’s like me doing 3 Russian tanks in a row has upset someone!!

Seeing the images of the barebones hull reminds me of the StuG 111 rebuild underway at the Australian Armour & Artillery Museum. I've been following all their recent offerings; but the StuG build offers an interesting insight into the original construction (especially welding) techniques. You've probably seen this already, HB, but if not...