Wespe Assembly Help Needed

[Thomaso827]

The German SP 105 on the MkII hull, the Wespe, comes in 3 parts, the hull, the gun and what looks like the optics/gun sight. I have tried fitting the sight in first and then the gun, and have tried fitting the gun and then the sight, but niether seems to work. I dont know if the pin on the side of the gun is too long or the sight is a bit too big or what. As small as it is, I'm tempted to just leave the gunsight piece out, but thought I would check here first to see if anyone has a tip. Just got the Hummel today and I see it has an instruction sheet, but also seems to have much more room in the hull for these things. Thanks for any help.

Tom Oxley

[jb]

Tom,
I seem to recall doing the wespe for somebody about 5 years ago. I also seem to recall the same predicament. I might have pictures of them in my archive but will need some time to find them. I beleive what i did was get all the pictures of the real ones that I could and went from there... Im almost out the door to work now but will look later...

[Thomaso827]

Thanks, John. No problem. I have a 1/48 scale Bandai model, and while it helped show where the sight is, it doesnt help much in figuring out this problem for me. Seems like it should go on the side of the gun and then the assembly go in, but I can't squeeze it in. The slot for the sight to attach to the hull didnt leave room to put the gun in later. Just one of those times the wonderful detail may complicate things a bit. The sight on the Hummel is also very small, but there is a small step on the hull and a small groove on the piece, so it doesnt seem to interfere with the location of the gun, plus there is lots more space in the larger hull.

Tom Oxley

[jb]

Tom,
I couldn't find the pictures, but I do remember the problem. I beleive I did trim it down some to where it would fit & resmble something of it...

[Thomaso827]

Thanks. There are enough pieces to do some experimenting with in the pack, so I'll do some clipping and fitting. Once I get one to fit, I'll know for the rest. They might consider putting an instruction sheet in with the Wespe as they do with the Hummel.

Tom

[piersyf]

I'm going to have a complete guess here, but it may help... if not, just ignore.
Sights are on the left. I don't know a single artillery piece with sights on the right. Looking at the Wespe hull (I have one hull, no other parts yet... I'll explain later) there is a slot in the hull where I presume the gun is mounted. I would therefore guess that the sights are meant to be mounted to the gun before installing to the vehicle. A view of the sight can be viewed here (http://www.achtungpanzer.com/images/wespint.jpg)

Why do I only have a hull? I'm doing a proper 1 for 1 of the armoured artillery battalion, which means 12 Wespe and 4 Wespe ammo carriers. That's 16 Wespe hulls. The 3 packs of Wespes haven't arrived yet, the 16th hull arrived first...

P

[Oberst]

Hi. I just finished a pack of Wespes. The small part is glued into the slot in the fighting compartment on the left side forming a cradle for the gun. The gun fits in tightly, so it is best to press fit the gun into the cradle befor the glue has time to set. Then you can set the the gun angle and glue it.

Piersyf, What is the break-down of your 1-1 Wespe artillery battalion? (Command, sections, ect.) Are you also adding BMW's, Kubelwagens, trucks, & / or a FOO? I also think this a good battalion to modle at 1-1.

[piersyf]

Hey Oberst. The layout below is for a Wespe Battery; for the full battalion I'd recommend KStN 407(fG) for battalion HQ, KStN 461b for the Hummel Battery and KStN 431b for the 2 Wespe Batteries.

For the Wespe Bty;
command gp has 2 schwimmwagen and 1 kettenrad

Signals group has 2 Kubels, 2 PzIII OP tanks, an sdkfz250/5, an sdkfz 250/2 and a sdkfz251/11

Gun line has 6 Wespe, 2 kubels and a kettenrad

Ammo Gp has 2 Wespe ammo carriers, 2 kubels and 4 3ton trucks

Trains has 5 3ton trucks (4 carry spares and rations, 1 is a field kitchen)

Tech support troop has a kubel, a 2ton truck, 2 3ton trucks and an sdkfz 10.

Cheers

P

[Thomaso827]

Thanks for the details. So the pin on the right side of the gun is more sprue than pin. I suspected that but couldnt be sure. I'll go back and snip and fit and see how it goes. Details like that really make a difference, so hate to leave them out,

Tom Oxley

[Oberst]

Tom I hope I was a help. And Piersyf, Thank you for the info.

[Thomaso827]

Yes, and I meant the pin on the left side of the gun, not the right. This getting old stuff is to blame. I will be working on these this weekend, currently wrapping up a job on a bunch of FoW 15s for an old Army buddy.

Tom