RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hello,

I was a little surprised when I saw that there was no printable model of the schmalturm turret, so I decided to start designing it myself.

The Schmalturm (German for "narrow turret") was a tank turret designed for use on the Panther Ausf. F medium tank. There was a Krupp proposal to fit it onto the Panzer IV medium tank as well. It featured a narrow front to maximize protection while minimizing weight. It was both lighter and easier to manufacture than the standard Panther turret. The turret had a stereoscopic rangefinder with lenses on either side of the turret, located in spherical bulges. No Schmalturms entered series production. (source: Wikipedia).

Schmalturm at the Bovington Tank Museum (source: wikipedia):

Panzer Tracts 5-4 book ( Panzerkampfwagen Panther II and Panther Ausfuehrung F) has a good blueprint of the turret on page 5-260, and it will be my primary source, will be my main source, along with the few real photos that exist.

Source: Panzer Tracts 5-4, copyright in the blueprint.

Edumardo wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 11:10 amI was a little surprised when I saw that there was no printable model of the schmalturm turret

Perhaps because you can buy a ready-made turret from Taigen

But good luck and I'm waiting for your progress

Hi again,

I started designing the commander's cupola, quite similar to Panther Ausf.G cupola but slightly different.

The design:

And the test print with filament. I think that with a good sanding and processing it would work perfectly, obviously printed in resin it would be much better
Comparison Schmalturm cupola vs Heng Long cupola:

This is the general appearance of the current design. The roof is removable and will be fixed, probably with magnets. There are some details left to add, but it looks good.
I like to test the design with print tests, perhaps not of the entire model, but of the parts that require fitting (some photos do not correspond to the current design).

Hi all,

I think I finished all the details, time to complete the elvation and recoil system, I will use two MG90 servos because I have good experience with them.

Somo pictures of the design

Printing that long barrel will be quite a challenge on my small printer (180x180x180), it will have to be divided into two pieces. But the entire turret fits in it, a sample :

I couldn't resist taking this photo with the Panther Heng Long upper hull:

Hi friends,

Let's now see the movement of the barel. I have used two MG90 servos, one for recoil and one for elevation, and a standard heng long gearbox for turning.

The barrel pivots between the front and the outer disc, fastened with two screws.


The recoil system moves the barrel through a channel, with a small tab to prevent it from rotating on itself.


For turret rotation, I have used the same system of heng long with its turret ring.


Ok, this is very nice but where are the photos and videos?



The barrel and pivoting frame require a good sanding and adjustment to make it slide well and avoid too much rubbing. Maybe a drop of lubricant would be appropriate

Nice!

Very nice job looks spot on.

regards pete

You might want to add a counter weight under the gun breech to reduce the strain on the elevation servo.

Tiger6 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 9:33 am You might want to add a counter weight under the gun breech to reduce the strain on the elevation servo.

Thanks for the advice!.

I didn't say but I'm using the TK-26 board for testing.