Witness the birth of a new monster...the IS-4

[tankme]

Masochism comes to mind when I look at all those track links!

Fabulous work...

I have a pile like that of Comet links, Hellcat links, and BMP1 links....

I would have to agree with you.

[tankme]

Worked on the IS-4 a bit today. Still lots of printer lines to hide, but it's coming along nicely. Got motors, elevation, recoil, high intensity flash, turret handles, and tracks installed. Just getting everything mocked up. Been adding the red glazing putty with an old paintbrush so it's going on more consistent and easier to sand down.

[tankme]

Been busy working on multiple projects, but made progress on this guy. I have been getting much better with the Bambu slicer so I took advantage of that. I have always hated that Inkor's designs don't incorporate bearings in anything. The road wheels he designs also have saving filament in mind so the inner wheels usually have vast open spaces in them with small hubs. The hubs are usually too small for bearings in some cases. I decided to fix these "issues (for me)". First off, I filled in the backs of the wheel to give the bearing more support. Secondly, I modified the road wheel STL to accept a 3mm bore x 7mm x 2.5mm flanged (8mm flange) bearing. Then I reprinted the wheels out of ASA to get more detail with less post processing. Don't mind the secret project bogie truck in the picture...



With numerous successful resin prints under my belt, I added a bunch of resin details to the tank. They are not permanently attached at the moment. The new wheels run smooth on their new bearings. I will be updating the idler also. Currently I'm reprinting some of the upper deck parts in ASA to enhance the detail. I can now print ASA freely as the printer now lives in the garage. Makes me wish I hadn't printed so many parts before moving the printer. PETG is great for strength, but less so for detail. And also now that the resin printer is working, I'm going to be printing tracks for some tanks in resin.



That's all for now...

[Herr Dr. Professor]

This is an interesting build in part because the IS-4 and IS-7 show heritage in the upper hull and turret from the T-34. Relatively ignorant about Soviet tanks, I wonder: why did the tanks use external fuel tanks? Were these a kind of "drop tank"? Or were these tanks external for safety?

[HERMAN BIX]

External ones were used up first then the internal volume. The WW2 Russian AFVs external tanks were not linked to the vehicles fuel system where the post war ones were.
Being diesel they present no threat to the vehicle when hit.

[tankme]

The two smaller barrels in the middle are actually MDSh smoke generators and not fuel tanks. They could be used to carry fuel when not being used as smoke generators though. The external tanks were indeed just to extend the range of the vehicles. Most German tanks had very large internal tanks. I was watching a video of a Tiger 2 restoration and it had 7 internal fuel tanks. You can take a lit match and throw it into diesel and the match will go out so there was little chance of fire if hit by rounds. In Bosnia, we would have to put a little bit of (Mo)gas in the diesel to get the diesel to catch fire.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Derek, do you know about this already? https://www.tankarchives.ca/2014/05/smokescreen.html
Regardless, the whole web site looks useful.

[tankme]

Derek, do you know about this already? https://www.tankarchives.ca/2014/05/smokescreen.html
Regardless, the whole web site looks useful.

Yup...saw that. It is a useful site. Thanks.

[MonsieurTox]

Impressive job ! Great job on incorporating bearings into the original wheel design !
The machine gun on its rail is awesome

[Guido Henn]

Hello,

amazing.......but how do you get the surface of these 3d printed parts smooth to produce a proper paint job?

with kind regards,Guido