I haven't updated this thread in a while. Still making progress. I've done the very initial, but the most difficult part of assembling the running gear on 4 of the 5 pz III variants
I've been working on. When looking over the photo below keep in mind this is just me having mounted the sprocket/ final drives and idlers of these four models. The track tension mechanism, shock absorbers, and return rollers are not yet built and installed. The alignment between road wheels, sprockets and idlers is not set and the track chain lengths are all over the place. I just put these together in this way to give me a little feeling of accomplishment so they begin to look something like tanks... With this fourth model done just this evening that leaves my old original StuG III which I've not touched in a very long time. Two of these models have aluminum track sets the other two tracks from Geiswerk. Not quite certain what I will do for my old StuG...

Jerry

Wow, nice work Jerry!!!! Always love to see your progress on these beasts.

The work continues! Spent time over the last week of so preparing a drilling jig for drilling the pin hols in the track link castings I have.
Won't go into the details here but drilling links has never been my favorite pastime! It needs to be done and I do just a few each day
so not to OD on it.

Jerry

All these images in aluminum... just what a tanker likes to see. Especially photo #3, that's line-up I can stare at all day.

So envious Jerry.

In danger of repeating myself from the previous post however.....one of the more dull tasks in making a model AFV. Drilling track link pin holes. At first glance you'

d think this is pretty brain dead work but actually it isn't. Drilling aluminum can be treacherous to the drilling apparatus as alloys vary in their "chewy_ness", without proper care and sensitivity, proper lubricant one of the very thin( .055" and .059") drills can snap off in an instant making for an annoying removal task. I've revised my drilling fixture a few times and I now actually have been able to make some decent progress. For the approximately 200 ( including tests) holes that these 91 links represent I've broken two drill bits. So the work continues. My old StuG here, I began it in 1989 ( ) is sort of a special case. I already have a set of Geisswerk's Ost Ketten for her but I want a 'normal' set as well. I've begun preparing the links for the second chain and hope to be finished this week. Then it's back to return rollers, (I'll likely revise those on this old girl), aligning the entire running gear on the other 4 models and track tensioners for all. When all 5 of these models have fully realized running gear and a few other bits I plan to take a break from them for a time. I want to finish my KT and there are two others including one I hope to make into a pre-prod with Porsche turret.My ultimate goal is to get all these models that have been in my building queue to much the same level: the lower level detail phase so I can focus on 'mass- producing' details that are more or less common at the same time. All in all I have 9 tanks that are in that pool.

I like The Jig, Jerry. I wish they had used one of those when they did the tracks for my hetzer. I actually used to work for Destaco, the people that invented that type of clamp. And I know exactly what you mean about those tiny little drill bits. You just have to really take your time and when they break pretty much all you can do is cuss a lot.

Crius, thanks. It took me a while to get this one more or less right. Those clamps are marvelous. I have several now. This was my first attempt at
making a fixture like this but not the first for drilling tracks. I made my own tool steel drill guides and that was the most trying aspect. I tried to harden a first attempt for the upper and it didn't end well. The inner portion of the forward guide is sort of hard. I just recently purchased an electric lab furnace that can go to about 1900F and next time I'll use it. I don't have the specs on the steel I have but I'd try oil bath hardening first and water second if
oil doesn't work. The other challenge is that the tracks castings, I didn't make them, have variations which required modifications to the fixture to allow for them. The castings I believe were made by different founders and there's different amounts/types of cleanup required but I made the holding area more generic. This fixture isn't perfect but it is ok and right now allowing me to make good progress.

Inching along. I'm glad most of the tedium of making tracks is behind me. Besides making up some spares and fixing the link pins
properly so they don't work themselves out it's pretty much done. Doing this is one of those things you want to do least often. It's
just that the track link castings need quite a bit of clean up, sprues mostly and just can't just use a pair of diagonals to nip them off and filing to be consistent before they'll fit in the fixture and even look right. After actually drilling a few you get a feel for the tiny drill and how it will behave in the metal, you mostly know when to back off when the drill is getting loaded up. I broke 3 number 54 drills in the 270 links I drilled but was able to resharpen them once and I broke no number 53 drill at all. I also use A9 cutting juice. On to the next task. Return rollers, track tensioners.

Progress is being made on my set of Pz III variants, albeit slowly. Working out track tensioners or rather how I want to make them. I believe I've it worked out although I will likely change
to a thinner profile hex bar for the actual adjustment rod. I've been making return roller tires slowly, a rather boring task but grateful I can do it. My goal of bringing all of these models
to the same point so I can take a break from them is nearly realized. At least now they all more or less look like something instead of that pile of miscellaneous parts in my closet.
I've begun tuning the suspensions, making adjustments, new stiffer torsion bars here and there however the final adjustments need to wait until the models are nearly complete as it depends on the final suspended weight.

Jerry

you made your own tracks out of aluminum. that's incredible.. it looks really really good too. You tankers are amazing

Looking good Jerry. That's a heck of an undertaking making four tanks at once! The castings look awesome! Lots of work - but great results..
Bob

Excellent work as always, Jerry! BTW, Hooben still behind on their 1/10 M4 citing lack of parts. Stay tuned.... ;-)

Hi Charles, thanks for that info. I still want one as my allied armor is severely lacking in strength. As soon as I get the track tensioners all made for these Pz IIIs
I'm going to set them aside both to take a break from them and to fully decide how I want to finish them; Still haven't decided if the 2nd Stu hull will be
a StuG or StuH....I wanted a StuH late type but lately I've been waffling... I might even scrap the SPG idea and go with a flak or recovery version. I actually probably
have enough parts to build 2 more so perhaps I'll make them all but 7 models at once is a stretch even for me... and there are are parts I really would not look forward
to making more of. Even though I'll take a break mostly I will go back in to work on odd common parts as the mood strikes.

This thread is so old now I want to clarify a couple of points. I'm working of 5 models which includes my original StuG from mmany years ago. I didn't cast the track links.
I believe all of these were from Thomas Wittgrebe who initially had them cast for him while he had his business years ago; I did clean them up( no small job in itself)
however and make a fixture to drill them which is the most boring , tedious task of all; I did assemble the tracks I drilled.( two of the models have tracks by Geisswerk
in Germany) I did not cast 4 of the five sets of road wheels (I did do the set on my original StuG.) nor did I cast the idler wheels but did machine all of these parts.
There were miscellaneous hull lower plates and upper hull castings for the turreted tanks I did not cast and the upper for the SIG 33 as it stands now was built by
Thomas, it was his own pet project he decided to sell. Everything else including sprockets, sprocket bodies, final drive assemblies, torsion bars, internal structures,
tires, bearings I made. I don't have blueprints but rather I make sketches as I go drawing on books, photos and whatever info I have obtained first hand, from the
'net and others' work. For the parts I had that weren't my own construction it was a matter of collecting parts over the years from here and there. What prompted
me to start this was the fear that I'd begin to loose parts. At the end of this project I plan to attempt to sell off all my surplus parts for Pz IIIs but not
my fixtures, and I've made quite a few or the bags of track castings that remain.

Jerry

That really is an impressive body of work indeed. Got to hand it to you!

p

Wow, your track clamp/jig is beautiful. Boring, not pun intended, the track pin holes made easy. Totally lusting after your Stug III G!!! I would love to have one in 1/8 to go with my 1/8 Tiger II.

Here's the lineup as they sit right now. I wanted to bring them to this point before a take at least a partial break from them. They are all more or less at the same level of development; most
of the suspension components are installed up to the tensioners. There is of course much much more to be done but I think the most machine intensive bits are complete. I wanted them to at least
look roughly like tanks before slowing a bit. Slowing up a bit will give me a chance to consider how best to make the bits that remain and still work on them as the mood strikes. I want to work on that transmission that's sitting in from of the line. I believe it is an older Veroma unit I picked up somewhere, was pretty worn but I went through it once. It was for electric power however want to modify
it to work with a VT49 engine which you've ever heard one is a very quiet 4 cycle engine. I'll need a reversing gear certainly. Anyway there it is.

BTW sorry for the giant photos, they are reduced to 30% of the originals but they're still showing up here as giant....

Jerry