Kodiak AEV 3 Armoured Excavation Vehicle

[wibblywobbly]

It's been a long, long haul, and not without its problems, but I am now 99% done on this build. Just a tow rope to paint and fit, touch up a bit where the airbrush didn't reach, and paint the tracks. The dozer and excavator work, though this was the first test and I need to get a bit of practice with how the arm responds to the tx. Still lose the HL signal occasionally due to the home made aerial, so will have to acquire an HL wire one at some point.

It starts, stops, etc, and despite only having plastic gears, it will happily push an office chair or an electric drill across the floor. Silky smooth and silent though, well it would be apart from the IBU2 that sounds pretty good in there.

I will have a nicely painted Bundeswehr commander in the hatch to cover the two power switches, when absolutely everything else is completed. I decided to go for the lightly scraped and used look on the paint, most Bundeswehr tanks are immaculate, but that wouldn't match the rest of my ragged tank group.

Did you know that the Germans are re-commissioning 256 Leopard 2A6's that they put into storage?

Anyway, here's a vid showing my clumsy tx antics...



RobG

[hawkeye3guns]

Hi RobG
That is seriously one nice bit of kit. I like the way you have finally nailed the excavator arm manipulation . I might have to pick your brains on that one as I have been looking at the M88 hercules for a while now but could not get my head around the lifting "A" frame for the crane.
A beautiful working scale model fantastic bit of engineering I would love to see it in the flesh. maybe we'll get down your way some time.
Congratulations mate.
regards Denzil

[wibblywobbly]

Hi Denzil, thanks for the compliment, as you say it took a while to solve the problems, but it worked out in the end.

Although it looks 'good' in the video, I am still using a set of excavator arms that I printed but which didn't turn out perfectly. That, and the pull on the motors, shafts, linkages and different parts, means that there is a slight warped effect on the whole thing. I will reprint some better arms at some point but it will have to do for now as I just wanted it done and dusted. It's one of the joys of 3D printing, it takes hours to print those parts and there is no guarantee that new ones would turn out any better.

I too looked at the M88, making the A frame would have to be soldered brass rod I reckon as that thing is 'big' and styrene tube would be under a lot of stress. The plastics used in 3D printing would also struggle against bending when it was in use, due to the size it would have to be printed in sections and joined together.

You might like these pics... http://data.primeportal.net/iraq/oops.htm

My thoughts were that the dozer blade would be the biggest problem, it is hinged right at the bottom of the front hull, which will make it a challenge to mount it so that it can be driven by servo's or a motor. It will require some internal trickery to get it lowered to ground level and raise it up to where it is stored in the driving position.

The upper hull seems like quite an easy one to build, it is just getting hold of an HL Abrams lower when one becomes available?

I have now done the tracks and tow rope on the Kodiak, rejigged the mounting of the electrics so that the upper hull fits cleanly, and will give it a light dusting of greys before I can say to myself...it's done.

I intend to make a trip up North this year, I will be going to the two shows anyway, so if you are attending we can have a chat then. If anyone up there wants to make a trip to the Thornbury show in August just let me know, I will need to order passes next month.

Cheers

Rob

[971wright]

Hi Rob Very Nice job ,love to see how you have done the electrics I count 7 channels used. Look forward to seeing it at Yorkshire Show , will have my latest project finished by then so we can swop notes .

regards pete

[wibblywobbly]

All I used was one IBU2 and one RX18. Two transmitters, two batteries.

IBU2 handles:
Main drive motors on right stick.
Dozer blade on left stick up/down (elevation, and uses HL elevation unit)
Turntable on left stick, left/right (turret rotation wired to Chinese geared right angled drive motor)

RX18 handles:
Main arm lift on one drive motor circuit, right stick, up/down when pushed left.
Two middle arm motors on one drive motor circuit, right stick, up down when pushed right. Eg two arms will always move at the same time.
(All arm motors will run if I just push the stick straight up or down - if you watch the video you can see where I am trying to figure out which way to push it to get the arm to move how I need it to ).
Bucket on left stick, left/right (turret rotation circuit).

It was the only way that I could do it using only two boards, it was only possible because the IBU2 has up/down elevation control on the left stick, so the dozer blade can go up and down under stick control, plus of course I have Leopard 2A6 engine sounds. I replaced the elevation sound with an hydraulic sound, the machine gun sound with a 'hydraulic stops' sound, and did the same with the main gun sound.

I will also add another suitable sound for rotating the turntable.

Hope that explains it, it confused the hell out of me,

RobG

[wibblywobbly]

With special thanks to Bogeyman (and yes I did add what I said I would... )

[PainlessWolf]

W.W.,
A long road's worth of build but so well worth it. Congratulations on a unique piece of tracked equipment.
regards,
Painless

[edpanzer]

Glad to see its finished ww how you fixed for digging my garden over with it??

[wibblywobbly]

Thanks chaps, Bogeyman is an excellent figure painter, he did the Bundeswehr crew in double quick time for me, so all credit to him for adding the finishing touch that brings the model alive. I am now in the process of finishing off the K2 ambulance, and the Long Tom, and have another project waiting to be started, which will be my most challenging yet.

RobG

[Bogeyman]

Trust me guys the Kodiak looks so much better in the flesh, well done Rob.

Loving the crewman smoking a fag next to all the fuel drums!!!

John