RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I know I said no more new projects until I finished some of the ones I've already started but I almost got a good deal on a Panther. That got me thinking, with a Panther I'd have all the German Panzers that went into production during WWII apart from two (PzI and Pz II).

I went away last weekend (couldn't do any modelling) so armed with my laptop, George Bradford's "German Early War AFV's", a ruler and Google image search, I got to work on the first production Panzer. As this was going to be my first all printed tank it seemed a good idea to start on something small and easy. Over the last week in between printing parts for other people I managed to do this-















The suspension isn't quite to scale but I had to make a few changes as I wanted it to be fully working.

I made a few errors that I only spotted once printed but nothing that was easily fixed on the model (and on the CAD file). My PLA extruder failed* half way through the week so I had to use ABS. I had been thinking about using ABS for some parts (it can be tricky to use) but wasn't sure about using it to print out new parts that I'd never printed before. In the end I was forced to and I'm glad I did. The entire lower hull is in ABS and it fits perfectly with the PLA upper (had to increase the parts by 0.75% to allow for shrinkage) which is great as the ABS is stronger.


* for the 3D printer users - The PTFE tube finally gave up the ghost. Not bad as I've been printing almost every day 4 - 8 hours a day for just over a year.

Thanks

Test fit the return rollers. Pictured with a Tiger 1 (another unfinished project) to show how small it is-

Woz, looks great mate, out of interest, what gear boxes are you thinking of using, also I can see space for battery and electronics etc being an issue, maybe a Clark's TK35 is the way to go with this one as its been designed to go in 1/35 scale armour.

Will be following along.

John

I'm getting Panda 38t RC conversion kit gearboxes off blimp. Electronics will probably be Heng Long with a small camera battery.

Nothing too fancy. Armed with two MG34's it's not going to be a battler.

Can't wait, bring it on!!

John

Now I really like that are you doing a kit?.,.that's small enough to sneak past the mrs

Will be watching this with great interest, nice to see an attempt at a complete tank, which will probably be a first in 1/16 as far as I know?

My printer decided to acquire a duff contact somewhere over a week ago, and I still haven't got around to looking at where the problem is, if I see that 'Z endstop hit' error again I think I will need to see a psychiatrist.

Thanks.

This guy posted this on RCU which got me thinking- http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-tank ... rpion.html.

I always thought a printed tank was possible but was never sure how well printed suspension parts would hold up. But after watching the video of this guys tank I thought I'd have a go.


Whats happening with your printer WW?

I sorted the printer, I knew where the problem was, I just couldn't be bothered to sit down and fix it. The self levelling is done via a mini servo that drops a rod onto the glass at three positions prior to each print. The print head lowers, which pushes the rod up until the top of it breaks a light sensor. The servo lifts the rod between each prod, it takes the average of the three depth readings and that is accounted for when the printed starts. Due to the design, over time the rod moves fractionally until it goes out of tolerance, and that makes the printer think that the Z offset is out, so it stops the print, and throws up an error message. I only had to reset the rod in its clamp, but its a fiddly job.

PLA works with suspension arms ok. I use 100% infill for rigidity, they all tighten up and are actually a better fit than HL ones. I will print a set of return rollers for the Chieftain tomorrow, as I can't get a set of the KV1 items anywhere.

RobG

Hatches, exhaust and view ports done-


The hatches open