RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Fantastic detail once again Louis

Cheers,Lee.

Model Builder 4 wrote:Fantastic detail once again Louis

Cheers,Lee.

I agree!

Barry

Thank you Lee, Barry

This post is for the planning of the crew, and basic assembly and positioning of the arms.

The sFH18 is a heavy howitzer. The 15cm ammo came in two separate parts, shell and cartridge case. The shell alone had a weight of 44kg or 96 lb, and is quite large.
The single crewman responsible for loading the shell needed strength and a method for lifting and charging the gun.
These are the Modellino 1/16 scale gun crew made of resin and metal.

This is the loader, responsible to present the shell to the breech. The original design of the pose is questionable. I need the loader to hold the shell, not to singularly push it into the breech with arms up in the air. I doubt this was achievable anyway with a 100lb shell... I therefore had to reposition the arms and shell lower, closer to the body and in a way the loader could spread the weight across his both arms.
The arms are in some kind of alloy that allows to repositioned the hands a bit by slowly twisting them in the desired position.
This crewman is responsible for pushing the shell into the breech. No issue but the arms were reposition so that the tool is held higher.
This third crewman is responsible to load the cartridge case. I repositioned the hands holding the case up, more to my liking as i am guessing the cartridge case would normally carry the shell propellant at this stage.
At this time, the arms are just positioned, superglued and reinforced in place, next will come the putty and sanding job.
Checking the position of the crew inside the fighting compartment of the Hummel. Looking good. I am still wondering if i will permanently glue the crew in place while still allowing the gun to elevate and recoil, or just put them in place for static display.

Regards,

Louis

That is amazing. Another level of scratch building.

what an effort !
Just another level again that leaves us all gawking.............

Amazing Louis, simply amazing!

We all know the quality of your builds; what blows my mind too, is the fact you found so many photos of the Hummel and it's crew in action, in the first place!

Cheers,
Eric.

EAO wrote:mazing Louis, simply amazing!

We all know the quality of your builds; what blows my mind too, is the fact you found so many photos of the Hummel and it's crew in action, in the first place!

Hi, thank you all. Good references are essential to me for a build. This is where is take my inspiration, get some motivation, then i do a good study of the vehicle to learn as much as possible, then do my best to be accurate and add interesting RC features. It makes the build so much more interesting, but it adds pressure. Below are the reference books i had for this build. Not too expensive, sometimes purchased second hand. They are all excellent and show different aspects.
Finalizing the construction. Below is a picture of the exhaust pipe. There is one on each side.
The exhaust pipes are created mainly in 4mm aluminum tube.
Positioned under the hull sides with a curve towards the outside at the end.
The foot ladder step was added for the crew to climb aboard. Notice the exhaust stacks on both sides.
A lot more complicated to do are the bars for the gun barrel travel lock. And they somehow need to be made functional because showing them raised is an important feature of the Hummel. I knew it would be difficult to get them perfectly right so i set my expectations for results that would be close enough, with a few hours of work.
View of the 1/35 kit providing overview and dimensions to extrapolate.
Continuing on following post

The flexible bars are made in 2mm brass tubes, soldered on their hinge made in brass strips with M1 brass bolt and nut.
Here are the results after 5 hours of work.
The modeller with a sharp eye will notice some differences compared to the reference picture above but i needed to make some compromises to integrate the whole thing and make it functional.
The hinge for the locking mechanism is made with a trimmed brass micro hinge, and made functional.
The bars can be raised, locked in place with the middle brace, and the barrel locked as well.
Close up of the main hinge. This really tested my weak soldering skills but i wanted them to be solidly. These would easily break if only superglued.
The barrel does not sit perfectly in place as it should be, but its good enough for me considering the challenge and the time i wanted to spend on it.
View of the locking mechanism, made in brass strip and using a M1 bolt with a ring head, sold by Knupfer. The M1 nut is turned to lock the barrel.

The bars on this RC tank are made to be raised by a real human, not a 1/16 guy. So, i had to do some compromises that that the mechanism can be humanly handled.
Last thing to do was the addition of the tie-downs around the exterior armor hedges. These are made in 0.5mm brass rods, and the real thing designed to attach the rain tarp all around the open fighting compartment.
Now the construction is really finished. These are the last pictures before painting. I need to finalize the installation of the electronics. I already did a running trial of the gearbox, metal running train and tracks, and the Hummel runs perfectly. I will provide a video later.
Next step, running tests, post a video and then painting.

Regards, Louis