JSU-203

[Bryan Krueger]

Looks like I'm in the Soviet SPG zone again. This is more of a what-if than the last one.

The idea comes from a drawing I found in the WOT book on the development of the SU-152. Apparently 152mm wasn't enough and they wanted to jam a 203mm howitzer into the fighting compartment. Crew comfort and ammo stowage with the 152 was bad enough so yeah, cram something bigger in there.



This is all well and good but I don't have a Su-152 in the stash but I do have a Tamiya JSU-152. It's partially started kit I received as a gift.



I used the drawings found in the WOT book and created the 203mm barrel in SolidWorks. The part is designed to fit the Tamiya JSU-152 kit. This is the layout I sent to Shapeways.



We'll see how things go in a couple of weeks when I get the barrel and other AM delivered and can get started.

[Shawn Ramsey]

Well this will certainly be another Bryan masterpiece.

Shawn

[Philipp Gross]

Still looks reasonable enough compared to some other Soviet designs

Looking forward to your build!

Philipp

[Bryan Krueger]

Thanks Shawn!!!

Philipp - Yeah, there are so many weird Soviet designs, this one actually seems practical.

I've been wanting to build an ISU 152 for a while so this should be fun.

[Adam Durrant]

With that cannon, in that casemate there would be very little room to swing a cat!

[Philipp Gross]

As long as comrade Commissar can still swing his Tokarev crew morale should remain adequate

Philipp

[Bryan Krueger]

As long as comrade Commissar can still swing his Tokarev crew morale should remain adequate
Philipp

[Bryan Krueger]

There is a little explanation about the 203 here: http://tankarchives.blogspot.com/2013/0 ... -guns.html

Another attempt at a 203 mm gun was undertaken at Perm in 1943, indexed SU-203. A "SU-14 type" SPG was equipped with a 203 M-4 mortar, based on the B-4 howitzer. The ammunition used by the two was the same. 20 100 kg shells were stored inside the tank.
The gun mechanisms were so massive, that the driver had to be moved to the right. The fighting compartment got much smaller, pushing out the gunner. His position, as on the T-34, was filled by the commander.
As for mass, the M-4 was previously used on the ML-20 mount with no modifications, as corps level artillery. The resulting SPG would not have been significantly heavier. However, bigger is not necessarily better. Due to the short barrel and low velocity, the M-4 could only penetrate 80 cm of concrete, where the ML-20 could penetrate 140 cm. The Br-2 that engineers tried to cram into a ZIK-20 could penetrate 2 meters of concrete.

[Bryan Krueger]

The Tamiya JSU was partially started when I acquired it so assembly has been pretty straight forward. Fortunately the road wheel arms were not attached so I was able to pose the tank nose heavy.

I have focused mostly on the detail work while I wait for tracks and PE fenders. The printed barrel arrived mid week. It required a bit more cleanup because Shapeways does not have as high a resolution printer as a Form2 which printed the ZIK-20 barrel. Two rounds of Tamiya primer and wet sanding took care of the build lines. The muzzle break has a light cast texture added with Mr Surfacer 500.

This Tamiya kit came with an old Eduard set for the Dragon JSU. I should have sprung for a proper set as most of the Eduard PE was just wrong or too simplified. I spent two days soldering up the fuel drum holders only to find out they were wrong. Maybe some stowage and damage can hide the errors.









At first I thought the barrel looked silly but it is starting to grow on me.

[Steve Hutchinson]

Morning Bryan

the barrel looks like it is in the right place, even if the interior is virtually unworkable.

Nice work

Steve H