YES! Very nice work Jo! [sm=thumbs_up.gif] Can't wait to see more.

Very nice. I think I'll be ordering another PZ III to do something like this

Hi jom

Great project & subject to boot, will be following your progress also

Have noticed your metal tracks
question what make or brand are they




Cheers All

[quote]ORIGINAL: A N Z A C

Hi jom

Great project & subject to boot, will be following your progress also

Have noticed your metal tracks
question what make or brand are they




The tracks came from Asiatam and were ordered as standard tracks, when in fact they have the ice cleats for winter use. I can't find them on the Asiatam site, so I'm a bit mystified too. No problem though - they look good on the Stug. Incidentally they are 90 link tracks with 3 spares supplied each side. So far I'm using 91 links per side and it looks good with a reasonable amount of droop between the top rollers.

Jo

The Hull is now back up and running - see picture - although the boards and battery etc are just "thrown" in. The boards are in ziplock bags to stop them shorting out on any other bits of metal (or each other). The result of painful experience!

I've relieved the inner wall to miss the motor shaft - you only need to do this if the walls are thicker than standard. See also the relief for the return roller mounts.

By following the plans slavishly I have actually built a very early G, with the short side panniers. It's not what I was planning to do so I have extended them. (Doh!)


Jo

Weld representation - I decided to use a temperature controlled soldering iron (it's an old cheap one, cunningly voltage limited through a light dimmer). It has a copper bit which has been filed to a chisel point about 2.5mm wide.
The light dimmer doesn't seem to work at the moment so I resorted to turning the iron on and off - use a bit of scrap plastic, get the iron hot enough to just melt the plastic and then turn it off and use it on the tank body. once it stops making an impression turn it on and repeat the process.

It pulls up a lot of plastic which looks scrappy, but after sanding it looks good - see the welds on the engine cover.

Also added the strip of armour under the mantlet.

Jo

Hi Jom neat trick well done its looking real good


regards pete

I've used the HL Panzer drivers viewing slit (slightly repositioned to the outside) and added the frontal bolt on armour from 2.5mm styrene sheet. The nuts are M2 with a short piece of M2 thread. I had to buy a metre length of threaded rod, so I guess I've got enough M2 to last....

The lift loops on the top body are made from copper wire (available in any convenient wall in your house). No seriously, it's an extremely easy material to work with if it's annealed. (To anneal copper heat it up to dull red with a butane torch and quench in water. Do it somewhere that's fireproof). It will work harden with bending or hammering, so if it gets difficult to work with - anneal it again. The loops were bent around a piece of rod and then the ends were hammered flat and trimmed off with a file. I've used Milliput to simulate the welds to the body.

The driver's pistol port was made from a bit of scrap that came out of a cd drive (or something). I routinely strip down my old computer components looking for motors, interesting parts, small screws etc.

I decided to make the StuG fairly late in the production run so I've simulated the interleaved plate welding on the back of the body.

Very nice jom, great Idea for the handle, and the nuts with studs look much better then plastic. Tanks coming along nicely.

Gary

A bit more progress.

The toolbox fits to the rear deck, and is bolted on. I've made brackets from brass angle and used brass pins as the fixing bolts.

Started to make the fixing angles along the side of the the superstructure. Again, using brass pins to simulate the bolts. More to do on these as there are also mudguard fixing brackets which bolt to it.

The top surface of the mudguards is styrene chequerplate (G gauge railway?). It's not the same as the original pimple plate but it looks close enough.

The asiatam air intake mesh is fitted, along with their supplied bolts which look a little big. I've also added the fixings on the outside of the intake (pins again!)

Jo

It's coming along nicely.

Where did you get those M2 screws and nuts from? I am also looking for them but couldn't get it locally.

From a local (industrial) supplier of nuts, bolts and screws in NZ. With all the PC/server manufacturing in Singapore someone must stock the small stuff - you just need to find out who.

Jo

A little further (work has seriously interfered with the important things in life).

I've added a weld pad mount for the front of the toolbox, and (nearly) made the side brackets for the crew compartment.

Jo

Wow, very nice, the detail work will pay off in the end. And those welds look very real. [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Fantastic project! I love the details, realy good

This sure beats the Lego block version I was planning. Outstanding work.

jom were did you get them gearboxes at could use them in my jagdpanzer 4 l\70 lang project .

thank
jimmy

Awesome build. Can't wait to see it finished

very good! wish i could do something like that []! lol very nice fine detailing and cant wait to see the finished product!

cheers, Matt

I found the low profile gearboxes on e-bay uk .

Thanks
Jimmy

Starting to put the detail onto the top of the crew compartment.

The edge pieces are in place for the sliding gunsight cover - if you look at the two piece cover you can see that I've already cocked it up - luckily I can solder a hinge over the hole. (Rob where's your how to on hinges - I need it....!)

Have also started playing with the m/g shield - I realised that its a rectangular sheet with bent edges, so that makes it easier to cut out. I think I'll have to fit the gunners hatch before finalising the shape and size as the shield locks back onto the forward hatch cover, which sets the angle that it sits at when upright. That should fix the position of it fore and aft: the length is determined by the top edge of the shield - when it lays down flat (folded forwards) the front edge of the shield is in line with the front edge of the crew compartment.

I've also build a fan powered smoker using a PC pentium processor cooling fan (crude but effective - see other posts for how to do it) the only problem being that the way to regulate the amount of smoke is to vary the hole size in the smoker. As I CA'd the fan in I can't get to it any more.....[&o]

Jo

Jo
will post up the how to on the hinges tonight (have you got plenty of thin brass sheet and Tube/rod about 1mm dia)

Regards rob

P.s will E-mail you to

It's been a while but I finally got some time on the Stug. Also got motivated yesterday by the post, containing a recoil unit. That's going to need a bit of thought, as I don't have all the convenient turret mounts for it, not having a turret....

I decided to do some of the small details so this is my way of making working swivel mounted screws, in this case attaching the rear mounted track clamp. This idea could also be used on the jack clamps.

Started with strip brass (.015"x 1/4", or 0.45x 6.4mm) and two sizes of copper tube - .095" (2.4mm) o/d and .062" (1.6mm) o/d. The smaller tube is a snug fit inside the other.

The large tube was silver soldered to a length of the strip, and an 8mm (not important) length of the smaller tube drilled in the centre to accept an 00-90 x 1/4" screw, with the head removed. After soldering it's important to drill out the centre of the tube again

The tube and strip was marked off at 3 x 1.5mm intervals and the centre piece cut out and filed The smaller tube and screw was cut nearly flush to the thread.

I use a jewellers saw and "bench pin" (a scrap piece of wood or mdf that has a v-slot) to cut - the slot provides support for a variety of small stuff. It's also sacrificial so you can cut into it, make shaped cutouts to support stuff etc., and when it gets too bad, make another one....

Next step is to increase the wall thickness of the swivel bracket by soft soldering a piece of the small tube inside it.

I use additional solder flux - see the pictures, it may look German but it's made in the UK. this helps the solder to 'bite' and flow - basically the solder will only go where there's flux. Brass in particular needs lots of it. As my jewellery teacher says "flux is your friend".

After soldering the centre is again cut out and filed to accept the swivel screw. I've used a piece of 0.8mm stainless steel wire as the pivot, locked in by coating it in flux and re-heating the assembly with a soldering iron. The solder just runs enough to lock the pin in. All that's left is to drill 2 bolt fixing holes, and reduce the height a bit until it looks right.
I find it easier to make things a bit big, and file them smaller, than the other way