This is only going to consist of the build of the AFV Model M1 Hull kit itself and not the painting or the modifications I made to the Hobby Engine M1A1 upper hull, though at the end there will be a couple pictures showing the complete tank. Quite frankly, its because I suck at those things - really suck. I may do a listing of most of what I did to the upper if anyone really cares enough for it.

I'm going to straight up admit it. I suck at everything I attempt to do. I haven't built a r/c tank before. I haven't even built a static model since I was 8 - and that one was an unpainted F-14 mostly held together with glue and a large amount of scotch tape. Now why am I stressing this point so much? Because the kit was so damned easy to build even though AFV Model reccommends it for experienced builders. It also took a good chunk less than the 10 hours they said it'd take to build.

This is going to be an image heavy thread - I believe 54 for the build, 16 for the instructions and 3 of the complete tank. They will be presented as thumbnails, click them for a large image. The text will be the actual German text of the instructions followed by their(rather bad) translations, a parts picture before sub-assembly, what I actually did and a picture or the completed sub-assembly. It will not all be in one post, each post will probably encompass a page or two of the instructions. You may notice things in the background that are done before they are built here. Thats because I built some things out of order to make things easier one me - mainly bulk things like the roadwheels, rubber rims, swingarms, etc. The thread will be presented in the order of the instructions.

The slabs the hull components are cut from are 2mm styrene. most of the parts are reinforcemnet parts. Its incredibly strong when you're finished. Everything else is metal except the resin hubs and the rubber liners for the roadwheels. And the tracks. The tracks and standard plastic Tamiya Leopard 2A6 tracks.

So lets get the show on the road:





Page One:
Bauabschnitt Polystyrolwanne
"Section polystyrene tub"

Engraten der bohrungen 10 mm
"Close rates of the drillings 10 mm"



It means to enlarge the holes to 10mm because they're a fraction of a millimeter too small or something. Me being laid off and almost broke found this to be completely unneccesary. Poor men find better ways.

-

von außen Eindrücken der Bronzelager
"from the outside impressions of the bronze camps"



Now we take...I guess the "bronze camps" and push them into the holes from the outside. I just put a tiny bit of grease around inside the holes and pushed them in, careful not to push hard enough to break the side.

-

bündig drücken - Seitenteil nach Oben
"concisely press - side part upward"

Ummm....We already did that in the last step Herr-Chef...

-

Seitenverstärkung mit Kleber versehen
"Side reinforcement with adhesive provide"



Take the side panels and the reinforcement panels and glue them together.



Again being careful not to press the "bronze camps" through the holes in the reinforcement panels too hard. For parts like this and joints, I use a 2 part 1:1 5 minute epoxy.



-

And that's it for Page One. Tune in next time for Page Two, featuring:


Struts!


Reinforcements!


More epoxy Resin!

Not to be featured in the next episode:


A Hull!

nice.......

And we're back(Not a Dinosaur's Story). Continuing were we left off because...well its where we left off...

I know you guys get hardons for WW2 only and couldn't care less about Modern, but I'm going to follow this through to the end anyways whether you guys care or not.



Page Two:
Bauabschnitt Polystyrolwanne
"Section polystyrene tub" Continued

Federgegenlager verkleben
"Feather/spring back supports stick together"



Now we take the 4 pieces for the struts and glue them together to make 2 struts.



-

auf Deckungsgleichheit achten!
"to congruence pay attention!"

:sigh: Make sure the edges and holes line up! Because, ya know - you wouldn't make sure if they didn't remind you to...

-

Aufkleben der Querwände 02 bis 04
"Glue the transverse walls 02 on to 04"

Now we take the bottom panel:



And glue to it the side wall reinforcement struts. There's four total though we'll only be using 3 at this point. Each has a specific spot on the bottom panel, and is designated by a number of dots(one through four) etched into each of the side wall reinforcements.



Starting at the front groove and going back, we'll glue in numbers 2, 3 and 4. I forgot to take a picture of the completed sub-assembly, but you'll see it fine in a following step. I forgot to take some more pictures later, the'll be noted when the time comes.

-

Ãœberstand 1,0mm Auf exakte Ausrichtung achten!
"To accurate adjustment pay attention! 1,0mm projected"

Make sure the wall ribs stick out 1mm on each side. Again assuming you couldn't figure it out on your own(they're 2mm too wide for the baseplate).

-

Aufsetzen der Federgegenlager
"Touch down the feather/spring back supports"

Now this makes no damned sense. What its actually telling you is to make sure the struts are facing front(incase you didn't realise Slanted=Front and Flat = Back) and to make sure each strut is on the proper side as they are made specifically for a side. Luckily they show a picture so you know which side each goes on. Slot first = Right. Circle first = Left.

-

Verkleben der Polystyrolteile
"Stick together the polystyrene parts"

The struts fit into the two grooves on each to the wall ribs.



And that's it for Page Two but we're going to do Page Three as well today.



Page Three:
Bauabschnitt Polystyrolwanne
"Section polystyrene tub" Continued, Again.

Verkleben der Grundplatte
"Stick together the baseplate"

Hey, this one makes some sense. This can't be right! Anyways we now glue the reinforcement sub-assembly built on Page Two to the floor plate of the hull to create the bottom hull sub-assembly. Boy, this is hard! This is the internet so you can't see the sweat pouring off me at the moment. Because it totally is. The next two steps we've heard before so I'll spred the three pictures for this one over these three steps.



-

auf Deckungsgleichheit achten!
"to congruence pay attention!"

Ah, nice to see you again old friend!



-

3,0er Bohrer zum Ausrichten nutzen!
"3,0mm drill for aligning use!"

Ah yet another reminder to align holes. This time we're told to use a drill bit to ensure alignment. Or you could, you know....Look at the holes.



-

Ankleben der Seitenteile
"Glue to the side parts"

Now we take the hull sides from Page One and glue them to the completed bottom hull sub-assembly.



The next two steps should really be part of Page Four, so I'll leave those until tomorrow when I shall do Page Four. So tune in next time for exactly that, also featuring:


More Reinforcements!


More Gluing Hijinx!


Attachment Points!

Not to be featured in the next Episode:


A Hull!

*Note Those translations aren't by me. They're Bablefish translations. They're not neccesary but I felt that leaving them out would be loosing a big part of the true AFV Model M1 kit building experience. However you get the benefit of an explanation of someone who's actually done it. I had some(Thanks Chilipiper) but not alot.

great thread! come for the build stay for the[sm=lol.gif]

Well I do have to say this will be entertaining[sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Wekk it sure looks like you did your research, I can't wait to see how this turns out!!

The Blitz













RCTankWars.com

Page Four(Plus a bit of Three):
Bauabschnitt Polystyrolwanne
"Section polystyrene tub" Continued, Yet Again

[:@] "Anyone care to guess which idiot among us forgot to take pictures of the next few(albeit almost identical) steps? Who was it?"

[&:] "Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know! Pick me!"

[:@] "Yes, the spastic in the back row, go ahead."

[&:] "It was ME! Wait...Crap "

Vorbereiten der Frontplatten
"Prepare the front plates"

You heard the man, prepare them! Anyways we take the two pieces to will become the front plates and clean them up. Big one on bottom small one on top as if dryfitting them to the hull sides wouldn't tell us this. And we shave the top and bottom edges of the plates to about 30 degrees so they smoothly fit together without large gaps at the joints.

Pro Tip: Make sure cats don't attack your leg while you're grinding down an edge with a dremel or you'll have to fill in a gap created by accidentally plunging the grinder into the plate.

-

auf Deckungsgleichheit achten!
"to congruence pay attention!"

I think they're breeding now. I swear - if I see face huggers, I'm outta here screaming like a little girl.

-

Innenkanten nachkleben
"Inner edges after-stick"

I'm not even going to pretend to know what this means.

-

Einsetzen der Querwand 01
"Begin the transverse wall 01"

Ah this makes a little sense. Remember that #1 hull wall reinforcement that we ignored earlier? Well I didn't either but now we install it in its slot. Any ideas where it goes? No you silly, it doesn't go on the outside bottom! It goes into the slot in the front like the others did.



-

Vorbereiten der Frontverstärkung
"Prepare the front reinforcement"

Geez if only the Military had this many reinforcements.



So we have vaguely triangle shaped pieces that look exactly like the shape of the front of our hull sides, I wonder where they go, hmmm...

-

Einkleben der Frontverstärkung
"Bond the front reinforcement"

Good lord, a straightforward translation for once. Thanks Babelfish!


(Crappy Picture Of Epic Proportions)

-

And thats it for Page Four. What horrors await us on Page Five? Surely not the same thing as Page Four except for the rear, right? .....Right?

-

INTERMISSION
I just want to apologize. I'm trying to be funny with healthy doses of sarcasm/blatant jokes and failing horribly. But this freak show shall go on!
INTERMISSION

-



Page Five:
Bauabschnitt Polystyrolwanne
"Section polystyrene tub" Continued, Again Damn it

Vorbereiten der Heckteile
"Prepare the plotting hurry"

...I...I uh...Yeah.

Grab the two plates for the rear section. The plate with the small section removed is the top plate. Again we shave the edges so that they go together smotthly - except for the top edge of the top plate.

-

Einkleben der Heckteile
"Bond the plotting hurry"

Glue the to each other and the hull, HURRY! Not much time left, the self destruct has been activated!

-

Vorbereiten der Heckverstärkung
"Prepare the tail reinforcement"

If you thought we'd get away without some more reinforcements, then you haven't been paying attention. Again two more pieces that are shaped like the rear of the hull sides. When these are added they will leave a gap that will be used to hold a couple pieces that close the gap after the gearbox is installed later.



-

Einkleben der Heckverstärkung
"Bond the tail reinforcement"

Pro Tip: Telling it to sit and stay will not work.

-

Kanten von Innen nachkleben
"Edges after-stick from the inside"

Glue them again from the inside? Okay I know I made an Aliens/Xenomorph joke earlier but I am not a chestburster, I can not get inside the piece. I can however epoxy it where it meets the inside of the hull. So I'll do this instead. Ah, halfassed work, the American Way.

-

Fasenkanten nachkleben
"Chamfer edges after-stick"

I'm not entirely sure what it means so I just epoxy'ed the hell out of where the front and rear hull pieces meet the sides and bottom.

-

And thats it for Page Five. We shall continue to Page Six though as its relatively short.



Page Six:
Bauabschnitt Polystyrolwanne
"Section polystyrene tub" Continued, Why God, why?!?

Vorbereiten der Haltelasche
"Prepare the lug"



This piece is the component is one of two for holding the front of the upper hull to the bottom hull. This is the one thats fitted to the lower hull and it catches the piece on the upper hull.

-

Anfasen der Unterkante
"Chamfer the lower edge"



Now we shave down a side of the middle edge to make the upper hull piece slide in easier. The angled side will face down when installed in the lower hull.



-

Einkleben der Haltelasche
"Bond the lug"

Glue it in its designated slot. Do it! Do it now!

-

Nachkleben der Vorderkante
"after-stick the front edge"

Not good enough, do it again, from the inside!

-

Bundbuchsen ausrichten, von Innen mit dickfl. Sekunden festkleben
"Flanged bushes align, from the inside with dickfl. Seconds stick"

I can't believe they said that about Florida. I live in Florida! Anyways again something vague about glueing. Judging from the picture they want us to go around all the joints on the inside with glue. Go, go, Gadget Epoxy Filled Syringe!

-

Sekundenkleberstellen mit Füllstoff auffüllen, Arbeitsgang 2 ausführen!
"Second adhesive places with filler fill up, processing step out 2 would drive!"

Seriously, what the hell Babelfish? That's the best you could do? Its another vague instruction to glue all the inner joints.

-

And thats it for Page Six. As well as most of my picture idiocy A.K.A. The Land the Photographer Forgot

Tune in next time for Page Seven, featuring:


Nuts!


Batteries!

Not to be featured in the next episode:


A Complete Hull!

Not that anyone cares, but I'll be getting back to this probably tomorrow. I haven't had much time lately as some extremely bad things have been happening in my life as of late.

Hey Baking Squirrel,, I hope things start to turn around for you,, hang in there a lot of us are getting hit with bad things,, but the forum tank work can be a good release!

Keep us posted on your progress,, the extra pics might be throwing some folks!

The Blitz

Page Seven:
Bauabschnitt Halterung Deckplatte
"Section Mounting plate cover plate" Agai-Wait, what? New section, Woo Hoo!

I was pretty pissed off when I got to this part and forgot a picture. But its easy to see in the instructions. This piece is mounted in the rear of the upper hull. Its basically the opposite of the piece mounted in the front. The front piece slides under a shelf(?) built into the lower hull and friction holds it in. This piece in the rear has holes that align with holes in the rear hull and screws are inserted. When the tank was completed, I grabbed it by the turret and lifted it. Nothing gave, nothing creaked. Solid as hell. Now to give you an idea of the weight(I don't have a scale) I also have a HL Pershing with metal gear boxes and tracks. Without any electronics, batteries or mechanics(rotation, elevation, etc) it is already heavier than that Pershing that does have the electronics and stuff in it. Anyways, enough of this garbage. You're here for the incoherent babbling translations and the funny. Lets begin.

Einsetzen der M3-Muttern
"Begin the M3 nuts"

I would, except AFV Model did not include them in the kit even though the kit contents page of the instructions specifically lists them as being included. Nuts! I talked with the only other person I know who's actually built one of these(Thanks again Chilipiper) and it turns out I wasn't the only one they did this to. Cue me putting off this part for a week as I wait for a store to ship me a set as none of the hardware stores within 20 miles had these nuts.

-

Zusammenkleben der Teile
"Stick the parts"

Anyways, we make two end pieces for the locking part by taking 4 halves, putting the nut in between them and glueing the halves together to form the two ends.

-

Aufkleben der Mutterträger
"Glue on the mother carrier"

Wait, what the? Now UFOs are involved? Now this is just getting rediculous...

So we glue these ends to a backboard pieces that runs between them. The results is a horizontally stretched U. Awesome.

-

Ankleben der Rückwand
"Glue to the rear wall"

Now we glue on a reinforcement piece(Never saw that one coming!) to the U shape at a 90 degree angle to the horizontal strut. Now we have 4 sides of a 6 sided rectangular cube. Just what I always wanted...Wait, now I'll get nothing for christmas

-

Ausrichtung der Mutterträger(Stufe zeigt nach hinten/unten!)
"Adjustment of the mother carriers (stage shows to the rear/down!)"

You can't see this, but I just had an aneurysm.

-

Vorbereitung Teile RC-Kasten
"Preparation of parts RC-box"

No, no, no. I actually understand this one. This can not be! Babelfish has failed me now. Nothing funny to say thanks to you Babelfish! You jerk!



And thats it for Page Seven. I bet you can't figure out what we're doing on Page Eight! It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma!

-



Page Eight:
Bauabschnitt RC-Kasten
"Section RC-box" Oh boy, we're breezing along now!

Verkleben der Akku-Platte Front mit Stützwand Mitte
"Sticks together the accumulator plate front with retaining wall center"

I only got a parts picture and a completed assembly pictures. *sigh* Sorry, I'm a frigging idiot.

So we take the big piece with the four slots in it and glue on the vaguely M shaped piece, making sure the points of the M face up. The low section of the M piece will be a riser to hold the assembly above the suspension below. The risers at the end are bult into the hull already. The upper part of the M Piece will be the end of our batter box, the slot in it is for the battery connector wires.

-

Aufkleben Akkuseitenwand 01
"Glues on accumulator side panel 01"

A whole step decidacted to gluing on ONE side panel for the battery box. Don't be confused with the 01 part - both parts are identical with no identifying marks. Guess what the next step is!

-
Aufkleben Akkuseitenwand 02
"Glues on accumulator side panel 02"

Wrong! HAHAHAHA HaHaHa haha....Wait.... Damn it!

-

Ankleben der RC-Platte 02
"Glue the RC plate to 02"
Or
"Glue 02 to the RC-plate to"

Ah, what a difference a single - makes. God bless you Babelfish.

So now we take the large piece meant to hold electronics and glue it into the slots on the M Piece of the battery box subassembly.

-

Alle Kanten mick dickfl. Kunststoffkleber inned und außen nachkleben!
"All edges with dickfl. Plastic adhesives inside and outside after-stick!"

Besides calling my home state a dick - again, it would seem that it's telling you to glue the whole assembly into the hull and glue all the edges. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! If you do this, you won't be able to install the suspension, much less repair it later. This whole subassembly is pressure fitted into the hull and locked in by the tops of the hull ribs that fit into grooves in the battery/electronics assembly.



-

Anischt der eingesetzen Platte mit Akku
"Anischt in laws of the plate with accumulator"

Wait, no! I didn't violate any laws(today)! AHHHH! INTERPOL IS AFTER ME!



And thats it for Page Eight. Tune in next time for Page Nine, featuring:


Wheelz!


Idlers!


Gears!

Not to be featured in the next episode:


A Complete Hull!

I figure 3 maybe 4 updates left.

I don't care how it turns out. you are funny guy. thanks for the laughs. BTW it appears you are getting it done right. but if not, forget i said it. lol