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SCALE M3A1 STUART TANK
STUART TANK HISTORY This fast,
sturdy, but thin-skinned, and under-gunned vehicle was designed in
the late 1930’s when the world’s armies thought that several
types of tanks were required to fight a modern war.
The armies had scout tanks, cruisers, heavies (not the US),
etc. (The rosters
sounded as if the army was run by the navy!).
As a light tank Stu came off as a pretty good vehicle, but
when it was tried against the bigger German tanks in North Africa it
was found very wanting. But,
it does have a history of destroying a few of its big enemies.
Stuarts were very agile and great hill climbers.
If you could shoot down at a Panzer it was easy game.
This happened in Sicily.
A Panzer IV ambush was ambushed by a bunch of hill-climbing
Stuarts. Five dead
Panzers, Stuarts unharmed.
When they would get around behind—even the 37mm
(pop-gun) could take out the big stuff.
See “Hell on Wheels”, a history of the US Second Armored
Division, and how the M5 Stuarts took out part of the Siegfried Line
in western Germany in 1944! The M3A1 Stuart
(with a lot of rivets and a radial engine) morphed into the M3A3
(sleeker, welded) but kept the early suspension.
Then the M5 came along—tall, boxier, same suspension,
twin Cadillac engines and automatic transmissions.
Still thin and with the same 37 mm gun.
Then came the best light tank of the war—the M24 Chaffee.
It retained the Stuart twin engines, but was a very modern
looking vehicle, with heavier armor and the aircraft-derived 75mm
gun. Stuarts were
given the incongruous name “Honey” by the British Army soldiers
in North Africa. According
to Robert Crisp,
One of the most
interesting features of this little tank is the vertical volute
swing-arm suspension. “Decidedly
agricultural, old chap.” was the remark made by one Brit when he
viewed his first Stuart. They
were sturdy and easily repairable, as were all the US tanks in WW2.
Viewers enjoy watching the suspension action on our Stuart
models. We get many
requests at shows to drive them over obstacles so they can see the
articulation once more. “Drive
it by again, Sam?” Click Here for some Views of the New Stuart Model SPECIFICATIONS
*Length: 28 inches (711 mm)
ABOUT
THE STUART MODEL The models have
welded aluminum (aluminium) hulls and turrets and cast aluminum
wheels with rubber tires on the road wheels.
The track links are aluminum with molded-in rubber pads.
Steel is used for the pins and connectors. These tracks (like the real ones) have proven to be very
strong and long lasting, mainly due to the large pin-link contact
area, and the use of the two pins per link (twice the wear area.)
Most of the other components are made of machined aluminum
with some of the more intricate parts done in cast resin. The bogie
springs are compression springs, concealed in functioning brass
volute covers. Swingarms,
spring perches, and frames are machined aluminum with steel links
and pins. The bogie
wheels run on nylon bushings with steel axles.
The rear idler wheels are fitted with sealed ball bearings.
Their swing-arms are also loaded by compression springs. The turret is
mounted on a central shaft and is driven by a large-scale servo
through a set of reduction gears.
It rotates at an approximate scale speed of 4 revs per
minute. The turret will
rotate 360 degrees if the long-range tanks are not installed.
Unlike the Shermans that we used to make slip-rings are not
provided and the operator must watch out for too much windup with
the wires. The gun is
elevated by a smaller servo—20 degrees up, 5 degrees down.
The gun is bored out for 6 mm paintballs or pellets.
It has a recoil slide but an actuator is not provided. Four .30 caliber
machine guns are provided with the model.
One is swivel mounted on the turret rear.
One is rigidly mounted in the right sponson.
One is mounted with the main gun and there is a ball-mounted
one in the lower hull. The upper hull
is hinged to the lower hull at the front and can be easily tilted up
for interior access. Inside
the lower hull are two .24 HP drive motors, two 12 volt batteries,
Vantec controller, 6 volt supply, R/C receiver and the final drive.
The batteries are widely obtainable 12 volt 12 amp-hour non-spillable
sealed lead acid types. The
tanks are ground shipped with batteries installed but not by air. An optional
two-speed transmission is available at an additional cost. This transmission gives the model better performance for both
hill-climbing in low gear and higher speed in high gear. (The
standard transmission gives fine performance, but, is necessarily a
compromise as in all model tanks.)
The two-speed is shifted by radio command and to do this a
transmitter with a three position switch (Airtronics VG600 type or
similar) is required. With this setup the tank can be in low, neutral or high.
Neutral is very useful to have as it makes the model easy to
move in case the batteries are run down or there is a blown fuse.
The transmission can be shifted by hand as well. The tanks are
provided with Vantec controllers, RDFR types, giving single stick
steering and throttle control.
A three position toggle switch gives—full tank power,
turret power only, and off. A Cermark 6 volt supply provides power to the servos—shift,
turret rotation, and gun elevation.
A 5 amp fuse protects the Cermark while the Vantec is
protected by a 20 amp fuse on each motor.
An extra Cermark supply can be provided for 7.2 volts, if
desired, at a moderate cost. This
can be used to power sound units, for example. NEW
PRODUCT COMING SOON As soon as some
development work is done, we will offer a lower hull assembly that
will fit under the popular 21 Century M5 plastic model upper hull. With our chassis and some instructions, a modeler will be
able to build a good running and much less expensive M5 tank. The chassis will include the hull, tracks, suspension, drive
sprockets, hubs, axles, and mounting brackets.
More on this later. |
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