OK I said I was not going to do this, but here we go.

I purchased the kit from Frank schmiede, a contemporary of Cris Ludwig who was a contributor for this project. This is Frank's site. http://www.modellbau-schmiede.de/.

He offers the kit in several different configurations; Everything but electronics, hull and turret assembly, and just the hull. He has a few options but it is better to check his site or sent him an email.

I purchased two of his middle kits (hull, turret and a rotation gear mount/motor).

What's in the kit?
1. pattern cut metal lower hull components including torsion bar stays, ref picture.
2. pattern cut upper hull component
3. Resin cast turret and details,
4. Nicely machined main gun, muzzle brake, and recoil bits.

I am providing:
1. Track
2. Idler, sprocket, road, and return wheels. I guess i am going to have to make my own sprocket as the KV-1 sprocket is a bit larger.
3. Suspension (torsion bars, suspension arms, track adjusters, mount bearings)
4. electronics, probably will use El-Mod
5. minor detail parts
6. motor/gearboxes. I was going to use one of my impact boxes but i have decided to try the "new" lower ratio (so called 3:1) boxes from Mato. I believe they will hold up just fine.
7. recoil and elevation motors

The kit is nicely organized and has a reasonable set of instructions, both in English and German. Make no mistake this is not a kit for beginners but it is not bad at all. With the build plan, some interpretation is needed but it is not too bad. The parts are clean but require final separation from the provided sheet stock and a bit of de-burring. The 122mm gun barrel/brake is one of the nicest i have ever seen.
I started this morning with separating the metal parts, using an abrasive cut off wheel on my dremel. I will then do a de-burring, abrasive prep and cleaning to get ready for epoxy bonding the hull parts together. I will post pics as i go, if i do not get to lazy. So here we go!

That looks like an amazing kit and an awful lot of work.  I for one, hope you do not get "lazy" as you said and document the build with lots and lots of pictures.

Best of luck and regards,

J</p>

Careful, there are a few Heavy Russian enthusiasts around that you are tempting. Including ME!

OMG, i better stop now!!! "not"

No No dont stop now. I cant wait to see them. What is your opinion on the turret. It has been said it is much more closer to the KV-85 than the IS-2. The kit looks awesome wish i had one. maybe someday someone will wake up and start offering more variety in there line ups.

honestly i am not sure there is a difference, without regard to the 122mm and mounting details, but it will be a while before i get to the turret.

Drool! Can't wait for more photos. I'm sure it will be one of your usual awesome builds!

Nice ... metal wheels too. Very envious, the only other I would want would be the T-10 but this will be a very unusual subject in 1/16.


- Jeff

here are a couple of pics about the hull build. not much to shout about but if you love working with epoxy [:'(] then you will have fun with this.

I found out that the kit maker had used the Asiatam KV hull parts for details such as the swing arm bearings, bump stops, torsion bars, return wheel mounts track adjuster, etc. I had a lot of Tamiya stuff (torsion bars, swing arm bearings on hand so i started modifying as i went. I just received a parts tree from tamiya to copy into resin parts for some of these details. I just primed the lower hull and a bunch of metal parts today so i hope to do a bit more soon.
I am also starting to prepare molds for lots of different details plus have feelers out to get some sprocket adapters built as the IS and KV sprockets are different in diameter

I made some progress this week but it only in making molds and resin castings of more wheels (needed two for the idlers, return wheel mounts, suspension stops. I then had to modify the suspension arms and idler arms by grinding off .100" to make all the wheel sets align. I have mounted the return wheels. I will post more picture soon. There are so many detail nuances that differ from the KV it is amazing. The plates the the bumpers mount to are square vs trapezoidal on the KV, , THE suspension bearing plates are teardrop or elipsoid shaped where the KVs are round. I have not begun to review and analyze the upper hull yet.

In the mean time i need some help. Does anyone know where i can view the idler adjustment and how it actually touches the idler arm? i know what the adjuster looks like and that it sits at a different angle then the KVs but as to the view, at the point that the arm couples to the adjuster screw, i have no clue.

Here's what I have on the idler for the JS in Sevastopol. Let me know if you need more, and VCO and I will pop over there.

ok i see how it attaches now. thanks

Not a problem. The sad thing about this JS is it, like all the others at Museum, were runners when installed on their plinths. They were then neglected for 50 years, and of course will never run again.

kclank

How did you attach the lower hull aluminum parts together? Epoxy or bolts fastners?

Do the seams match well?

epoxie(s) plural as i used several different types. It depends on the edge configuration. I used some high end crap that did not work as advertised. i used JB weld in some spots, i used 30 minute modeling epoxy (24 hour cure). which seems to be doing the job The basic hull is a monocoque structure so it should be fine but i added a reinforcement angle to the inner fenders using shoo goo because i suspect the fenders will get some handling stress and might need to flex a small amount and absorb some shocks. The seams are excellent.

A couple more pics showing lay out of motors (new Mato 3:1 boxes), suspension, torsion bars and accessories mounted, preliminary check of sprockets although the final sprockets will be more authentic.

Looks real good so far . how do the gear boxes look. do they run true or is there any issues with them. The reason I ask is I need a new set for the KV-85 I'm building from an HL KV-1. I need long shaft boxes, as I bent one trying to press off the spur gear . Don't ask whty but I did non the less. LOL.

They are long shaft boxes. I have run them to break them in and they are quieter then my Impact TMUs. The intermediate gears are bushed, the output shaft is roller bearing. Cases are steel and are well supported. fair motor mount. It will be some time before i can see what they run like under load, and after use.

Are your gears all straight cut or are any of them helicut?   One side of mine is near-perfect and I can turn the output shaft by hand with the motor in place.  The other side had all the gears cut bad as you can see in this post:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10437900

</p>

What he said Ken. It was bad enough at the last meeting where all I could muster was a semi stock incomplete
HL Pz III that tossed a track after a few minutes vs your SU-152 and Panzertroyer, now this?

You and Rex should take a sabbatical from building so the rest of us would appear semi competent....

There are upsides to retirement Gerry

~~~~~~~~

Yeah, and living alone in a man cave too!
Rex

What is 'retirement'? And while we're on the subject, what is this 'vacation' word I keep hearing? Haven't a clue meself.

Slow going but here is some small amount of progress.
1. tweaked the suspension to allow the tank to sit a bit lower.
2. Fabricated idler adjusters (external) using swivel links and turnbuckles and the backed up by a locking set screw arrangement (internal) to support and lock in place.
3. Using KV sprockets (waiting for some IS-2 sprocket adapters from Daryl Turner) i installed some plastic track and did a test run. Thanks to Rex Ross who lent me some additional KV track links I needed.
4. Drilled, tapped and installed motor mounts.
5. Test ran it in my back yard and it seems to run real smooth but i need to tweak the adjuster positions a bit more to move the idlers forward and a bit lower which will also serve to level the turnbuckles more like the prototype. For the moment the idlers are in the "compressed" position.

That's about it for now. Getting ready to work on upper hull.

Another small step forward. This is a plastic substructure, and upper deck that provides some of the upper hull strength and shape.