RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi everyone,

After a short break from modelling, i am starting a new build, this will be the German First World War A7V, the first German tank. Something i have not seen or build before.
The A7V was a heavy tank developed by Germany in 1918. The running gear was based on the American Holt tractor. Only 20 were built. They were used in action from March to October 1918, and were the only tanks produced by Germany in World War I used in combat. The A7V was armed with six 7.92 mm MG-08 machine guns and a 5.7 cm Maxim-Nordenfelt cannon mounted at the front. Each of the 20 tanks had a name.
Seen here during an exposition.
Nice picture showing the crews and their combat uniforms.
Interior view and crew dispositions. I intend to give the model a partial interior.
The Ludwig 1/16 scale base kit will be used. The kit comes in 7 plasticard plates of various thickness.

The model will have the following features;

- Main gun elevation, horizontal movement, recoil, flash and sound
- Two MG-08 machine guns will have flash and sound, with some servo movement
- Partial interior of the front area and driver's section.
- Mato gearbox and metal tracks
Ludwig road wheels are molded in plastic, main gun is in resin, and the machine gun barrels are in white metal.
Close up of the main gun and shield. The shield seems undersized. The whole thing will be replaced and scratch built.
Because of the planned interior, i wanted to have nice MG-08 machine guns. My buddy Serg from Russia sold me the parts that i needed from his resin model. I needed 6 of them. The finer resin machine guns can be compared to the Ludwig metal barrels.
Close up of the MG-08. I ordered only the elements needed at a discount.
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The A7V seems to have at least one thousands rivets. I ordered a vast selection of different shapes and sizes of rivets in the past, and hopefully will have enough.
Sherman T49 tracks will be used as specified by Ludwig. The gearbox is a Mato Panzer III.
To create a skeleton crew to fit inside the tank, i ordered the WW1 German fighter ace collection from Miniart. Although these are Luftwaffe officers, they seem to have used the same uniforms as the land forces.
They come is different parts that will allow modification of the poses.
For references, i will be using the Mephisto book from the Australian Queensland museum that hold the only survivor A7V in its collection, Mephisto. Although the tank is missing the top parts for the driver's section, its existence is of great value for historians and fans.
The book has a wide section on the history of WW1 tanks. Of specific interest to me is the section with close up pictures of the A7V, including details view of the rivets which are actually a big elements of this tank. You can see the different shapes and sizes used.
Some of the pictures could have been bigger but this book is essential for this build and highly recommended. It also have pictures of the interior.
I will also be helped by the 1/35 Meng Kit of the A7V.
The kit features a full interior, which will be very useful.
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Nice graphs are coming with the Meng kit.
Now, comparing the 1/16 Ludwig kit with extrapolated measurements from the 1/35 Meng kit, i can already see some issues with the Ludwig kit.
- Length is ok
- Width has problems
- The crew compartment is about 14mm too high
- Doors are too wide, all the hatches have dimension problems.
Main issue for a rivet counter like me is the fact that the pre-drilled holes for the rivets are not right. Not enough of them and the disposition is inaccurate.
Angles are also not right. Oh well, nothing new, i have built many Ludwig kits, I expected that but always hoping for the best. All of it will require a level of correction, or parts replacement.
Starting with the lower chassis, build without problems using the few vague pictures provided on the Ludwig website.
I was surprised by the suspension, or lack of it. The 6 suspension modules only swivel on a pivot that seem quite weak to me.
I used M3x32 Hex bolts as axels for the roadwheels. It takes some analysis to figure out how the design is supposed to work. There is no clear instruction pictures of it available. Roadwheels are pretty loose inside the modules. Roadwheel 1 and 5 are higher than the middle 2-3-4 roadwheels, which are the ones resting on the tracks.
From what i could decipher, the side connector pins of the T49 tracks are what is holding the track inside the suspension modules, with the roadwheel rolling vaguely inside... I am not really impressed. I have determine that the use of plastic Heng Long tracks is not possible due to the side pin being molded on the pads instead of the connectors.
Because the roadwheels are small, the connector pins of the T49 tracks were touching the axels. I had to file them a bit to clear the tracks.
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The modules are ready.
Comparing the suspension modules with the 1/35 kit, we can see many differences in shapes.
Because of the Sherman tracks used, the roadwheels needed to be positioned lower on the Ludwig modules.
We can see that the real tank had tracks with a large and raised structure, not present with the T49 tracks.
Because the module are very inaccurate, i did not thick it was worth spending time trying to rework them. They are too different from the real thing and they need to be functional. At least, i gave them rivets instead of the 4 rows of holes on the sides.
The modules are linked with a weak connector that i do not think will last very long. We shall see.
The suspension modules are mounted on the chassis with a single M3 hex bolt. I have a real bad feeling about it.
Here, i am at the planning stage for the installation of the Mato gearbox. i determined that this is the angle that they should be installed. Take note that the tracks run on rails for the return forward.
The sprocket is a bit too close from the the rear suspension module, almost touching. Something needs to be done.
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The Mato metal tracks are difficult tracks by nature, so to make them run smoothly on such a weak suspension will require much preparation and care.
The suspension rolls like a pig on the flat Sherman T49 tracks. Its not promising at all. Ah, this is a modelling adventure. We'll see what happens and it will be fun to see it. Worst case, i will have to modify the installation of the suspension modules to make them real solid. There is no springs or real suspension anyway... Won't be missing anything.
Next step, the idlers, installation of the gearbox and some field test of the chassis... It will be something to see and i will certainly make a video of it.

Regards, Louis

Good Morning, Louis,
Amazing work ( fun ) so far. All of the issues you note can be clearly seen ( even by me ). I normally have thoughts on how something can be approached to resolve but in this case, outside of a metal bushing to strengthen the suspension attachment point ( and even that would present issues weakening the already thin connection tabs ), only a complete new build of portions of the lowers would make it a truly solid runner. I'm looking forward to some of your excellent problem solving on this one.
regards,
Painless

Another fantastic project. I recommend to everybody NightShift Youtube channel where mentioned Meng kit was build and painted. Last video of the series:

Wow! I look at building/painting dioramas in a totally different way now. Thanks for posting that!

I watch the "Uncle Nightshift" videos all the time, and he has a really big back-catalogue well worth watching.
The actual A7V Mephisto I have seen at the Brisbane Museum, and at the National Memorial in Canberra some time back.
Despite it being a WW1 tank it still cuts a significant presence.
I had romantic ideas of doing one of these as well after seeing it in the 'flesh' ,but that idea was soon relegated to lustful desire which would been unrequited

Another remarkable build we all have a front row seat on

Hi, Thank you Painlesswolf and others for your interest. That static diorama is exeptional.

The following 2 posts are for the motorization with a short Youtube demonstration video at the end.

It was annoying me that the rollers were all over the place. Without the ability to add anything to the shafts, i added a plasticard spacer on the bottom each side of each road wheel to keep them centered and avoiding touching the tracks.
This allows the tracks to freely runs on each side more easily.
There was no way to make this chassis run with the heavier all metal Mato tracks. It was just destroying the chassis. I therefore had to look for something lighter.
These are old Mato T48 tracks Metal (pins and connectors) with rubber pads that come with the plastic MATO M4A1. These are much lighter and flexible than the all metal T48.
To make them run correctly, i had to file every connector to remove about 0.3mm in height, and make all corners rounder for a smoother running. Scratch build chassis do not like sharp corners.
Sprocket teeth also have to be filed to remove sharp edges.
All sharp edges needed to be removed from the bogies. You can easily see where the tracks have friction against the bogies.
Mato Sherman metal Idlers are used with a simple thick wall brass tube as axel.
I planned for the tracks to be pretty loose so that they do not put pressure on the bogies. I manage to achieve it without track adjuster.
Tracks and gearbox are installed.
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