The SU-76i (i = inostranets meaning foreigner) was conceived as a stop gap vehicle built from captured German Panzer IIIs.
What if similar was done using Panzer 38t hulls?  The resulting vehicle to be known as the SU-76c (c = cheshskiy meaning czech).

SU-76c Start. by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Today I constructed the lower hull and cut away what is required from the upper.  The Panzer 38 is significantly smaller than the Panzer III.

SU-76c WIP 14-04-2023 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Interesting project 

Oh, I like that! 

Agreed Thomas 👍..I like this too.
You can still get away with that on the 38Ts hull Fred..just take a look at other conversions the Germans did on French machines and how they over hang the hulls.

Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on April 14, 2023, 11:32:00 AMYou can still get away with that on the 38Ts hull Fred..just take a look at other conversions the Germans did on French machines and how they over hang the hulls.

Some of those are very interesting looking vehicles. I've often wondered if anybody in the 8th Army thought about mounting 2 pdr at guns on captured Italian hulls etc ? I've seen some photos of improvised vehicles (year ago) during the siege of Tobruk but that's about it.

Chris there was many battle field conversions done on both sides ...the Germans would mount their little 37mm AT guns on captured Bren gun carriers ..the Brits would mount captured Italian 20mm cannons on their armoured cars ..anything to get more fire power onto vehicles.
The Germans also mounted captured russian 76.2mm AT guns on the back of 5ton half tracks.
When the Germans introduced the Pak 40 75mm AT gun they had themselves a wicked bit of kit so of course they mounted that on bloody near everything 😄
Oh they also mounted the gun from a Panther which is a L70 75mm gun on the back of a 5 ton half track .
The Allies did this but not often as we weren't incredibly desperate for anything with a big gun on it which for us armour modelers is great 👍 😀
So many doors to open with German conversions and its wiff city there for us 

Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on April 14, 2023, 11:32:00 AMAgreed Thomas 👍..I like this too.
You can still get away with that on the 38Ts hull Fred..just take a look at other conversions the Germans did on French machines and how they over hang the hulls.

It doesn't look that way in the pic but the casement is no wider than the track guards.  Engine access would be a PitA but when did maintenance requirements ever get thought about by designers...

Anyhoo, after some carefull sanding to square everything up, some measuring, and some marking of centrelines (all of which make a change from my usual rush in and line it up by eye technique, I must be learning) I glued the casement onto the top of the hull today.


I have been looking through the tanks encyclopedia website and there are some very weird RW lash ups on there.  I'm yet to find a flakvierling 38 on a Universal carrier though (something else bouncing around in my head).

Quote from: zenrat on April 15, 2023, 06:38:04 AMI'm yet to find a flakvierling 38 on a Universal carrier though (something else bouncing around in my head).

I would suggest that this might not be the most stable vehicle in the fleet!

The Germans were building anything with a big gun sort of program right from the start of WW2 really like the Bison 1 ..a SIG33 gun mounted on a Panzer 1 B chassis so converting non gun armour into heavily armed armour was nothing new .
If ya wanted top heavy this is a great candidate 
There was several conversions done to the very small Lorraine Schlepper (tractor) ...Germans mounted Pak40 75mm and 150mm and 105mm guns on those .
There's plenty of down right ugly conversions done with many captured French tanks..again thr Pak40 on a Hotchkiss H-39..same sort of deal with the FMX chassis as well .
As for your concern about maintenance Fred just think of the 128mm Emil SPG..you basically had to remove the entire gun just to change thr engine or gearbox..not a very well thought out idea was with its full name 12.8cm Selbstfahrlafette L/61 and yes I copied that from a book 😉
I think a little bit of miscommunication has takin place Freddy mate ..I didn't mean the Flakverling Flak 38 20mm ..I meant the 37mm Pak 36 anti tank gun ..or as the Germans called it ..The armies door knocker...even though they did mount the single barreled Flak 38 on Panzer1 As.
You could almost say the list is endless with all the ideas the Germans had .

I did find the Bren carrier with the Pak 36 ..the Germans named it 3.7cm pak auf fahrgestell bren .
Looking thru this book found quite a few more vehicles that had that gun mounted ..there's a few and some conversions are not that great like the mounting it on a tiny French Chenillette infantry carrier or the even smaller russian STZ komsomolets artillery tractor..dude that ain't pretty     

The various Katyusha, Calliope and Stuka zu Fuss mountings were... interesting, too - though there wasn't the issue of recoil, of course.

Quote from: zenrat on April 15, 2023, 06:38:04 AM(all of which make a change from my usual rush in and line it up by eye technique, I must be learning)

It's all about the Learning Curve, after all - Growing in the Hobby ...   

Despite measuring and marking up I managed to glue the casement on crooked.
So today I removed it and reattached it more straighter.

I've done that Fred and I still don't know how the hell it happens 

Will be an interesting conversion as it goes on.

Nice work. I think I had one of these in conversion sets in 1/35 at one stage, but may have been moved on at a swap and sell. Or still in a box. Somewhere 

"Somewhere in a Box"... a phrase I know all too well, having used it on too many occasions.