Jake's Asiatam VK4501 (P)

[Davjacva]

For my first post of a build, I'm going to do my most recent build, and it's of a VK4501 (P) Porsche Tiger that most of you have seen photos of, if not, here's a photo of the actual vehicle.

1) VK4501(P) 003.jpg (73.7 KiB) Viewed 721 times

This is a test to see how the photo posting works, I'm going to continue this if it does.

[Davjacva]

Awesome, it works pretty quickly, so I'm going to follow with the separate build posts.

[Davjacva]

Okay, so the test post worked and now I can proceed. Thanks for your patience. The Porsche Tiger I've wanted to do for at least 15 years and have been collecting parts for it, including tracks, and was even going to sacrifice one of my 3 Imai Elefants for the project, luckily Asiatam came out with one...and all metal too. I've never worked something all metal, so some of the detail was daunting, whereas the needed machining was pretty easy to address. Here's how the tank came.

The problem discovered right away is that the turret turns on an ellipse and not circumferentially, so I wound up ditching the turret, and using a Tamiya turret. This also helped because of the modifications that subsequently had to happen with the turret.

Here you can see with the two turrets where the problem is with the Asiatam turret. The back-end goes over the driver's periscopes as it's turning on an ellipse.

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The Tamiya will turn much better.

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So in order to do this of course, the deck has to be re-machined to fit the turret and the Tamiya drive system.

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Here's after machining, and after the recess was created. Not mentioned, was my rotary table became a pain and I did a lot of this by hand...a little X, a little Y...yes a pain.

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Now here is the turret in-place with the Tamiya turret drive installed.

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After running the turret and polishing the turret race until it operated smoothly, the next issue was found after I was tuning up the bogie suspension assemblies. After installing and removing a few times, the part with the two halves inside the tank where the screw mounts started coming apart and one sheared off. This was not acceptable. So I had a buddy who who wasn't too busy if he could create me some new shafts made of steel that were threaded and halved on one end, and also, he added a set screw so these assemblies could be further adusted for tension. What we found with the Imai Elefants, which these were copied from, was that you have a given spring and that was all the adjustment you got.

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And here's the finished product on the left alongside one of the stock ones on the right.

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Next I'll cover the turret work.

[Davjacva]

Next up is back-dating the mantlet to one of the re-inforced 'first 50'. You used to could just order Parts tree 'F' from the Tamiya Afrikan kit and the world was fine, but they discontinued the kit, so we have to do some surgery. Here's cutting out the offending area, and then making the area smooth, I re-used the gun-sights portion, then using automotive putty (Evercoat Z-grip) I made it all back up. it's going to be covered in zimmerit anyway, but I digress...

11) Mantlet-IMG_3085a.jpg (80.29 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

And here's the finished piece.

Next up for the turret is the stowage bin and the track stowage assembly that has to be created beneath it. ALERT: WHAT ASIATAM GIVES YOU FOR ALL THIS JUST TOSS IT ASIDE. Asiatam provides a PzIII stowage bin, so I had to get one from a Tamiya kit that was correct, but lacked any detail which we'll fix later. Years ago, I had to scratch one out for a Bandai PzIV when I tossed the whole turret in the garbage, but luckily I don't have to this time...but the parts tree with the stowage bin is $40. Also, getting info on the stowage rack was tough, and I had 5 references, but that all came through.

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Another thing Asiatam does not do is provide the correct front glacis fittings, so these have to be modeled in and strengthened as its a metal RC vehicle.

15) front glacis work-IMG_3544a.jpg (59.86 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

Now another big-game changer. When I got the lower hull complete, I assembled all that was needed to test the drive system. During this testing I had to re-adjust some of the bogies and how the sprockets ran, so no big deal and back to testing, and it ran great...until...it was discovered the gearboxes have gears that are heat-pressed onto the shafts and a number of them were slipping. Tossed these into the box and went and grabbed a set of Tamiya Type I's as they would fit into the back end of the hull. So I had to machine new outdrive shafts and mount them into new holes and filling in the old ones. Getting everything aligned again and test ran it...and it works great. What you see in the photo below from the lower right going counter-clockwise is the stock Asiatam gearbox, above it is the new Tamiya gearbox with a newly machined outdrive shaft, to it's left is the stock Tamiya Type I and below it the brass stock that's going to be it's new outdrive shaft.

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Next deal, is to create the rear deck screens with racks. These were all soldered then screening glued down.

17) screens-IMG_3677a.jpg (87.95 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

At this point I'm laying zimmerit and am using Milliput, and as you all know when doing zimmerit, you have to have the tools/fitting ready to go. Here I had to get creative with brackets I had to make and how they were to be mounted, while laying zimmerit. Fun, fun, fun.

18) zimmerit-IMG_3619a.jpg (72.83 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

Now it's time to get all the interior electronic items installed. I forgot to mention, and I believe it's because of all this metal, but the original motors were getting a lot of interference, so I replaced them with some higher-torque long cans and the problem was eliminated. To get these to fit, I had to cut even more portions of the gearbox frames away...no biggie. Of course all the outside fittings and base coat of the exterior and the interior is all painted out.

Now it's time for painting, and this also is the first time I get to use my spray booth I bought a few years ago. I wasn't at the point of doing any painting, so hadn't used it. Here I've got the basic 3-colors on.

[Davjacva]

Now it's time to hand-paint the markings and numerals.

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The tank is now painted, now to muck it up.

Porsche Tiger Completed 17Nov18 (4)a.jpg (90.52 KiB) Viewed 1816 times

[Davjacva]

One thing with the completed vehicle was with the unit marking front and back. I made a two-part stencil for it, but looking at the photos while it is on the train, the crew did a basic job of it, not very detailed like you see on some Elefants. Anyway, here's the finished vehicle.
Jake

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[Davjacva]

That's all of it. A big thing at the end with photos I had to contend with was lighting. I have an awesome camera but had bad lighting and need to switch to a (blue?) bulb. These were taken without flash as the flash really distorted it all. I'm finishing up my WeCoHe Panther and I'll be better prepared for it. Anyway, it is what it is.
Jake

[c.rainford73]

Brilliant work. Always wanted to build one of these. Such an interesting machine that you have done to a very high standard

[Davjacva]

Wardog et all, thanks for the comments. With the photos, this is really a good comment I need to take care of. I'm shooting with a Canon Rebel and with the closeups, some portion of the photo is in focus, but other areas aren't. It's got six sensors and whichever one picks up, the autofocus takes that one. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. With digital, I take at least five shots for each one. I was doing them in flash, and they were really awful. Doing closeup shots I really need a macro lens vice a zoom lens, but thinking about it, I was shooting this time up close all the time, instead of backing away to about 4' then zooming the lens in. I think you probably get a better handle with the sensors. Funny thing is people come up with their phones and take great photos now
thanks,
Jake

[Son of a gun-ner]

Wow, fantastic build Jake

I used to have a Pentax with all the bells and whistles in its time, borrowed a variety of lenses from my brother, yet I took better pictures with my pocket Vivitar.

I gave up and took my Pentax to a swap shop, came out with a compound hunting bow (I don't hunt) and a crossbow, I can shoot them much better lol.

Now I use my phone, and I have various lenses I can attach to it

Anyway, I love your P

Mick.