1/16-15 BANDAI Hummel to Nashorn conversion

[xrad]

Started gathering parts for a great project. I love to build panzerjager! Since I have done a Jagdpanther, Stug III, and Stug IV (in progress)...I felt that the one missing from my collection (besides the hunting tiger) is the Nashorn.

A good opportunity came along for me to obtain a Bandai Hummel kit. I have also gathered the necessary metal parts including hull and suspension for a Tamiya panzer IV, and the drive gear from a Panzer III. Unfortunately, I do not want to build a Hummel, but I was able to get an aluminum 88 L71 barrel and muzzel break (tamiya) and will create the rest of the needed gun parts.

I plan to use HL electronics. I really like that for 100$ I can completely remote control the Nashorn. With some fiddling, there will be left/right and up/down gun motion. Additionally, gun flash. Recoil is a bit of an issue due to space limitations and will probably be left out.

Drive system will be asiatam 3:1 bearing gearboxes mounted into Tammy P-IV hull (or the Bandai plastic hull...have not determined yet)

Tracks will be standard width with ice cleats. I considered a set of ostketten, but I already had one set of standard width track, and since the track length is longer on the Nashorn hull, it was cheaper to get another set of standard width.

Paint will be faded whitewash over cammo. This build will have some of the upgrades such as remote travel lock release, storage locker covers, metal frame w/netting over the gun, etc...

Pics to come...

[mcevoyi]

hi there xrad

will be very interesting to watch you do this conversion !

all the best

iain

[Scrap Hunter]

Excellent, one of the projects I've wanted to do, unfortunately obtaining a 1/15 Bandai Hummel at a reasonable price is all but impossible.
will be watching this build with interest.

[Scrap Hunter]

Wait a minute!
Xrad, did you obtain this Hummel off a chap named "Cripple" from another RC forum?

Damn it, I sent him a pm over a month ago & never got a reply!

[xrad]

HAHAHAHAH SCrap Hunter!!! What a deal from CRIPPLE at 50$$.........


BUT, unfortunately ....no. Long story short, I had to join a fantasy model website which took a week to get approval... just so I could send stupid PM's to CRIPPLE. I PM'd him about 3-4 times (I'm 'XRAD" over there, too!). No replies. He had a nice little bunch for sale with a few 1/15 Bandai's for cheap, too! He has not posted since last year and I'm sure he is gone...

Anyway, the 'OPPORTUNITY' came up, but it was not a price opportunity! Just an ebayer who was selling for less than the 300+ of the other seller. And looking back at the 2009 sale prices, I thought it was reasonable.

BAndai kit will need some working as the cast metal suspension looks really poor. I want something functional. I bought the tankzone P-IV upgrad suspension for Heng Long. It is a real nice unit for the price (~29#) and looks more scale than the tammy unit.

Thanks for the positives, guys! can;t wait to get this one rolling!

[grompix]

Looking forward to watching this...
Chris

[xrad]

Thanks! G-pix

I think I can use some of the gun parts off the 105 to build the 88...like recuperator and mounts and some of the adjusting wheels and such.. I will reverse the breech so it faces the other way and trim down a little for size...

[Scrap Hunter]

ah, no problem Xrad, if it had happened, it happened, water under the bridge, air through the engine etc etc.
However, I too nearly broke & bought a Hummel for $300 US out of Hong Kong........but I refuse to pay an international flat rate shipping charge of US $150!
What on earth do some of these clowns think?!?!?!

[xrad]

I agree on the shipping! Crazy stuff, there at 150$ plus the Hummels were like 340$ on top of shipping.

But I did pay about 85$ for shipping and much less for the Hummel...Still HIGH, but .....

[xrad]

I am trying to work out a conversion using 3:1 asiatam gearboxes and HL metal panzer III drive wheels and idlers. Interestingly, the tammy 1/16 panzer IV road wheels are slightly bigger than the 1/15 BAndai. Bandai plastic (hull and superstructure and road wheels) is the very durable type, not like HL plastic. road wheel detail not super but the Bandai set-up will work.

Bandai rubber for the road wheels is also of excellent quality! strong but flexible. Much better than asiatam rubber on Panzer III road wheels.

Pics to come.