Jerry the Elefant tamer!! No one should be allowed to contain that many beasts (lol)

I do really hope one of the current up and coming manufacturers come up with a new revised Elefant, best in kit or semi kit form. I'm pleased as punch Asiatam has the tracks, I hope to buy a set as spares.

My apologies to the thread starter, I had no intention of hijacking your post. Again I want to wish you the best on your project; it is always good to see folks follow their creative bent when they build. There seems to be exciting news coming from Asiatam and I hope it helps your efforts.

Unless anyone is having trouble sleeping stop here and go on to the next post...from this point on are just my musings.

I mentioned that the original Imai track is fragile and I feel it is; but not due to age. Imai used fairly large pins for the tracks and making the outer hole( the pins are pressed into the center portions of the track hinge only) large for clearance leaving a very, very thin section. I proved this at a local club day one year when running one of them in a "potting soil" battle ground when one track bound up and a weak link broke....

I know I've mentioned it many times before but when these models were introduced no one seemed much interested.
That's how I got my first one, it sat unsold in a shop until they were going out of business and sold it at a discount, $250
in 1978. For the time they were way expensive, Tamiya's Sherman cost $99. I just assumed they were out of my reach until they were pretty much out of production; I remember back some years before I actually bought my first that I had gotten a product list from a Japanese mail order first selling all manner of AFV kits they had listed the model at $410 which I assume was discounted from what I don't know. I remember seeing one kit in the display window of San Antonio Hobby ( first store location) shop in Mountain View displayed to show the styro trays of parts. Never saw the price they wanted.
But this is all just history. RC armor wasn't very popular in this country in the 1970s, the current crop of tank people are spoiled rotten, spoiled beyond anything I could have imagined.


Jerry

It has been a while since i have worked on this project but with the imminent threat of Hooben producing one i thought i would get back on the stick. I have thrown away most of the Tanks and Trolls parts as they were way to brittle and would not have lasted in tank battles. I purchased the Asiatam tracks and suspension parts, discarding my previous ideas on making the wheels, etc.
The running gear has been tested and works real good. A friend ran me a new fighting compartment on his rapid prototype printer (i dropped and shattered my other one) but it required lots of finishing, still needs more work but it seems to be coming in. i have used about 3 pounds of styrene to build up the lower hull and the fender substrates. I am now working on the upper front deck (what you see is mostly paper), then the lower rear end pieces. Lots of little brackets, clips, holders, restraints and mounts; holes to drill and bolt heads to be installed. the fenders will be finished with tread-plate. i have not done much thinking about the gun assembly yet but i am planning elevation, traverse and recoil. The electronics will be Tamiya. With the size of this beast i could probably put in a 6" speaker but we shall see. here are some updated pics. comments are welcome, but be kind.

Nice!! Quite a project, but I see it's coming along well.
How good are the asiatam tracks and suspension? Are the rear drive sprockets set up for Tamiya TU's? Do the wheels have bearings? Got a project I'm considering...

The drive shaft diameter is the same as tamiya so it should work, you might have to file a flat. The aisatam quality is excellent. all wheels including idlers have ball bearings. the spring rte is a bit heavy so i have wound my own springs for the center suspension set and removed some metal from the outer sets. In reality there also should be a set of torsion bars for the main mounts but unless this was a full metal tanks weighing 30 plus pounds it would have been way to much so i elected to not put any springs on the chassis mounting and just let them rotate freely. If that does not work in the field i will come back and install a light wire torsion bar. I can recommend the aisatam stuff most highly.- It is also best to disassemble them and reattach using lock-tite on all screws.

NICE @ANIMAL@!!!
Very good,
cheer up and do not give up the project!!!</p>

The Tanks and Trolls kit has been cast from the Imai kit so is 1/15 scale, Shaun or Bulldog as he’s known on the UKTC forum is more into stand off scale or if it looks good scale, the biggest problem with the kit is that it’s cast from plaster sealed in PVA glue as opposed to resin this put me off a few years back

yup i found that out the hard way i just used some small detail bits. everything else is scratch

very nice.....

See? that is the mark of a top notch builder; not everyone will be able to say "so i have wound my own springs "

Good for you Ken!! Looking forward to battling more this year!!

Jerry

We keep hoping you will come out of the closet. (battling that is)

???
I've never measured it to be honest. How far off 1/16 is the Imai Elefant? I'll have to check the manual but the kit was sold as 1/16 scale I recall.
I've never really thought to check the actual scale of the Imai model but even if it is 1/13 scale I still like it.. :-)

Jerry

Oooo but it's safe in here! I never get my tanks dirty and I NEVER lose a battle!!

Jerry

Thanks, Ken. That means the project is a go. Summer is here so tank building is on the back burner for a few weeks as we clean up the winter debris and get the gardens up to snuff. However, that will give time for the Elefant goodies to transit east to me. Now, where is that spare lower hull.....?

Very sweet build going on there. The Elefant's are among my Favorite Tank's. This is the way I like to build................I see I am going to have to oil up my Lathe and get to working on an old project I have had planned. Great inspiration.

I always thought that the IMAI kit was 1-16th.

how much of the manual do you have? i have a few pages but i would like a full set if possible.

The PDF of the IMAI Elefant instructions I have has pages 1 to 28 and page 30.

same as i have, maybe i do have it all.

thanks

a bit more progress. still have the rear exhaust area to do, plus hinges, bolts, periscopes, cables, clamps, hatch details, fender tread plate, tools, and of course the main gun assembly. I think most of the tedious stuff is coming to an end. Hope you enjoy.

VERY nice work.

What are you smoking? It never ends, it's all tedious! You know that! Sometimes the details take longer than the big chunks, at least on my stuff.

Your joints, seams and welds look great. If you found some kind of magic paint that makes a model look great, send me a few gallons.

That REALLY is looking great Ken. I'm glad the Asia Tam tracks are good quality. I'd like to make a recovery version of the machine and possibly an example of Porsche's original version w/ turret....

but then there probably isn't any machine I wouldn't like to build.

I have a 1/10 Elefant hull; all I need are tracks to get that one moving...

I still want a FAMO SdKfz 9, Semovente, Japanese type 97, Maus, E-100......it never ends...

Oh and by the way, I'll second what Rex said, I most of any of you, truly need magic paint. Painting
especially weathering is not my thing. If it were up to me all models would represent a tank that just rolled
off the assembly line and had just been steam cleaned...

Jerry

That's my problem too. All of mine have been called "Gate Guards" they're so clean but hey ... to each his own.

Oh, and nice work Ken. Very, very nice work. [sm=thumbs_up.gif]


- Jeff

Ken I know you asked for some info offline but perhaps the photos I took may be useful for someone else.
I successfully uploaded the photos of the Elefant's roof here I usually move photos to my website and reference them there but I thought I'd try something different.

Jerry