RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Not sure if this will be of help to you in your build, but I ran across these decals when looking for something else. He makes them in various sizes, including 1/16. https://www.ebay.com/itm/174225414751?h ... Swm6xjKaof

sassgrunt wrote: ↑Tue Oct 25, 2022 12:35 am Not sure if this will be of help to you in your build, but I ran across these decals when looking for something else. He makes them in various sizes, including 1/16.

Thank you, i was looking for decals instead of creating my own. However, the decals being sold are for the tank Mephisto in Australian museum. This tank is of a different production batch than the First Lot Krupp that i am building. Only the crosses could be usable. I think i can make them myself. i'll see.

The following posts are for the 5.7 cm Maxim-Nordenfelt main gun mount as seen on a First Lot Krupp production vehicle. At first, i thought the A7V had no turret, just a simple gun mount. It is actually more complex than anticipated, it's a turret with rotation, elevation, and it needs recoil and flash. Notice the slot on the right of the gun for the visor.

This is a good shot of the angle of the front plate versus the angle of the rotating gun shield on Wilhem. Notice the enlarging gap in the armor towards the bottom of the gun shield. Hard to believe such bullet trap was conceived.


A similar gun mount on Prinz Oskar.

See the difference in gun mount on Mephisto. It's a totally different design so it is important to select a production batch or a specific vehicle and not mix the different specifications.

I am relying on the Meng 1/35 kit for specs, rotating shield below.

Elevation mantlet.

My idea is to create something similar, minus the need for a detailed accurate interior. Otherwise, i would have to spend the winter on this model.

These are the two resin parts coming with the Ludwig kit. It is made to be static, no way to reuse this for a working RC model gun.


A metal gun is made of a thick aluminum tube that will be sanded towards the muzzle to give it a good reduction, with an overlapping brass sleeve for the recoil, and a small tube to fit inside the barrel tip to keep the thickness of the muzzle.

Continuing of following post

A new mantlet is created


New gun sleeve and barrel are created and made to be inserted in the mantlet.



Basic components for the mini turret are created with extrapolated specs from the 1/35 kit.


Basic assembly of the mini turret.


It is mostly designed on the fly, one component at a time in a telescopic fashion.


The recoil servo is attached to the gun, while the elevation servo is attached to the mount. Simple design are used, done in a couple of hours. No need for over engineering. The recoil is tested and works perfectly.


The gun shield is put on after adding a few internal braces to keep the gun shield strait at the weak gun elevation area. A simple base mount is created to determine the proper height of the turret through a lot of dry fitting with the hull.


Once the height is determine, an stronger round base mount is added to the base. As the interior is not detailed on this build, i did not bother recreating the octagonal mount.

Continuing on following post

After a lot of dry fitting, the gun mount is glued in place. Notice that the gap between the gun shield and the main armor plate has been correctly replicated. This gap is not a mistake as you can compare to the pictures on the above posts.


View from inside the hull. I still have to install the rotation servo. The plan is to do something simple using a push rod attached to the mount.


The top is composed of two overlayed plasticard. This one is attached to the hull and fixed the upper pinion for the rotation.


The visible upper part is attached to the top plate.


View of the A7V with its gun mount in place.

Next step is to detail the front armored plate.

Regards, Louis

Superb build, I love the attention to detail. Well done!

Unbelievable, man!

You have much more patience than I do... She's looking good.

Patience? I have patience, enough to drive some people nuts! But the kind of work Louis is doing here also requires inherent skill, experience, practice, a touch of genius...

Marvellous work Louis it's well on it's way to becoming another masterpiece

Cheers,Lee.

Kaczor wrote: ↑Mon Oct 24, 2022 6:06 am And how about gluing, normal plastic glue is enough or CA glue is needed?

I'm using Tamiya ultra thin cement for gluing the Meng bolts onto styrene (using CA when I glue them on primed parts, but sometimes I also use Tamiya ultra thin to glue them on primer where I know there's no risk for them to come off).