3D Printed 1/6th KV-1

[tankme]

I ended up coming home from work last night with a massive migraine so I wasn't able to post my updates. Hopefully tonight.

I did save the cut files in case I'm ever crazy enough to build another one of these or possibly a KV-2...

You mean when? Looks very impressive. I assume you are able to get it out of the room?

It's starting to get heavy now that the motors are in it. It's currently in the garage, but I was going to move it back into the hobby room so that I can do the wiring. I think the tracks are 3-4kg so once they are one it will be a little harder to move around. I bought one of those hydraulic lift tables recently so that I could raise it up while working on it.

What printer and material are you using? I would like to do this one day if I ever catch up on my backlog of other tanks.

Most of of it is PETG. Some ABS, but not much as I've been printing my ABS on my filament printer lately.

I did save the cut files in case I'm ever crazy enough to build another one of these or possibly a KV-2...

You underestimate yourself. We all know your crazy enough to print another one as one is never enough.

I've really wanted to print the Warprints Cromwell...

[Herr Dr. Professor]

"work" = "a massive migraine"

[Xiaoshan_Sailor]

Here's an example of a printed KV-2 in the same scale.

936a924edcd2c2f4ddf699a982867bc4.jpg (264.33 KiB) Viewed 51 times

[tankme]

Here's an example of a printed KV-2 in the same scale.

936a924edcd2c2f4ddf699a982867bc4.jpg

Yeah, those are the same files except that he scratch built the lower hull where as mine is printed.

[tankme]

During the initial build there was still tons of printing. The sprockets and tracks were printed in multiple pieces. Each track piece was printed in half and glued down the center to ensure the guide pins were strong. Right now each track has a 3mm steel pin.





Took a lot of printing before a full track was formed (IS-4 in 1/16 for scale).



While printing and assembling tracks I kept printing parts like tool boxes which end up being 11 parts including having to bend the handles. I bolted the boxes to the skirt and to the chassis to provide more strength to the skirts.



I printed and glued the turret pieces together. I'll have to get some better pics of the recoil mechanism, but needless to say it will be modified as the original designer intended it to be used without a control board. Mine will be servo driven. There were a lot of detail bolts and screws to glue on. Plus there a lot of actual fasteners used like flat head screws on all the periscope covers and to hold the machine gun mounts on.



And more parts printed...



I think the only hatch that were supposed to open was the turret and possibly the driver's hatch, but I modified the files to make the engine hatches open by modifying the files slightly. You will notice the engine hatches don't have the interior locking handle, but I did add the lock as it's used in the center of the hatch via a tool.







I will continue this on the next post...

[jee]

Here's an example of a printed KV-2 in the same scale.

936a924edcd2c2f4ddf699a982867bc4.jpg

Yeah, those are the same files except that he scratch built the lower hull where as mine is printed.

I dont think Martin scratch built the lower hull, but also printed it. He did some rework on the suspension as far as I know to make it a bit stronger

it is an awesome built by the way!!!

[tankme]

Before I got to work on the suspension I had to make some decisions about how I was going to modify it so that it worked. None of the bearings from the 1/10th plans fit so I just found generic M5 and M6 bearings for the suspension parts. I then used the Bambu slicer to create some adapters to get them to fit in the printed holes for the wheels, return rollers, idlers, and suspension arms.

Sprockets



Suspension mounts





Suspension arms - I ended up cutting both shafts off the arms and used M6 machine screws. If I'd had know how much plastic I was going to cut off I would've printed the suspension already moded, but hindsight it 20/20.







Sprocket mod - used an M12 threaded shaft as my drive shaft. Pics are a little newer hence the paint, but it shows how I also created adapters for bearings in the drive train before doing a final suspension test fit.



Inner and outer bearing for the drive shaft. One had to be sunk in somewhat to accommodate my fasteners.



Drive hub without bearings



Drive inner and outer bearings installed





And all together for a test fit...



Continued in the next post...

[tankme]

Here's an example of a printed KV-2 in the same scale.

936a924edcd2c2f4ddf699a982867bc4.jpg

Yeah, those are the same files except that he scratch built the lower hull where as mine is printed.

I dont think Martin scratch built the lower hull, but also printed it. He did some rework on the suspension as far as I know to make it a bit stronger

Might be Rene that did then. He also built one from the 1/10th files.

[jee]

Yeah, those are the same files except that he scratch built the lower hull where as mine is printed.

I dont think Martin scratch built the lower hull, but also printed it. He did some rework on the suspension as far as I know to make it a bit stronger

Might be Rene that did then. He also built one from the 1/10th files.

You mean Rene Wijte, that could be very well possible.

[tankme]

The tracks ready to test fit.







Test fitting and suspension testing - suspension is rubber bands as they are cheap and infinitely adjustable by adding more or taking them away.







And the travel on the arm



Now on to the motor mounts. I knew they were going to be an issue which is why the project stalled for so long. Then one day I found a set of motor mounts I had for set of motors I was going to use on my Dragon Sherman project. Since that wasn't started yet I figured what the hell. There they were on Thingiverse the whole time: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2855151

Screenshot 2025-10-22 034109.png (1.75 MiB) Viewed 23 times

Taking those files into the Bambu slicer once again, I created a backing plate and a base plate to mount the motor to the floor of the tank. I left the oblong holes so that I could tension the motors once the chain drive was installed. I also drew up the spacers and printed them what are clamping on the motor.

Base plate under the motor



Motor and baseplate







Continued in the next post...