1/16 Elefant Ludwig/Asiatam

[xrad]

More work:

There have been some scale issues with the kit, but nothing major. It really helps to have a small table saw for cutting plastic parts.

For example, there is a slight error with front angles bulkhead position. I correct it somewhat, but you would be hard pressed to fing the fault. Also, I had to lower the height of the citadel by 3mm all around (after shortening it by about 10mm~or so). When you chage the height of the angled structure, it also chages the width, so two pieces of thick palstic are added to the sides so the overhang remaisn the same.

trimming off the 3mm in overall height brings the bottom of the front main gun mount closer to the hull and the hinges for the rear vents will be in a more scale location.

The citadel/side panel ratio is about .36 or so (vertical dimension..not overall width of piece..it's on an angle). this works out to about where I have it and when viewed from the side, looks identical to photo of real tank(you have to allow for real distance changes and my poor photo comparison)

Other issue is the rear lower angel plate. Once you set the rear angled bulkhead to correct thickness and placement, the 'cut out' over the fender needs to be lengthened, but then a gap develops and this is filled by thick horizontal piece. The 'cut out' height is actually a little too low, but it is based on the underlying aluminum hull side plate which is precut.

Fenders are 2mm plastice glued to hull so the whole unit lifts off as one. On top of the plastic white fender, HO scale diamond plate (plastruc..clearly not accurate HO scale, but nearly PERFECT scale for 1/16!!) I was able to copy the fender with the plastruct to nearly EACH diamond grip using Aberdeen tank pics (of course, this tank is no longer at 'aberdeeen'). Bending the diamond plate is somewhat frustrating, and don't use a flame (Shrinks it really easily). just crimping in a vise and with some flat faed pliers and then glueing wiht combo of CA and Testors liquid works out OK.

some notes about the fenders: They are actually made in 5-6 pieces per side so when I place the fender, I follow the pattern seen in the book photos and on damaged tanks (like the one in Italian piazza). some tanks have a slightly different rear fender appearance where fender remains horizontal beyond the beginning of the angle plate. I chose this look as it worked better for my tank)

[chris3]

moin

nice to see your development

you say the aberdeen elefant isnt longer in aberdeen, who is it now?

just seen his fast restauration on dmx

cu christian

[xrad]

Some of Aberdeen stuff moved to Ft Lee.

More work: Rear top deck engine vents almost finished. Hinge position balanced with three vent covers and main gun mount..so not 100% sclae location..but very close. Design for the vent covers seems to vary a little between tanks....so delayed here a bit..

Top structure one piece so easy to remove...

[xrad]

rear top deck engine vents:

found some good shots of the original vents on an early Ferdinand. Maybe even the first one ever made. Likely, before any changes or repairs. See the driver escape hatch? see the missing bolts on front glacis?

Got these nice pics from a great little publication called Panzer=jager by Almark (1971) paperback 32 pages with at least two pics of every panzerjager made at the time.

as you can see, there are little struts or castings supporting the cover and the cover has a slight angle. the back of the cover may be open. Unfortunately, I can;t find any pics of the back of the cover. Underneath is just a rectangular hole. Later tanks have some variation to this, likely post damage repair.

in Speilberger's book, he describes engine cooling vents under the track guards towards the rear. I found one pic of this area and there is a small round hole. Most likely, this is the engine exhaust vent..but I need to see the real tank to be sure..

[AERO-MATE]

It is really a good tank.

[xrad]

Thanks Aeromate. I appreciate your comment considering the work you have done with your kits.

[chris3]

hello

how is your elefant going?

cu christian

[xrad]

elefant on hold while I get a minimachine shop together and finish two Alfas and a a 3/4 scale 4-8-4 locomotive, and the steam tug......

might be next winter....

[xrad]

I'm back. Been busy writing arduino/trinket code for a few cool projects, built 10 rc boats, a few steam engines and boilers, and six 1/10 rc crawlers.

Dug this model out of the dusty archives the other day and decided to finish it..... 7 years later! Luckily, I still had the boxes of parts for it. Just got an OP TCB. super nice board. few clicks to load the drivers and the OP programmer. 12 channel radiolink on the way, two esc's, and a bendini mini (in a month hopefully) should be enough help get this Elefant up and running.

Glad to see the board is still here!

[tomhugill]

Nice to see you back xrad, been enjoying some of.your boat and crawler builds onodel boat mayhem but will be good to see some.tanks!