Super Pershing

[971wright]

Hi Rob Mike helped me with one of my builds must be a few years ago now , sent me some parts wouldn't take payment for them only postage, I was struggling to find the parts at the time. Great guy to have on the forum .

regards pete

[PainlessWolf]

W.W.,
Mike is one of the best guys on the Forum when it comes to helping modelers out with their builds. He is a great guy who barely accepts folks paying postage for parts from him at times. I'm not surprised that he had the information that you were looking for to move this build forward. In the spirit of Mike's open nature and love for the Hobby, I've learned to help out where I can as well. I've got some partial Pershing sprues from Tamiya and some HL parts as well. Ping me if there is something that you need and I'll see whats up to ship. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[sassgrunt]

All right....thank you all for the nice words, but let's get this thread back on topic before I can no longer get my head through the door....

[wibblywobbly]

After much measuring, cutting, grinding etc, I have ended up with this. I got a bit concerned about the frontal strength in the event that I ran into anything or someone else knocked the tank, so I beefed up the top edge of the top armour and will have to do something with with the bottom too. maybe a block in the middle where no one can see it. The rivet counters may spot that the angle isn't spot on, I have no idea whether HL have a different mould to Tamiya, but getting the slope at 60 degrees and having the overhang/gaps/mg surround all lined up and looking good was well nigh impossible, so I went with a 'pretty close' and what looks right. It seems that the angles changed on the real ones anyway looking at various pics, as this was a field mod, so I can claim authenticity!

Just as well that the hull mg is missing on the scrapyard pics as I have just discovered that there isn't one in the box with the tank?

Next up is the mantlet and ears. I might have a go at 3D printing those as one piece as that way the whole thing will be strong and the angles will be 100% symetrical, well that's the plan anyway....

[PainlessWolf]

W.W.,
I once thought that Magnets would be a good way to attach the extra hull armor on the front. That way, it could be easily removed for service of the tank and would look 'spec'. A couple of screws through the bottom would also accomplish the same thing if the piece is rigid enough to not flex or wobble when the tank is in motion. Following along.
regards,
Painless

[wibblywobbly]

The top and bottom are seperate, they just meet at the point when the top hull goes on (that's that bit that is a pain to line up when doing the build). The weak point is a head on collision with something, as the nose sticks out beyond the tracks quire a way. In theory as long as the top armour can't get shoved backwards and up, and the bottom can't get shoved backwards and down, it should all stay put.

The magnets idea would need some angled mounts to keep the surfaces parallel, and this thing is all angles.

I might put some small screws through the back surface and up through the styrene by the vent as that will make it rock solid. I can do the same with the lower.

It's not a huge deal, but I know from experience that taking a tank on a battlefield is a high risk strategy, my rule is that I never put anything on the floor without expecting it to get damaged one way or another.

[Bogeyman]

Well said Rob, loo!king good mate.

John

[Ad Lav]

great and quick work Rob!

[wibblywobbly]

This took about 5 attempts, and around 15 hours of wasted printing, but I got there in the end.
I have designed the front so that I get barrel depression, I discovered too late that a couple of mm will see the metal hitting the vent at the front and the barrel won't even go down to horizontal. It will probably get faced up with thin plasticard as sanding PLA is a complete pain. The big hole is for an IR emitter.

[wibblywobbly]

The turret armour is now looking all neat and tidy, so that is another task out of the way.

So I then started on the counterweight at the back of the turret. Now am I seeing things, but in this pic, the turret is 180 degrees, so the counterweight is visible. The back of the counterweight is about in line with the top of the front valance. A closer look at the turret bustle reveals the totally different design to the one that HL use.It is shorter for one thing. If I want to get a match I will have to cut off the rear of the HL turret...but that is where the turret rotation motor is...ho hum...





Unless of course my eyes are playing tricks on me...?