streetsquid

Hi all,
Well here we go once again! The Sherman (Accurized M4A3 75mm W) project has slowed to a crawl. There are several guys in my club who are building Shermans, and we plan to do them up as a platoon. I'll be painting all of them so I'm waiting until the other guys get as far as I am so I can paint them all at once.

So I thought no time like the present to jump into what will most likely be my most ambitious project yet. Armed with a Hen Long Pz IV Aufs F1, and Tamiya Tiger I electronics I'm going to back date it to a D model, as the D with the L24 75mm short barrel is my all time favoritest tank.

In fact I told DAK co-founder and my best friend Ethan I would only get into this hobby if I could figure out a way to do a D model Panzer from the North African Campaign. Well in 2007 I bought a partially built Bandai kit, but quickly realized that kit's inaccuracy would mean that would almost entirely need to be rebuilt to make it even close to accurate. Hen Long to the rescue, but this will still be no easy feat as the conversion will effect just about every major component of the tank in some way.

Here are just a few items to be addressed:

Rear plate needs to be modified
muffler needs to grow by nealry an inch in length
Turret Traverse Auxilary Power exhaust stack fabricated
Smoke launchers scratchbuilt
Rear Deck engine louvers redone and corrected
Galcis plate with need to be remade into a stepped design
The Kugelblende 30 ball machine gun will get a new mount
New brake access doors and hinges will need to be fabricated
The L24 75mm gun and trunion will need to be reworked to make them accurate
The mantlet will need to be heavily modified, and brought back closer to the turret
Turret pistol ports will need to be moved and corrected
New "D" shaped one piece doors and strap style hinges will need to replace the split hatches in the turret sides
A completely new coupola with vision blocks will need to be fabricated and then relocated
Ventilation Flap and hooded signal ports added to the top of the turret
The back of the turret needs to be reshaped, and a curved verticle plate added below the coupola
Lifting hooks, pistol ports, rain gutters, and new grab handles will all need to be added
All of the molded on tools will be ground and sanded off and replaced with Tamiya or after market pioneering tools
The diamond plate tread on top of the fenders will be sanded off and replaced with brass

And I'm sure there is more that I will discover as I get into this build. Promises to be challenging, so fasten your seatbelts, make sure your trays are in the upright position, and all personal items have been securely stowed, and keep your arms and feet in the car at all times!

Streetsquid

RSEA

That is one hell of a list of modifications! Is there anything on the tank that you will not have to modify? It makes my Porsche Turm King Tiger project seem like a cake walk in comparison.. Albeit a somewhat expensive cake walk. One that thus far, has not yet fully received a green light.

The one problem I personally am trying to get past is that my project expenses don't seem justified when considering that my tank will only be able to attend 5 DAK battle days per year. It would be nice if there were more than just 5 each year. Have you and Ethan considered increasing the number of battle days per year to at least 6 or maybe 7?

How about a Kursk style battle on a section of open grass field that is about 30m x 30m in size? That way shots fired from between 5m and 30m will NOT do damage if they hit at 45 degree angles. Once tanks close to less than 5m then every hit scores like most hits do at the DAK field. This might be possible at a park of some sort, as no battlefield props would be necessary or construction of bridges, ditches etc. May be able to hide behind some real trees depending upon where the location is. Something like this could be that extra 6th and/or 7th battle day.. If it was on public park grounds I think it might be fine if the engine sound volumes on the tanks were turned down and not at full blast. They should be legal to run there since they are electric powered RC vehicles and don't use gas engines. Another option might be a plot of ground nearby an RC airfield (somewhat like that club is doing in Texas, I forgot the name of it).

Anyway, just some club battle day expansion thoughts..

philipat

That's quite a list and it should keep you busy for a little while. If interested, mmodell.de did a back dated modelshortly after these were released. I think it was to an Ausf D. Also, Asiatam makes some parts, including metal suspension, for this if you want to save some time.

streetsquid

Philipat - RSEA,
Thanks guys, yes this does promise to be an extensive and challenging project, but I now that I've done a couple of "stock" tanks straight out of the box, and have two semi converted tanks (accurized Sherman, and SU-85 build) I thought I would jump into something more extensive to try and push and challenge my engineering and building skills. I'm working my way up to a completely scratchbuilt project.

Philipat - Thanks for the suggestions I will look into the backdate project from mmodell.de and see what I can learn. I'll look into the asiatam parts, hadn't heard about those. But the HL I have, does already have metal gear boxes, metal suspension, drive wheels, and metal tracks

RSEA - I'll share some of your suggestions with Ethan, as I for one wouldn't mind seeing a few more battle per year as well. Experience has shown that the number of participants drops off sharply when the weather gets too hot here, even for a night battle. It's tough to plan, and then host a battle day and only have Ethan and I plus one more club member show up, which has happened in the past. But I'm always open to suggestions and new ideas.

Got a little further, tore the Pz IV apart and gutted the electronics. Then I went about filling all the unecessary and unsightly holes that will no longer be needed.

Oh and I told you I would figure out more tha will need to be done. I also plan to cut and clear the interior of the lower hull and cut away the exterior battery box making way for the Tamiya DMD and MFU, as well as a 3300mh battery. Like the SU-85 project, I will most likely add an additional internal floor plate and reinforcing ribs, and custom built boxes to hold the electronics. I also forgot I will have to make a new accurate stowage bin on the back of the turret

Squid

streetsquid

Hi all,
Continued to work on the ass end of the Pz IV tonight.

The muffler on the D model was longer than the F1and took up most of the width of the rear plate. So I figured out that I needed to lengthen my muffler by a full 3/4" of an inch to make it look more accurate. Using a micro saw and miter box I cut the left end of the muffler off and scabbed on a 3/4" wide peice of Ren Shape. Once the CA had dried, I filed and sanded the Ren to shape and blended it into the rest of the muffler. This way I could maintain the stock arrachment points and alignment. I added a new muffler strap made from .030 styrene strip to the newly extended left end.

I also cut off the stock plastic exhaust pipe and replaced it with one made from brass and relocated it to the accurate position and attitude on the left side of the muffler.

Squid

streetsquid

The D model also had a power assisted turret, which had it's own secondary (and smaller) exhaust muffler. Armed with some good reference material, I didn't think it would be too difficult to fabricate. Although I didn't have actual dimensions, between the drawings and photgraphs I have in several books I was able to approximate it's scale size.

Using several sizes of aluminum tubing, copper tubing and copper rod I was able to fabricate the muffler in several pieces and then bring them all together to create the completed part. The muffler, exhaust tip, and collars are all hollow, making it lightwieght, but also look more authentic. The piping required some complicated bends, and the tubing wanted to kink. So I inserted some solid copper rod into the appropriate diameter copper tubing, which allowed me to bend it without collapsing the tubing.

My initial design had the auxillary exhaust muffler attached to the upper hull. So I fabricated the unit in two parts with a joining collar made of aluminum just above the elbow bend where the pipe enters the rear plate. That way the upper hull could be easily removed and reinstalled with no alignment problems created by the muffler. After making the collar, I found another photo showing the auxillary muffler sitting right down on top of the main exhaust muffler meaning it did not need to be attached to the upper hull and could be perminantly affixed to the lower hull. So this is what I chose to do. In this case I think simple is better

Still have to add some small details, like attachment straps, and a boxed cover where the pipe enters the rear plate, but overall I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. Should look fine with a nice pitted rust texture added to it, but hey let's not get ahead of ourselves (LOL)

Squid

herrmill

Looks like you're off to a good start, Squid.

streetsquid

Thanks Herrmill,
This should be a fun and challenging build!


Squid

streetsquid

Got just a little further this evening.

On the back of the aufs D there is a rack of smoke canisters that sits on top of the main exhaust muffler. The canisters are hung inside an armored framework or box, so it should add a fair amout of visual interest to the back of the tank.

I started using 3/16" (.187) diameter brass tubing cut to length. Then I soldered them together side by side to make the "rack" of canisters. I added an angled hanger to the center of each canister, the hanger was made from .020 styrene strip.

Then using .040 styrene sheet I fabricated the multi-angled armored box and detailed it with Evergreen hex material sliced thinnly to represent bolt heads. The canister were "hung" on the roof of the box, so they are completely suspended.

I then finished the canisters by adding styrene caps made using a punch and die set, and hex bolts added to the center of each cap. Ultimately I will add fine chain hanging from each canisters cap center nut.

Squid

philipat

Wow! Looks great.

I like the details of what sizes of what you used. Makes it easier for someone else to borrow ideas. What was the length of the canisters?

BTW...don't raid the wife's jewelry box for the "fine chain".

Jeff489

My Feedback: (12)

Lookin' good Squid!  Nice to see some progress on it.  It's been on the drawing board for awhile.

edoubleaz

My Feedback: (1)

On the drawing board for 3 years!

streetsquid

philipat,

Thanks for the kind words. I always try to to provide as much info as possible as to hopefully help any other tankers on their projects who might want it. Sorry I missed a few dimensions.

Hope this helps clarify:
Brass tubing is 3/16th (0.187) diameter cut to .450" ( just under 1/2" long [.500]) in length
Caps are 3/16" diameter made out of .020 styrene sheet
The center bolts are made from Plastruct .060 (1.5mm) styrene hex rod sliced to about .020 thick
All other bolts are Plastruct .060 and .080 styrene hex rod also cut to about .020 thick
Overall length of the finished armor rack is 1.050 inches
Overall width of the armor rack is 1/2" (.500)
I also sanded a 3/4" (.75") radius along the bottom edges of the rack's side plates to match the diameter of the stock muffler

Thanks also for the advice on NOT raiding the wife's jewelery box, been there done that................learned my lesson and got the T-shirt.
Actually Tamiya makes some very nice small scale chain that should work quite nicely.

Squid

streetsquid

Jeff489,
Thanks, yeah this one has been in the planning stages for a while. But like I mentioned this is my favorite tank, so I really want to do it "right". If it ends up taking me 6 months then so be it! (LOL)

Did get a little more done but the photos make it hard to see and understand the amount of time and energy it took to get the tank to the point it is now. I went to work on the lower hull interior and removed the battery box and everything else that was not a vital structural member. The plan is to use 8 rare earth magnets to hold the upper and lower hulls together, but more on that later.

The first pic below shows the stock lower hull with the battery box cut out of it and the second shows the completely "cleared out" lower hull which is now ready to have a new floor plate, stiffening ribs, and custom boxes for the speaker Tamiya DMD, and Tamiya MFU added

This may not look like a lot of work, but it is probably on of the most time consuming and challenging modifications of this project in that it is functional and not just cosmetic.

Squid

philipat

Wow...that cleaned up nicely. Thanks for the extra details. I've got this one bookmarked.

streetsquid

Philipat,
Thank you! Yeah the PZ IV seems to have cleaned up pretty well and surprisingly has quite a bit of room inside.

Glad to hear you've found this interesting, helpful or entertaining enough to stick with me to the end. If you have any questions about methods, techniques, dimensions or materials by all means please ask. I am more than willing to share and help in any way that I can.

Squid

streetsquid

Hi all,
Work continued today on the internal structure of the lower hull.

I made a new once piece styrene floor plate out of .080 sheet (cut 4.5 inches wide by 10.5 in long). I used clear silcone caulking and Tenax 7 to adhere the floor plate to ensure it became an integral part of the lower hull.

I left the stock bosses intact as I felt they offered several huge advantages. Firstly they are what Hen Long used to align the upper and lower hulls, so I won't mess with that as it already works very well. Secondly because the bosses are molded with stiffening ribs attached to the sidewall of the lower hull and the floor, they add a lot of structural rigidity to the hull. This greatly reduces any flex.

Because this is sold as an RTR (Ready to Run) Hen Long never intended for the consumer to take the tank apart let alone modify it. So when the factory assembled the tank they really seemed to torque down on some of the screws and ended up splitting or cracking most of the plastic bosses. So rather than holding the upper and lower hulls together with screws I have installed 8 rare earth magnets that have an extremely stong holding power. The magnets were just the right diameter to sit in the recess in the top of each cylindrical boss. All I need to do is recess the magnets slightly so I can keep the positive location where the upper and lower bosses come together.

Because of the compact size I also chose to stay with the stock speaker. Sitting on edge, it clears the turret traverse unit mounted on the bottom side of the upper hull, directly inder the louvered engine access hatches. I had already ground away all of the molded in mounting bosses so I constructed a small speaker box out of .060 styrene sheet. I then opened up the front of the box with a radius cut that matches the speaker cut out, so that the box would not impede the sound clarity or volume of the speaker.

Directly behind the gear box mounting bosses, which I left intact and allowed for, by cutting out pass through holes in the new floor plate, I added a .125" stiffening rib to act as an anchor for the Tamiya DMD and MFUunits to sit against. I then added triangular stiffening ribs made out of .060 styrene and reinforced with .060 x .125 styrene retangular stock. This creates a secure area that "locks" in the DMD and MFU while the tank is running, but also makes them easily removable should the need arise.

Streetsquid

streetsquid

Well I found out that the inside of the PZ IV is actually pretty roomy. So once I was sure I had room for the the Tamiya electronics to sit sideways as opposesd to front to back, plus i allowed for the speaker, turret traverse and gearboxes all i had to figure out was the battery (the stock external box was cut away) and aleaver adequate room for the reciever. I'll be using a Spektrum so that should not be an issue as those recievers are quite compact.

I opted to elevate the battery of off the floor for two reasons. One, I had more room so that i wouldn't have to "kink" the battery leads.Secondly, by elevating the battery on a custom stand I could run more of the wires and electronic leads along the floor under the battery, reducing the matted mess of spaghetti wiring that seems so prevelant in most Tamiya equipped tanks. Plus I planned to add cooling holes or slots, to allowe more air flow all the way around the battery. It gets kinda warm here in the southwestern desert, which can really kill your batteries, so every little bit helps. Ultimately I will add a couple of velcro straps to secure the battery to its stand.

Squid

streetsquid

Oh sorry I almost forgot!

The elevated battery plate is made out of 0.80 sheet styrene, and measures 2.9 inches wide and 5.1 inches long. The cooling holes are 1/8 (.125) diameter through holes.

The plate has been raised off of the hull floor 1 inch, which allows the battery leads to pass over the top of the stacked DMD/MFU units without kinking the leads or interfering the the turret traverse. All of the joints where the verticle supports are attached to the perforated plate are reinforced with .125 x.125 styrene stock

Squid

BarkingSquirrel

Very nice, good idea on lifting the battery. Space optimization in all 3 dimensions.

philipat

I like the idea of raising the battery. Since cooling is one of the reasons for doing it, putting it in the back with the engine grills will help some of the heat to escape. Are you planning to put a fan back there, too, for some increased air flow?

I noticed that the battery isn't laid out on the centerline. Will you counterweight the other side to keep it from being off balance?

What size magnets did you use? And did you put magnets on both the upper and lower hulls, or just the lower hulls will a small piece of steel in the upper? I would check the diameters on mine, but I've consigned them to the movers. So, I won't see them for a few months.

streetsquid

Barking Squirrel,
Thanks for the input, yeah I' hoping that the airflow will help keeps thing s a little cooler.

But I'm sure you get that - I think the only other two places in the Continental US that can consistently compete with our heat are Florida and Texas. But even when you have temps a few degrees cooler you still have to deal with the humidity, and I hate humidity. We very often have single digit dew points here, which is nice, cause like they say "It's a dry heat"

Squid

BarkingSquirrel

Yeah, 90-95 degrees is nothing, until its added to 90% humidity

streetsquid

Philipat,
As of right now I'm not planning to add a fan, as the Tamiya electronics don't seem to need it like the HL stuff does. I've never seen a tank with Tamiya electronics with a fan installed. But if for some reason I did need to install one in the future I would have the room to do so.

As far as the battery being in the center, I still have to play with that. I have not yet secured the custom battery tray to the floor plate. But I could install it on the centerline if needed, but I don't think it is necessary. I have 2 - 3300's stacked on one side of my Tamiya T1, and single 3300's in each my Panther G and my King Tiger, and the batteries are not centered or counterbalanced on any of them, but operate fine. Have you ever encountered a problem with the battery weight?

The magnets are 1/4" (.250") diameter and measure .100" thick. They dropped right into the recess on the molded bosses. As of right now I'm hoping to get away with putting magnets just in the lower hull and a thin peice of steel in the upper. If the magnetic hold isn't strong enough and I find the hull shifting or popping off in battle I'll add magnets to the upper hull as well. But I think 8 of these bad boys should hold pretty strongly.

I wonder what would be better, 8 magnet to metal connections or 4 magnet to magnet connections. Because I could eliminate the 4 middle magnets and put them in the upper hull, making 2 magnet to magnet connection in the front and in the rear. Or is spreading the load around the perimeter of the tank more ideal?Things that make you go Hmmmmm!!!

streetsquid

Barking Squirrel,
Dude that's crazy talk right there! I'll take 115 degrees with 9% humidity anyday over that!

Or over -40 degrees for that matter. Cold like that chills to the bone! I don't know maybe it's becasue I'm climatized, but I can go out an do yardwork when it's 110, come in to the air conditioned house get a shower and a cold drink and cool down in 15-20 minutes. You spend 2 hours outside when it's -40, and you'r cold for the rest of the day.

And humidity is just plane nasty. You get out of the shower and towel off, and your still drippin wet....................yuck!

You got my respect!

Squid