RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Oh I see, smart !

Exceptional work and detail once again on this build Louis another work of art

Cheers, Lee.

thanks Lee,

Continuing with some detailing.

The TPz-1 A8 version with add-on armor is equipped with spring assistance mechanisms to help the crew open and close the doors. I earlier attempted to reproduce the ones on the cabin but I did cut some corners and I was not satisfied with them. As I was doing the ones on the back door, I decided to redo them all.

View of the door assist on the cabin doors. I personally think the Germans might have over engineered the design because we would normally just see a spring embedded within the hinges.
View of the back door.
The elements being built using mostly brass tubes, 1mm rod and M1 nuts available.
The good thing about brass tubes is that more can be easily added on top of each other until the desired thickness has been reached.
Here are the finished door assistance springs. It was a six hour job overall getting to this point. I did not have the right nut heads I wanted but in these times, I have to make do with what i have in store.

And front cabin doors.
Regards, Louis

Fantastic work Louis, they look great!

Barry

the next the next the next

Thank you Barry and Yan

With today's shipment arrival from Knupfer in Germany, I can finish the add-on anchor points all around the vehicles. These small roundels can be found whenever the applique armor is present. I found these anchor to be highly visible and worth representing. It is a good idea not to underestimate their numbers. There are at least 150 of them and once you start putting them according to reference, there is simply no stopping. The only area I did not put any (yet) are under the vehicle and the inside the road wheel wings. I would have to scratch build the add on armor for these areas first, and not sure it is worth it.

I am again very grateful to http://www.panzer-modell.de, a German modeller reference website for providing detailed pictures of many TPz in order to capture where the anchor points are. I might have missed a few in my analysis but I got most of them, and mostly aligned although I can see a few errors. Of course, whenever I assumed something, I was wrong... Ideally, I would have selected brass washers just a little bit smaller than the ones I started with, but I think they look ok. These things are really small and difficult to manipulate.
The model with its add-on armor anchor points on the roof, FLW-200 base and rear.
Last remaining items to install before painting are the engine air intake grills on the top.

Regards, Louis

Hi,

This is it, construction is over.

I was waiting for a hobby mesh screen from overseas to finish the engine grills. But as I was replacing the metal screen on my sliding patio door this morning, I realized that the leftovers were as good as anything I could find on the hobby market. The thing is that instead of paying $20 (screen and shipping) for a few centimeters on the hobby market, I got 2 square meters of fine grill material for the same price at the hardware store. Even with just the leftovers, I have enough screen for a lifetime of 1/16 engine grill modelling.

Probably a bit large for the TPz but the screens size on hand is never perfect anyway.
The engine grills without the anchor points looked weird so I ended having to build the anchors seen in reference.
I never thought I would make the TPz roof look so busy.
This is it, last few pictures in white plasticard. The next time you will see this model, It will be painted.

I am thinking of the Afghanistan Bundeswehr sand and brown or green camo seen with this vehicle at the start of the build. One of the more original Bundeswehr color I have ever seen. It is different than the same 3 tone dark Nato camo we're been seeing for decades, and quite bored of it.

Regards, Louis

Nice Quebec sunset to mark the 6th of June