RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I held back on posting anything about this build as it is so complex that I had serious doubts about whether I could actually do it. The turret is a a bit of a nightmare, and I decided that if I could do that then the rest would be a walk in the park by comparison.

I initially set about trying to do the turret in Openscad so that I could 3D print it, but there was no way to get all of the curves correct doing it that way. So what I did was create a framework with triangles to get the basic shape, and then sculpt it with Milliput.

I bought the Tamiya 1/35 kit to copy, but when I printed and sculpted a 1/70 scale test version I compared it to photographs of the real one, and it didn't look right. A bit of research and I found that the kit is wrong on about 30 aspects. So a few mods to the 3D version and I printed it. It is huge, and I had to cut it in half to print it, each half took around 8-14 hours?

I then cut a turret base from styrene, screwed that onto the printed upper, and mounted a turret ring..it seems to have been a success. Just waiting for some more filler to arrive to finish the basic shape off.

I printed a barrel pivot, and made the barrel from styrene tube, it's a loooong barrel. lol.

The Chieftain uses roadwheels that are a pretty close match to the Bulldog, so I printed 12 suspension arms that fit the KV1 hull mounts, but that have the correct diameter and offset to take the Bulldog wheels. Chieftain hub caps were printed to make the roadwheels more like the real ones. The road wheels should be in three pairs of two. It would be well nigh impossible to build accurate working Chieftain suspension as it is composed of multiple parts, and one pair of mounts is a different size to the rest, so I have stuck with the KV1 arrangement for reliability. I could in theory print dog leg suspension arms that would reposition the wheels into the correct spacing, and may return to this idea when everything else is complete (nice job for the winter...).

I also printed engine deck vents, filler caps etc, ready to go on when the upper hull is done.

Rob

I like the way your taking advantage of latest tech like 3d printing to scratch build tanks.

Ian

One solution to the suspension problem is getting a good quality 1:35 Cheiftain or Centurion kit (the AFV one springs to mind) which has a working suspension system you could copy. Or crazy idea but could a 1:16 HVSS system from a Tamiya Super Sherman work but with longer arms and different wheels? All you'd need to do is build covers for them and no one would be any wiser given they're hidden behind skirts.

The Chieftain suspension is a very complex unit. To make the parts and have it all working smoothly would be several months work, there are a lot of parts to it. It would also have to be slim enough to mount the roadwheels and still keep the tracks aligned with the sprocket and idler, it would be a very tight squeeze, and would have to be very accurate.

None of it would be visible behind the side skirts, and unless it was all perfect it wouldn't work as well as the KV1 Heng Long set up. The easiest way is to do it the way that HL have done it, and know that I can run the tank without leaving a trail of parts behind it, or throw tracks every 5 minutes.

I can print the suspension arms in a different way to make the wheels into pairs if I decide to, no one would know as they wouldn't be visible.

Once I have the lower hull delivered I can see what the measurements will be, but at the moment I can't even begin to design them.

Looks great.

I got the 1/35 kit but got side tracked with other things.

Apparently, according to those in the know, the Tamiya 1/35 Chieftain does not represent any Chieftain that was ever built. lolol. It's sold as Mk 5, but the closest is the Mk3. The kits cost about £15, the Stillbrew/TOG resin upgrade kits cost about £50?

I can have recoil and elevation on the one I am doing, and I am currently chatting to Thomas at Elmod about getting a Fusion board to go in it. If he will sell direct I will get one, but if he refers me to Tankzone I may have to reconsider.

That's unfortunate however, you may want to wait for this

It's the new Takom Chieftain kit and that looks like one beautiful model and apparently it's out very soon.

They do three versions, McEvoyi told me about those, they are way better than the Tamiya one.

The main part of the turret is now done, I can get fine detail from pics on the web. The hull will not be exact scale but quite close as the Chieftain/KV1 are about the same size.

I will do it as a Mk5, but may update it to a Strongbrew/TOG later. The turret is now so heavy I am getting concerned about adding any more weight. It will all be styrene boxes and racks from here on.

Hi rob ...wowowowowo

I love yet another fantastic build I will be glues to this ...

Iain

Todays geek challenge.

On the back of the turret there is a box that houses the telephone. On top of the box are a load of brackets...but what are they used for?