Wight's Stug III

[Wight]

Hi guys.
Thought I'd share a few pictures of my stug and as I've now fitted a metal hull,wheels and tracks to it I guess it's turning into a build.
At the moment I am not planning too much for it,I still need to finish my Sherman first really,but I can't help having a play with it and am really enjoying driving it.

I have not got high torque boxes and am using the HL metal gearboxes which needed a little modifying to fit correctly,but work ok.The down side to the HL gearboxes I have found is that with the weight of the metal hull,tracks etc,there is not enough engine braking.Put it on a steep enough hill and it will roll on it's own.This also means that when turning on high grip surfaces like grass it will drag the other gearbox,increasing the turning radius.In fact,down hill it will not turn hardly at all.I am hoping that if I get some high torque gearboxes in the future it will remedy this as I figure it will be harder for the tracks to turn the motors.
I had to trim off a small amount of the front of the gearboxes to allow them to fit correctly,but not too difficult to do.
Also had to reshuffle the interior layout from the instruction sheet as I found the speaker stopped the gun from fully elevating.
I love the fact that the road wheels are held in with a grub screw,it's so easy to remove them and lubricate the shafts.The shafts themselves look to be brass running in brass bushes.I have oiled these with some 3in1 oil as they squeeked when dry.I also put oil on the gearbox bearings and the motor bearings which I feel has made it run smoother and freer.Also the rear idlers come with ball bearings fitted,very nice.

Overall though I am extremely pleased with the metal hull upgrade.It feels really solid when you pick it up and it drives amazingly.I love the way it sits back under acceleration and leans forward in deceleration,fantastic.
Also it's quite surprising how the metal tracks seem to break in.When I first fitted and ran them I added a link,now I have had to remove the links again as I have run out of adjustment.
I like the way the upper hul just clips on also,no more turning the tank over to remove the battery or unscrew the top to get at it's guts.

Starting off with the pictures,this is when I recieved it in standard trim,you can see how low profile it is compared to the sherman,great for hiding in the scenery!





Hull upgrade.







Trimmed gearboxes to fit hull correctly.




Fitted out as per intruction sheet which I soon found that the gun hit the speaker when elevated.



Reshuffled the interior layout to get full gun elevation.Also the battery is a better fit like this.I made the battery from a broken battery drill,runs longer than the Heng Long battery.




Cheers.
Steve.

[xrad]

SWEET, that's is looking good!

[Matdragon]

nice one wight that looks fab!

[xrad]

nice! Did the Stug come with the rx18?

[Saxondog]

The suspension looks very detailed,does seem pretty well built and durable.Fine job you have done,the first picture seems to be with the tracks rather loose,was this the stretching you refer to?Sax

[vonrundstedt]

Looks great!!! Nice and shiney interior

[BREL]

nice work on the Stug III

[Wight]

nice! Did the Stug come with the rx18?

Yes it did come with it.

The suspension looks very detailed,does seem pretty well built and durable.Fine job you have done,the first picture seems to be with the tracks rather loose,was this the stretching you refer to?Sax

No these are the plastic tracks that I tried adding a link to as It seemed like they were way too tight and there was no adjustment on the plastic hull.
However the tracks came off as soon as it turned on rough ground,but I found that the motors responded a lot better with loose tracks.I guess too much tension puts more strain on the running gear.
This is the thing I find great about the metal tracks,they can be run looser without coming off.

Thanks for the comments guys.

[[ICE]monkey]

nice work , hummmm shiney
regards, ice

[Wight]

Hi all.
It's been a while since I touched my Stug,but with the improved weather this weekend I thought it perfect opportunity to have a play in the shed.
One thing I enjoyed whilst doing my Sherman was researching the subject,and again I have been spending time trawling the net for pics and inspiration.I bought the Osprey book on the Stug and although good,does not show many pictures of great detail.

I started by removing the gun as I was interested in correcting the recoil.I followed the instructions found on the net,I think it was rc command,and am very pleased with the way it has worked out.
You can see in the picture of the recoil mech that I added a piece of plastic as a stop as the gun was recoiling too far intitially.
Also took a bit to get the switch position right,or so I thought.At first the the recoil would sometimes keep cycling which I thought was the position of the switch,until I remembered that the transmitter I was using came with a Panzer 4 that when firing the BB gun would sometimes need a slight downward touch on the stick to stop it firing again and again.Switched to the transmitter that came with the stug and all is good.



Started some detail on the mantlet.Filled the IR imitter hole and the front plate clips to make it look all one piece.
Also dug out the miliput and started on the welds.





It's not much,but it's a start.
Hopefully more to come soon.
Steve.