My Starting Point
My starting point was the
ersatz KV-85 above, which had used an old HL KV-1E model. It's bone stock and from the 27mHz era. The battery box was removed and all of the electronics which will get replaced by a Canshuo TK 6.1 board. It has servo ports for recoil and elevation, so down the road will see the BB version KV-2 turret converted to servo controls.
"E" in KV-1E is for "Ekranami" which means "with shields". My Russian has just increased 150%! KV-2s were shieldless. Off goes all of the hull's bolt on armour between the bogies and return rollers. KV-2s also lacked the additional armour plate on the lower glacis of a regular KV-1 so that got pried off as well. The factory glue guy was relatively skimpy that day so no drama.
- 20230916_135303.jpg (1.71 MiB) Viewed 46842 times
- 20230924_144106.jpg (1.77 MiB) Viewed 46842 times
That leaves lots of holes and openings in the hull to be blanked off and filled. I'll use stretched sprue and MEK, and plastic card and filler for all of that. Another area on the lowers to get some attention will be the taillight, which HL figured was a good spot for the exhaust from the smoker to exit! Out goes the smoker. I'm not a fan of smokers so no big loss, and a bit more breathing room in the hull. Time to fab up a tailight bezel and lens.
- 20230924_144050.jpg (1.83 MiB) Viewed 46842 times
- 20230920_152851.jpg (1.53 MiB) Viewed 46842 times
I could already see the front idler mounts weakening the hull sides, with a tiny bit of whitish plastic discolouration in one spot from flexing. That area has been reinforced with thick plastic sheet MEK welded, and a cross brace will be added for stability. Another orphaned KV-1 I had had one idler snapped right off. I used aluminum plate for that repair, but I'm hoping plastic will be good here since it was so far gone.
- 20230919_152432.jpg (1.42 MiB) Viewed 46842 times
So that's the lower hull on its way. Next comes some surgery on the uppers. And a gearboxectomy!
Mike.
