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Hi, thank you for your interest.

This post is for the rear of the Marder.

There are the parts for one base kit mud guard and the two 3D printed tail lights that can be purchased separately. Sadly, no lenses are provided so I will need to improvise.
The tail lights are a bit tricky to install. This is the closest method compared to references. They are not glued to the removable top part so they therefore also act as a holder for the top. Not bad they need to be firmly glued to the angled plate. The gap in the middle side of the tail light is normal.
I wired a 3mm red LED in the middle slot which is the one I saw being illuminated in pictures. I assume the slot on the left is for the yellow left turn, and the one on the right is for brakes but not sure. Lenses will be figured out later. Although the Clark TK60 offers right and left turn signal lights, I am not sure I will be able to activate them because I needed the channel and switches for the ramp and rear MG. I will see later what I can do.
When assembled as per instructions, the mud guard does not fit correctly against the side skirts and modifications are required.
This is how the mud guard needs to fit the side skirts.
View from the right. Notice the device above the mud guard that was replicated as per references. I assume it is a com box.
Support bar above the rear ramp is made of 2mm brass rod.
I agree with Herman that this looks like a Space 1999 Eagle.
And finally a fun comparison with the M113. For an average 6 foot man, the M113 is definitely more easy to enter and exit, the ramp is wider, higher and more accessible.

The Marder and M113 Acav are totally different class of vehicles but they were performing similar tasks. Bigger, more expensive and designed to fight an NBC Warsaw pact invasion of Europe, I think it is doubtful the Marder would have been better in Vietnam than the M113. But the 20mm turret would have been useful.
This is the last post for April. Now going on vacation for 3 weeks. See you again in May.

Regards, Louis

Looks excellent have fun Louis

Ah, spring... finally.

I am back from 2 weeks of hiking in Israel, and a 1 week recovery from total exhaustion, jet lag and a stomach bug. But I am now outside on my pool deck, relaxing and modelling under a beach umbrella. I am entering the final phase of this build. I already have something else ready to start so I got to finish this.

Next steps are to complete the top rear and turret exterior. The following shot is a good view of the top of the vehicle. We can see the engine air intake grills in the back, the little bump on the infantry hatches, detail on hinges and that device in the middle, not sure what it is, looks related to the fuel tank below. There is nothing simple or strait forward to repro. Everything is taking effort to make them accurate.
These are the basic parts provided for the engine grills, that's not much but it is a good base. It is tempting to just glue them on top of the rear deck and move on to something else but that would not make an accurate model.
I started earlier to give them some angles but I quickly realize the parts are not think enough so they need another plasticard layer added. And then it took me a while to figure out what I would do to represent the metal grill to put on top. I ordered a set of Tamiya Tiger 1 PE grills and modified them the best I could to fit to fit the Marder.
Engine grill ready and installed.
The hand crafted hinges are not yet satisfactory and need a bit more work, but getting there.
These are the parts provided for the central apparatus. My guess is that it is through it that the fuel tank below is filled but it is present only on the 1A1 and 1A2 version. Referring to the first picture above, you can see it requires a lot of work to get it close to the real thing. It also need to be made thicker.
This is how it looks after 2 hours of work. My Tamiya 1/35 kit helped me with the positioning of the part.
To repro the small bump on the rear infantry hatches, I again solicited the help of my son's Lego collection. These little beauty are exactly what I needed and saved me a lot of work.
Once trimmed, they fit perfectly on the flat hatches in order to make the hatch looking more accurate.
And this is how the rear deck looked at sunset.
Next steps: Periscopes and rear machine gun turret.

Regards, Louis

Looks brilliant Louis glad to have you back, although I'm very jealous of your trip to Israel I'm sure it was absolutely amazing and simply breathtaking. Keep up the great work

Carl

Hi,

Here is the rear MG Part 1, the "Hecklafette MG"

References are a must to build an accurate rendition of this small but important item. I always liked the modern look of this MG unit. It was like Star Wars stuff for me back in the 70s. The rear MG is only present on 1A1 and 1A2 versions of the Marder. I choose to build an 1A1 version because of it...so, it got to look good.

Pics from Panzer-modell.de
Extract from the excellent book "Schutzenpanzer Marder" by Lohmann and Hilmes, an important reference on the Marder and highly recommended, specially if you are building an 1A3 version.
Sadly, the parts provided by the kit are minimalist and inaccurate. These are the parts for the base. Only the 2 arms were used.
As for the parts for the MG frame, it does not take long to notices the dimensions and shapes have major issues.
Illustrated here by the lower section, the dimensions are 18mm too long. I have highlighted the area that need to be cut. Although the front is ok, the shape of the back section also needs to be completely redesigned using reference.
This is the new lower section
A plastic Tamiya MG42 (same as MG3) is used. I drilled the exposed portion of the barrel and inserted a fiber optic cable. A home made gun flash unit has been fabricated and fits within the MG hidden frame.
The MG is installed in the lower section. Everything is fully tested before closing the 2 halves together.
I used my son's compass to create all the roundels that are required for the base. The ones provide with the kit were not re-used because they did not have the right dimensions.
Continuing on part 2

Hi,

This is the rear MG, part 2.

Once the basic shape is done, then a lot of details need to be crafted. The Tamiya model is also not very accurate in shape and should be used with caution. The periscopes used are Shapeways King Tiger periscopes. I did my best for the smaller details. An imperfect joint between the 2 halves was maintained in order to mimic what I have seen in references.
Here is the finished product temporary in place on the hull.
Next step is to determine if I can bring some rotation to the rear MG turret using a servo hidden below the right engine grill. I'll see if I can manage something that works.

Regards, Louis

Hi, thank you very much for your encouragements

Here is what did to bring some rotation to the rear MG. It is a mid size servo attached to one of the VR knob and hidden within the right radiator area, connecting to the small turret with a simple push rod. View from the top and gun flash cables still to be connected.
This kind of basic mechanism has a lot of friction but provides about 50 degrees of rotation, enough to play with the turret and shower the landscape behind the vehicle with the gun flash unit of the MG3. The Clark TK60 allows for 2 Machine guns, so the primary MG is the main 20mm gun, and the auxiliary one is given to the 7.62mm MG3. With my 10 channel Flysky remote, 8 channels go to the TK60, one channel to the rear ramp on VRA knob and the last one to the MG3 turret rotation on VRB know. I had to play a lot with the remote configuration. No availability for MG3 elevation even if I wanted to.
I chose a kind of push rod that can be disconnected easily. The rotation mechanism does not show unless you look for it with a low angle.
Front hatches have been installed. My pre-purchase of an assortment of 4mm and 5mm wide brass strips from Knupfer has proven essential. Shapeways King Tiger periscopes were used and fit perfectly. The brass covers must be given various angles to fit correctly as they must not follow the slope of the armor plate.
Rear periscope have been installed. Also used Shapeways King Tiger periscope for these. They also show well below deck.
Overall view of the vehicle.
Next step is to detail the exterior of the main turret, with hatch, smoke discharger, IR unit, etc.

Regards, Louis

Smashing work Louis.

Awesome Louis!



You've got another winner closing in on the finish line.

Barry

BarryC wrote:You've got another winner closing in on the finish line.

Thanks Barry. Yes, it's time to finish it, getting there. Its summer and I have less time available than before.

Here is the turret;
Photographic evidence show that the equipment mount on the front plate seems to have started with the 1A2 version. So, I removed it for the 1A1.
The smoke grenade dischargers are from the HL Leopard 2A6 accessory set. Close up pictures of these are difficult to find. It is hard to figure out the mounting arrangement. They were simply mounted on a thick vertical plasticard strip and positioned sideways in pair, each pair with their individual spread angle, as shown in reference. M0.6 bolts and small chains were used to improve the look.
The IR box was scratch built using dimensions from the 1/35 kit and extrapolated to 1/16. It moves up and down with the gun. Only a few shady pictures are available of the 1A1 early arrangement. Be aware that various modernization efforts changed the look of this equipment over time. I did my best.
The metal grill is made of Tiger 2 PE parts, brass rods and plastic. I had to make do with what was available to me. Looks ok...
I put some weld lines when seen in pictures. I think I am missing a few.
The model as it stands today. It is starting to look like an operational Marder MICV.
Next step is to go around the vehicle exterior and add the tools, and also quite a few secondary brackets, latches and items on the hull and hatches that I have yet to install. After that, I still have to finish the interior detailing, up to a certain point.

Regards, Louis