This time it will be different!
Of course the base files come from Inkor's collection on Cults3D: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various ... -viii-maus
The main hull, skirts, barrel, mantlet, and turret sides/bottom are all printed in PETG. The tracks, light housings, and exhaust outlets are printed in Sunlu ABS-like resin if I remember correctly. I hadn't discovered the Sunlu Toughness resin by that time. The upper deck pieces, turret roof, wheels, towing eyes, and spare fuel drum are printed in ASA. Most of the suspension parts are printed with Overture Easy Nylon. I'll have to see how that works out in the long run.
I said base files because the original files posted there called for using some small right hand gearboxes powered by a 370 sized motor. Such a small motor and gearbox was used because the way the Maus was designed, the central part of the hull is very narrow. People that had built the Maus commented that it was really under powered. I came up with an idea to use some planetary geared 395 motors which I think would've been up to the task of powering this beast and still fit in the tunnel. I 3D printed a mounting plate for the motors and cut the lower support out in the rear of the tank to get them to fit.
Since I wasn't the only person looking for a solution to the lack of power issue, others came up with a different idea to use this right hand motor/gearbox.
The problem with that motor/gearbox was that it wouldn't actually fit in the tunnel as it was originally designed. At that point Inkor designed some new pieces to house the new motors. After printing them, the new motors would fit as shown by another builders pics of the setup. I apparently didn't get any pics of mine prior to install. As you can see, the gearboxes with the black motor cans are way larger than even my 395 motors. The smaller gearboxes are shown still installed in the hull.
Seeing that the new motors fit in the new hull pieces I started printing them. While that was happening I started my hellish journey of assembling the tracks. The Maus tracks are especially crappy to assemble as the ends of the pins are not at the ends of the tracks due to the way the tracks curve upward on the ends and there have 4 different track pieces to clean/drill before assembly. There 94 of the main track links, 94 of the smaller center track links, and 188 of the left/right small track links. That's a total of 376 parts that I had to sand to get rid of the support nubs and then drill to make them fit a 0.9mm spring steel track pin that I had to cut to length myself. I got smart on my last track build and got a mini chop saw with a friction blade to cut the pins. I can usually do about 6 at a time with no issues, but once those are cut each pin has to have both ends deburred/smoothed. You can ignore the measurements on top track pic. I did those for another member on Discord.
And of course while building the tracks I ran out of my supply of 0.9mm spring steel and had to order more. By this point the new lower hull pieces were finished printing so I installed the motors. You can just see them peaking out below the standard HL gear rotation unit. I also modified Inkor's Maus speaker box to accept a Dayton 2.5" driver. Both are showing installed in the tank.
I got my order of spring steel in and they sent me 0.8mm. I was quite pissed until I found another set of 0.9mm rods hiding in my stash. At that point I finished building the tracks. Not wanting to start on the next hellish task (the suspension), I started work on removing the print lines from the model. I thought I had pics of the raw prints, but it seems I don't. I normally don't like to do finishing work until the tank is built and tested in case any changes need to be made, but in the interest of finishing this I broke my own rule. I first sanded the turret with my (what can only be called a God send) rotary foot sander. Yeah, I said foot sander:
https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Profess ... 5PQGL?th=1
It's basically a 370 motor connected to a variable power supply with stick on padded sanding discs. It works WONDERFULLY for sanding 3D printed parts. After sanding the turret, I grabbed my Dremel and a hobby blade to make some flame cuts in the turret armor pieces. Once that was done, I grabbed a round sponge brush and hit the turret with some Mr. Surfacer 500. This is how it turned out:
The suspension on the Maus is unique to the vehicle. It's pretty complicated and Inkor did his best to replicate it. There are basically 6 suspension modules per side of the tank (12 total). Each module has 4 suspension arms (48 total). Each lower arm has two wheels mounted on it (48 total).
As you will see, the two little guide rollers on the top of each module has been replaced by a set of static runners. That was a non-scale change to resolve some track binding issues. I think my build will be the first to try the system without the wheels on top. I'm kinda crossing my fingers here that it will solve the issues with the track catching on the rollers. I printed each wheel with a slight modification that allowed be to use ball bearings in them. So that means there are 96 bearings in the wheels alone (2 per wheel). All of the suspension arms, cross bars, and track guides had to be cleaned and sanded before I could assemble them. This is where I'm at:
Luckily I realized that I wasn't going to have enough bearings on hand and had also ordered those by the time I got to this point. I have exactly 3 of the suspension modules assembled without the springs in them. Springs are still on their way and should be here by the time they are all assembled. Even so, I have more finishing work to do so the project won't stall if they are delayed.
I had most of the tank printed and assembled before returning to work on it. I figured I could finish this relatively quickly since it's a lot of flat pieces with few details. The top deck pieces have also gotten a liberal amount of spray filler putty at this point. So this is what it looks like after the work in the past three weeks:
I will continue to work on the suspension and finishing work for the next installment.
That's all for now...
