StuG III Ausf A2

[capt midnight]

I've been working on this one, off and on, for a bit now and thought it was about time to post some of it. So, here goes!

The looks of the short barrel stugs has kind of grown on me. I did up a couple of long barrels, and I guess the stug bug bit me. I did some searching, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of builds on the early model stugs. I did come across a fantastic build thread by our own PainlessWolf...

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=14564&hilit=tauch

I can not say enough good things about this build thread. It gave me loads of help and inspiration. If you're even remotely thinking about doing one of these conversions you've got to check his thread out. Thanks, Painless!!

It started with a Heng Long Tauchpanzer III.

out of the box

And a picture of one I really liked...

inspiration

StuG_III_ausf_A_photo.jpg (44.96 KiB) Viewed 3154 times

I used the tauchpanzer as it had the right rear deck, saving from having to replace the hatches. It also had the escape hatches on the sides of the lower hull, so that sets it as an Ausf A2, one of 20 or so made.

Here's the interior layout straight out of the box.

interior layout

It had the small battery and the funky battery box. This wasn't really a problem as I planned on removing the battery box altogether. I decided to try something different with this one and seal up the interior. I used spray Plasti Dip after I removed the battery box and sealed up the other holes for the suspension. I placed plastic sheet over these as the stop pegs on the suspension arms do not really reach into the interior.

coated interior

I knew from Painless's build that the gearboxes were going to be a problem, so I ordered a set of low profile ones I found on ebay. Here's a side by side of each.

side by side

Here's the problem with the stock gearboxes.

too tall

front

More to come!

Bill

[PainlessWolf]

Good afternoon,
I am following this build with great interest! ;o)
regards,
Painless

[capt midnight]

Here's the new low profile gearboxes installed.

There is plenty of clearance between the gears and the upper hull, even with the lowered position of the new resin deck. Just have a bit of trimming to do to get the plate to sit correctly.

Here's the upper hull already cut and with the conversion parts installed.

I cut off the tools and such so that I could replace the tread plate. I only left the sponson mounting bars, trimming them to allow the resin casement to set into position.

On most of my vehicles, I replace the fenders with sheet copper to get a more scale look. Also, when you hit something (or something hits you ) they bend in a realistic fashion. Here's the fenders and the smoke candle housing.

fenders

After I made up that nifty candle holder, I realized that I had made the newer style, not the older like the A's had. Well, I'll deal with that later. Here's the rear fenders installed, as well as the replacement rear resin plate.

rear

And the front fenders.

front

Also, you can see the new tread plate installed, as well as the front hatches. The resin hatches that came with it were the wrong type, but the ones on the tauchpanzer were correct. I just cut them out and mounted them in the resin deck.

Bill

[c.rainford73]

Excellent Bill. I am very impressed.

[capt midnight]

I had already painted the lower hull and running gear. I used the plastic tow shackles as I figured they would hold up better that the resin parts.Here it is with some of the deck fittings installed.

I'm not sure what the bumps are on the front, but there were not any with the conversion kit, so I cut them off of the tauchpanzer and added them on.

I installed LED's and mounted the headlight housings on aluminum tubing and attached them to the front plate. The tow shackles are mounted to the lower hull and the lights sit on top of them. The upper hull is held on with magnets, so all you have to do to remove the upper is slide it to the rear.

I scrounged up some copper wire and had a try at making the conduits running to the deck equipment.

Here's the smoke candles I cobbled together. Used acrylic rod, sheet plastic, and some small chains and straight pins.

The resin antenna mounts were really fragile and I knew they wouldn't stand up to any abuse. I had a small piece of square brass tubing that a piece of music wire fit into so I made a mount up with the tube and some copper.

And , to my surprise, it actually stows!

Here it is, ready to paint.

I didn't care for the resin hatches, so I made some new ones out of sheet plastic. I cut some doll house hinges to resemble the real hinges.

I'll have some more up here shortly.

Bill

[c.rainford73]

Bill does this have recoil and flash? It's really coming along nicely. That kit with all your touches makes such a simple little tank out of this world

[capt midnight]

Most everyone has a tank with a commander sticking out of the hatch, or some riders, but I havn't seen any with someone inside. So, challenge accepted! Here's Fritz, the driver.

Fritz

I used a short piece of brass tube with a front site soldered on as an MG barrel. Remounted the LED and ran a piece of fiber optic. Now Fritz can shoot back!

mg

Got the upper hull painted and shaded and got some pictures outside.

overall outside

The rear showing the painted smoke candles and cover. Pardon the finger.

rear

top outside

I cut some stencils to paint the crosses on with. I couldn't find that these early models had very many markings, So i just painted them on rather than ordering a decal sheet.

It had to have a name and I thought the upper hull kind of looked like a turtle, so Schildkrote! German for turtle.

Bill

[PainlessWolf]

Good evening!
It all looks amazing! ;o) Following along!
regards,
Painless

[Marco Peter]

I have a conversion kit like this waiting for me, waiting for 'time' to start working on it. This inspires me to start!

[capt midnight]

Thanks for the great comments, Carl. And yes, it will have recoil and flash!

recoil unit

I got the idea from Painless's build, and I really thought the short barrel would look great with recoil. I was kind of worried about the flash as it's all inside the metal barrel, nothing sticking out of the end, but it's still bright enough from the side to leave blue spots on your eyes!

I'm about at a holding point, waiting on parts. I need the barrel trunion mounts to get the mantlet mounted in place and I think Herman has found me a set. The only other thing I have to pick up is a muffler. Getting ready to order one.

I really like the way it's coming along, so far. Much better than I was expecting!