Gun Elevation on Marder III Sdkfz 139

dfoos · Post by **dfoos** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 7:42 pm

I got two of these today at my local WM (I'm surprised because out of all the WM's in my AO, its the closest and the most likely to NOT have anything new) I also got 2 Hetzers.

Has anyone been able to get the gun to elevate on the Marders? Both of mine seem stuck in about a 27 degrees downward angle. Under the gun looks like a gear for elevation but I don't know if its real or just for looks. I don't want to force them and break anything as they are kinda delicate looking.

Thanks,

Dennis

P.S.
Edited for my crappy spelling.

dfoos · Post by **dfoos** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:02 pm

Ok, Answered my own question.
The gear is real, just sticky. I had to disassemble the gun to get it to work. its real sticky. One piece of advice, scrape the teeth of the gear with a hobby knife or something to round out the teeth a little of it is really hard (to the point of possibly breaking the gun) to elevate the gun. After I did this, it elevates a lot smoother but still tight enough to stay where I put it.

Rowsdower · Post by **Rowsdower** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:58 pm

Great info! This bothered me but I've been reluctant to try to fix the problem. Kinda scary fix though,

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:36 pm

The guns on both Marders should elevate and traverse. The traverse on the Marder IIIM is a little trickier on account of the design, but still works. The gun barrels on both vehicles also recoil; again, however, they tend to be "sticky."

dfoos · Post by **dfoos** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:27 am

I maybe misspoke earlier, the fix is easy, It's if you try to force the gun to elevate without modification where you might break the gun. I just recoiled the gun out of the housing, slipped out the gun suppport rail and smoothed out the gear a little to loosten up the catch a little. (It dosen't catch as hard when trying to elevate. If you do it carefully, it should be a breeze. Sorry if I scared anyone. My typing has been really bad lately and my choice of words hasn't been the best.

Jagdpanther · Post by **Jagdpanther** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 7:40 am

On mine it does not elevate so good.

krieglok · Post by **krieglok** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:05 pm

Which one of these Marders had the Russian 76mm guns?

RA5BS · Post by **RA5BS** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:39 pm

The Marder III (not the IIM) was the version that used the Russian 76.2 mm gun. According to the source I was looking at the other night, when the Soviet guns ran out the German 75mm was utilized instead.

dfoos · Post by **dfoos** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:16 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marder_III