RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I've been quite busy and made a start on the ammo lockers. Previously this was built using styrene and attaching 3d printed hinges which was incredidbly fiddly and prone to frequent outbursts of strong anglo-saxon cuss words. Having designed the whole thing for 3d printing it's now a breeze. I printed off an 88mm shell to show the storage

and the doors fold down



The next job was to fit the elevation and recoil servos to the gun, which was much messier and more frustrating than I had anticipated. The problem was that I hadn't considered the interaction between the size of the servos and the gun components, which meant that assembling things initially proved not just difficult and frustrating but downright imposssible. Back to the cad redesign and redesign several components including the gun base and eventually everything fitted together and functioned!




Phew! Anyway in the middle of all the frustration and cursing, my suspension parts arrived fron Germany - Hurray! So that cheered me up no end. After sorting the servos, I moved on to getting the suspension fitted and finishing the design for the roadwheels. I was a little confused at first as there were more parts than I needed, and then I realised that the extra parts were for fitting to a metal chassis so I didn't need them.


Then the fun started with the printed road wheels, but it only took a couple of redesigns to get the wheels fitting perfectly, the outer road wheel is a press fit onto the inner road wheel, and the inner wheel fits nicely onto the axle with a screw retainer.




and all printed and fitted complete with tracks.

Next I move on to getting the cabin of the tank fitted out
Alwyn

Glad to see you back in action, Alwyn! A great idea to print the Geschutzwagen III/IV chassis rather than chopping up and extending a Panzer IV one. I like your pivot-arm recoil mechanism too, that's a neat and compact solution!

Thanks for the great comments. Here is the latest progresss, just a few minor bits to take care of including the periscope and the gun slew mechanism.
I fitted out some of the cab furniture, put the back doors on with latch, and fitted the slope fitting out

The toolbox lid opens. In the last version I built I put the on/off switch under the tool box lid with a hole to the chassis mounted switch.







Must get the gunners seat sorted as well.
Alwyn

Some tidying up in the cab, I finished the gunners seat and fitted it


Added some bolt heads to the front

All I'm waiting for now is the gun slew motor and I can get that fitted. I also will add the periscope and the MG34 mounts.
Alwyn

Alwyn, as always I am amazed by your accomplishments. In Latin "Ignoramus" means, roughly, "We don't know." In this case, "ignoro," ("I don't know") is accurate. Does that gun swing left and right horizontally? Is that what you mean by "slew"? If so, however does the gunner stay on that seat? Does he have to keep his legs straight forward and elevated over the storage box on his left? Or is the horizontal rotation more limited than the gun mantel suggests?

Hi thanks for the interest and comments, you are correct the gun slew is limited as otherwise the gunner would likely suffer lower limb amputation. I'm pretty sure the gunner spends very little time on that seat as the vibration when firing would do interesting things to his anatomy and probably destroy his ability to procreate .The limited slew is common amongst SPGs as really the impact of sideways ammunition detonation would do nasty things to the vehicle structure, but basically the Nashorn was intended as a highly mobile sniper gun for attacking other tanks/vehicles. It's obvious downfall was the lack of armour but given the long range of the 88mm it didn't really need to mix it with the opposing armour.

The model is going to the Scout Hut in Hyde on Sunday so anyone in the area is welcome as always to come and see the other members driving their tanks around the battlefield which we set up there.

Alwyn

Last finishing touches. I ordered and received a 6v 6rpm geared motor for the turret slew and made a mounting for it

and the servo slew arm above the deck

It needs a wire link from the arm to the gun shield, the torque on the motor would probably wreck the gun carraige if it was a solid link, at least a wire link will break loose.

To finish off I created the radio shelf at the back of the tank with radios.


The stl files are now a complete set which is available for £60 paid to alwynft@aol.com on paypal as gift friends and family, I just then need an e-mail address to send the files to.

Finished!

Alwyn

Nice!

What would be the minimum bed size for files?

Allthe files will fit a basic ender-3 220x220 bed. The only file which requires splitting is the side panel of the tank and I will split this file into a and b files which will fit.

Alwyn