RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I am utterly in awe again.

Thank you Barry and Meter rat.

I've decided to move to the front of the vehicle and detail those areas. Looks like the rear blade need a lot of rebuilding and kept it for next week.

I was earlier mistaken by the Academy kit fenders. Upon checking with references, these are totally inaccurate and must not be used for reference.
The fenders are in a single part and do have embossed stiffeners running along the sides. There are also large anchor brackets on both sides attached to the hull, not present on the Vandra kit.
View of the left side stiffeners shape.
And on the right side, the support bracket seen on the left side is only partially present because tools are mounted over it. There is also a plate on the side, with some rivet heads that should be reproduced.
Vandra provides a 3D printed gun travel lock. The legs are not spread wide enough but i decided i had enough redoing everything on this kit and i could live with it. Such item is no fun to build from scratch. But the attachments points to the hull were redone and the lock was reworked for accuracy and to make it functional. I was able to enlarge the ring on the interior to make it fit the wider bun barrel.
Mato M4A3 Sherman metal headlights with embedded LEDs and metal guards are a perfect match for the M12. However, as seen in other builds, the back is not present but this can be rectified. Plastic parts are prepared to fit over them.
The parts are glued to the back of the headlights.
And then shaped with a nail file and superglue filler, then polished.
Installed on the front glacis. Notice that the prototype of the M12 had headlights on the fenders, but move to the glacis on production vehicles.
The two direct vision hatches can be made to raise. I prepared the stand for them. Required even if the visors are closed because these mounts are positioned externally on the glacis.
continuing on following post

Right fender. A tool rack containing shocks will be mounted later. Because the fenders are attached to the upper hull that is removable, the fender supports that run down along the transmission cover cannot be glued on them, allowing the whole thing to slide towards the back as the upper hull is removed.
Left fender. Two tool boxes will be mounted over them later.
The gun travel lock can be raised and the lock will hold the barrel in place.
Or it can be lowered, with the driver's compartment air intake fitting within it, but i was not able to verify through wartime pictures that this was the case, but it seems logical.
Details of the glacis. The Vandra 3D printed air intake was used.
The direct vision hatch can be raised or lowered.
The top hatch can be made to open and close.
continuing on following post

View of the headlights and guards.
Metal engine air intake grills of the pattern seen in reference pictures have been cut and installed. These are not coming with the kit but purchased on eBay.
Overview of the model as it stands today.
Next step, the rear blade.

Regards, Louis

Another series of masterful solutions to problems only a clairvoyant would see !!

Looking at “ Hagenau” outside, the team must getting ready to cross the river in the prisoner grab

Louis,

Absolutely beautiful! I think you are creating my "new favorite" out of all of your wonderful creations.

HERMAN BIX wrote:
Looking at “ Hagenau” outside, the team must getting ready to cross the river in the prisoner grab

And I think Herman is right! I never noticed it before, but it sure does look close to Hagenau!

Cheers,
Eric.

Thank you Herman and Eric,
Spring is coming this week with warm weather, Hagenau is going to melt soon.

The following set of posts are for the rear spade.

Although the prototype had an hydraulic system to lower and raise the spade, it was considered too complex. The production vehicles were given a simple winch, many pulleys and a metal cable.
View from the M12 at Aberdeen before its restauration. The structure of the spade is not obvious and all available references are required to get a full picture of it from all angles.
The middle section has an embedded storage bin and the lid can be raised with the handle to open it. Notice the single diamond thread plate pattern.
Rare view under the spade. As it can be raised, the bottom of the spade is highly visible and need to be detailed correctly. We can see the lower middle section containing the bin and its guard rails.
View of the manual winch that is positioned on the top right side of the rear compartment.
Both Vandra and Academy did not study the rear spade properly, both are inaccurate.

The Vandra spade is a bit too narrow and too short. the plate sections in the middle are therefore cramped. Use of double diamond thread plate is wrong. The whole bin section under is missing. The blade itself at the rear is not too bad but has some shape and dimension issues. However, i have no intention of re-creating this whole part so i decided reuse the blade.

The Academy spade seems to have correct dimensions but the attachments to the hull are wrong. The larger bin section under the spade is totally wrong, simplified and most details are inaccurate or missing.
The middle section and mounts are too narrow, they do not fit my model. The whole mounting and middle section has to be redone.
Cutting the mounts in order to reuse the blade.
I tried to see if i could salvage the mounts and extend them, but i quickly determined it was easier to create new ones.
New longer and higher mounts are created.
continuing on following post

New mounts with the proper width are glued to the blade. This step was more complicated than it looks.
New middle section is created, not forgetting the bin. The single diamond tread plate, hinges and some brass details were added after.
Views of the underside. I tried to repro what i could see in reference pictures.
The spade itself is mostly completed and installed, minus all the items related to the winch and the operation of the spade. This will be the next step.
Overview from a few angles.
Shown here manually raised at the proper height and held up with a plasticard strip for the picture. It is important that the middle section steps be squared with the vehicle.
continuing on following post

Here, we can see how the bin can be opened on the rear vehicle. I did not make it functional as it would always be in the way. Notice that the upper step has embedded racks to store something like two boxes there.
The attachments of the spade to the hull will be finetuned a bit for accuracy. I kept the spade removable for now, just need to pull the pins. The upper hull need to remain removable at all times.
The upper hull can be removed by first lifting the rear up and then slide it towards the rear.
In preparation for the spade RC elevation system, a small 1/16 winch was purchased from eBay China.
A nice little puzzle as it comes with no instructions. Creating the elevation system will be fun.
That's it for now,

Best regards,

Louis

Turned out very nice Louis!

Barry