RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Very good job. Details are awesome. A futur totm.

You have not missed a thing Mr Mcq11, it’s exquisite.
Do you think in real life that any early versions recovered from damage may have had the late drivers cabin modification carried out, or strictly a new manufacture upgrade?
Looks like they could have done it if necessary , but who knows.

Thank you everyone.

HERMAN BIX wrote:Do you think in real life that any early versions recovered from damage may have had the late drivers cabin modification carried out, or strictly a new manufacture upgrade?
Looks like they could have done it if necessary , but who knows.

Technically, the roof of the driver/radio compartment is modular and plugged on top of the glacis, upgrades of older models would have been easy to perform.

This post is for the back of the Hummel.

View of the rear of the vehicle with panels opened.
Notice the large hooks at the back.
The early production version had a muffler installed, later deleted.
As it is important to feature panels that can be opened and closed, i took the time to create working hinges from metal ones purchased from Dioramaparts on ebay Germany.
The Ludwig panels were used.
The locking mechanism seen in pictures was reproduced but not functional. Its would have been too fragile with the material and tools i have.
Some of the features on the back plate. I still need to do the part in the middle which i earlier thought was a bracket for the muffler but more study seems to suggest it is a step to climb on the vehicle. The curved bars to hold the spare wheels have a different patterns depending on the vehicle. i have decided to reproduced the version seen here.
The bars are reproduced in brass rods.
Overview of the mostly completed rear area. Only the pedal step and the engine exhaust need to be done.
The metal hooks and the tow bar were purchased from eBay Germany seller imperial-modellbau. Looks like these are perfect fit for the Nashorn/Hummel.
Continuing on following post

The brass rods go strait inside the vehicle armor for a more solid spare wheel bracket. The wheel are removable.
The tow hook bracket from imperial-modellbau is a nice addition and for the $3.50 that it cost, it is a real bargain compared to the effort required to scratch build it
Overview of the rear as it stands today

Closed panels
Open.
Regards, Louis

Louis,

Your research on this build is most impressive! Stunning attention to detail, how beautiful!

Regards,
Eric.

EAO wrote:Louis,
Your research on this build is most impressive! Stunning attention to detail, how beautiful!
Regards,
Eric.

Thank you Eric, as a builder, the research of available references, the search for parts and the scratch building of others for an accurate model is the biggest component of my passion for this hobby. Every build is an opportunity to learn about the vehicle.

This post is for the rollers and tracks

The Hummel late production is equipped with all metal return rollers. The mount are also positioned very differently than a Panzer IV. Notice the light slope of the track from the top of the sprocket all the way to the top of the idler. Also notice the armored box in front of the side air intakes, something rarely seen in reference pictures.
These are the parts assembled for the return rollers. There are Mato late Panzer IV all metal rollers and Asiatam metal mounts, nuts and bolts.
As the roller position need to be calculated and might require fine tuning on the spot, i create self contained units where the nut is inside the mount. I cut and filed away all the positioning pins. The nuts were filed as a cone and positioned at the bottom mostly inside the mount with some glue, bolts were cut and final sanding was done. On the hull itself, i drilled a hole just a bit larger than the size of the nuts about 1.5mm deep for the last portion of the bold, and also to give a good anchor for the glue.
These are the superb and relatively cheap Mato MT011T panzer IV metal tracks (black pre-painted), purchased from eBay China for about $55. Notice the great level of details compared to Heng Long plastic tracks. They come with track pins with heads that allow for easy manipulation. Whoever has tried to remove track pins that are fully embedded inside a metal track link know what i am talking about. I do not think i will ever buy another set of Panzer IV tracks than these.
The roller units were installed with epoxy glue which allow last minute positioning (up, down...) to align them all with sagging of the tracks. It is difficult to exactly pre-position them with pre-drilled holes. Despite all my attempts to pre-calculate the exact position with markers, most needed to be pushed up or down by 1mm before the epoxy glue set.
Close up of the metal return rollers.
The road wheel hubs were installed.
Close up of the tracks
View of the positioning slope of the return rollers.
Next step, the front fenders.

Regards, Louis

Just jaw dropping in its modeling beauty. The superlatives to describe this obvious labor of love with its attention to the most minute detail haven't been put into Webster's dictionary yet. Marvelous work.

Do you glue the hubs on?

quitcherbitchen wrote:Do you glue the hubs on?

No, the road wheel hubs are installed and hold by squeezing them in place with plyers, although some did require a bit more encouragements to go all the way in. They are removable if need be. Its the Asiatam suspension hub caps that gave me some trouble. I had to file a bit the metal lips that goes inside so that they could go in, and even then, i had to hammer them in place.

SCHWEREPANZER wrote:Marvelous work.

thank you very much Schewepanzer for your touching encouragements. It makes me want to do a better job.

Hi,

Here are the front fenders at the Saumur Hummel. The tip has a nice curve downwards and a mudflap. The treadplate seen here is the dotted pattern, difficult to find.
The idea is to do something similar. The Ludwig parts only provides plasticard main sections and a square for the tip. Need to scavenge the sprues to create the flap. Everything else need to be found elsewhere. I used JTT 1/100 single diamond treadplates, also used on panzer fenders.
The hinges for the fenders flap is made of aluminum tube and brass rod, simple and fast.
Hinges are detailed and the proper number of bolt heads seen in reference are put on at the right locations.
Close up of the hinge. Kit producers always oversimplify this area. Even Tamiya can't get it right. It is very easy to reproduce with a lot more accuracy in about 30 minutes of work with simple tools and material. But i can see that the bolt heads i selected for the hinges are a bit too large, i will have to replace them.
View of the radio antenna on the right side of the radio position.
The radio antenna base is from Mato, the rest is scratch build with a curved 5.5mm wide brass strip with a plasticard base.
Other than the early productions, most Hummel have a single headlight on the left fender. It looked like the same one that is on the Tiger.
This metal Tiger head light was purchased from Manheader on eBay. It is not pre-wired for LED. A hole need to be drilled for the wires.
It does looks very good