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Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:10 am
by Estnische
Thanks for the offer Dan. I've been researching for a while, as the Panther paint stages were curing. I'm going for the early G version. I'm going to skip the logs too, it smacks a bit of the Tamiya Sturmi in 1:35.
I actually think the hardest bit of this project will be getting the decals and doing the hard-edged camo. Everything else you can pretty much buy off the shelf.
Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:37 am
by rolling-thunder
Does the Finnish Stug have a travel lock for the barrel?
Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:59 am
by Estnische
From what I understand, they didn't fit them until after the war.
Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:35 am
by rolling-thunder
Estnische wrote:From what I understand, they didn't fit them until after the war.
Who, the Finns didn't fit them or they weren't fitted to the Stugs? The Germans did fit them to their Stugs.
Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:20 pm
by Estnische
This is what Andreas Lärka’s Finnish armour website says. I can only take it at face value:
"The 1943 -batch StuG's were early production (but not the initial) G models with the square gun-mantlet..."
"The 1944 (second) batch StuG's were "late middle / early late" production G models with the Topfblende / "Saukopf" gun-mantle, all-steel return rollers (Alkett and MIAG), drive-sprockets with the wheel-bolts showing, loaders hatches opening to the sides, deflecting armour for the commander's cupola, solid (non-rotating) periscope-ring on the commander's cupola, late type fendersupports, typical German rear deck stovage-racks and Zimmerit."
"In the early 1950's ... some StuG's got gun travel-locks like the ones featured on some of the 1944 batch StuG's."
"From the 1944 batch of StuG's none probably ever fired their guns in anger. Most of them arrived too late to see any real action, as the first of the 1944 batch StuG's that arrived were used as reserves and for securing the rear areas. "
Which probably explains why none of the wartime photos I could find show a Sturmi with a travel-lock. The last photo is interesting as it appears to be a 1944-batch StuG.
(I acknowledge SA-Kuva as a source of some of these photos)
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Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 8:29 am
by Estnische
Ah, Roy. Check this Stug interior out! Even the radio dial appears to glow.
T'is but a flight of fancy though. Recoil and elevation can't happen without the mechanisms. He's gutted a dead Heng Long and made it into a stationary model.
This talented Kiwi upscaled everything from a 1:35 kit. You can see the whole build here:
http://kiwimodeller.com/~kmodel/index.p ... mitstart=0
He did a similar job on a Tiger.
Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:03 am
by C.Ellis
I was thinking about doing one of these as well. I really like the concrete armour look, makes the Stug look beefier. After you've finnished
this build you'll need a BT-42 to go with it.
Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:21 am
by Estnische
Oh! I see what you did there.
Were you thinking of doing a Sturmi or a Stug?
The Atak resin bits make concrete armour easy. Or you can do it yourself, as Herman did.
Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 1:34 pm
by 43rdRecceReg
Estnische wrote:Ah, Roy. Check this Stug interior out! Even the radio dial appears to glow.
T'is but a flight of fancy though. Recoil and elevation can't happen without the mechanisms. He's gutted a dead Heng Long and made it into a stationary model.
This talented Kiwi upscaled everything from a 1:35 kit. You can see the whole build here:
http://kiwimodeller.com/~kmodel/index.p ... mitstart=0
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He did a similar job on a Tiger.
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Very impressive. I guess it would be possible to have an open topped Stug 3, displaying all the wee internal treasures, which can still clank along under its RC power. That would be half display model, half RC.
I saw some absolutely brilliant models in the Swiss Military Museum at Full, a few years ago. So far as I can tell, they were made from scratch, and had no Trumpeter or other basis.
Whilst trawling the net for good illustrations of recoil, and elevation arrangements, for the StuG IV (none found..
), I came across this interesting build in German, but on a Dutch forum. I thought it would mentioning because the upper hull/casemate has been reworked from a StuG 111, and displays some really neat ideas.
http://www.battletanksnederland.nl/phpB ... f=9&t=7179
- StuG IV on StuG 111 casemate
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Re: Sturmi - A Finnish Stug
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 7:48 am
by Estnische
One of the things that will push this build along are the large number of aftermarket Mato parts available and very cheaply, for PzIII and Stug builders. Like a kid in the lolly shop, it was all I could do to stop myself saying "I’ll have one of everything!". Although I haven’t seen many of them built in the last two years, the range of extras indicates they must have been popular at some point in the past. I’ve only been around the hobby for the last two years.
The first thing I want to do is look at the lower hull. There is a significant difference on the Sturmi and that is that the Finns dispensed with the intricacies of schurzen, and instead went for plate armour bolted between the return rollers. This photo also shows a mounting bar for spare track link between the second and third rollers, but that was a post-war modification.
As I detailed a few posts ago, the original Heng Long lower has the side hatches which would need to be removed prior to fitting the plates. But handily, they are omitted on the metal reinforced Taigen version.
My last build was the Panther with which I vowed to stick with the plastic lower hull rather than convert to a Taigen metal reinforced version. This time though, the Taigen lower has so many advantages and extra metal bits attached that I am going with it. When I saw that Dave at Forgebear had them on special with 5.1 gearboxes included in the deal, I couldn’t go past it.
Some plasticard panels will do for the plate armour and I was contemplating using some fine detail miniature nuts. Then as I was looking around my leftover bits and saw there are 24 bolts on each of my leftover old Panther wheels. A bit of gentle cutting had them off neatly and then I superglued them on. There is a hole drilled behind them that allowed the glue to go right through so hopefully that's enough to make them stay in place. Happy Days!