Yea.....I had to do one! Though I did not know that good 'ol Rex Ross had one done and Bigfive69 was starting one also, but hey,....what the heck...right?

ANYWAY, just a little preview of what is going on down here in Texas,....After talking to a few of our club members down here, they all agreed to having one, and I'm not crazy enough to sctratch about 5 of them so resin copies of the hulls and road wheels seemed the way to go. So, what we have here is the "master"being put together, now just mind you,.. this has just started this week, so dont expect a "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am" like I did on the Stuart!
I have just did the sides, rear 1/4 panels and rear plates and in the process of filling in and sanding. Please note the "massive" heigth that the upper hull has!

The over-all heigth will be 4 1/2" This will be done in a somewhat sectional set for ease of casting in resin.

I will post more pics when some more "major" work has been completed. Thank goodness I have a real hetzer no more than 30 minutes from where I live to use as referance!

And yes, this will be a FO vehicle with recoil!

That will be a little dog with a big bite!

Very cool!! I like it already!!

I like the MOJO. If you scratchbuild it, it will be a kit soon!

Love it!

Mine's going on the bench this weekend... let's share our learning!

I'm casting the wheels from a Cromwell Hetzer master. My tracks and drive sprocket are coming from an Academy 1/25th scale Panther.

Not sure about internals yet - what are you planning on using?

And I'm not sure if I should go airsoft or IR... my kid LOVES bouncing pellets off stuff.

Can't wait to see this progress!

Shep

Ah that's really cool! I think you'll find alot of people who would be interested in that "kit". I'd kill for a 38(t) myself. Have you decided what you're giong to use for tracks? Since most seem to use the single center track guide, I wondered who you were going to handle this.

Looking good...

Dave

Will be looking forward to the build on the Hetzer, I thought about it once as an option to build but its way beyond my abilities, you guys could also build a Marder III Ausf M with an extra chassis

Moonshadow5739,
My hats off to you for taking on this project. I too was going to attempt the Hetzer until I learned of several other builders doing the same. I think I'll opted to do an early Stug III (B, C or D - still acquiring references) with it's low profile "turtle shell" appearance and short L24 75mm gun. I'll watch this and Big Fiver's threads with great interest. Although I think because of the shape the early Stug would be more difficult to mold and cast successfully.

Once you get the masters done, I'll bet you'll find quite a few interested parties that would be willing to pay for a decent resin kit. At least enough to recoup your initial outlay for molding and casting materials.

Best of luck!

Squid

ALLIES UNITE!!!! We will need to practice new formations/manuevers to out flank, out smart the rising AXIS forces...

Here is some recon mission footage showing them crossing a stream not too far from here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUxyzRBz8xo[/youtube]

-TOMAS
TX ARMOR

There's a 1/16 RC 38T on ebay. Take a look

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_500wt_1182

DROOL [sm=greedy.gif]

[quote]ORIGINAL: moonshadow5739

Yea.....I had to do one! Though I did not know that good 'ol Rex Ross had one done and Bigfive69 was starting one also, but hey,....what the heck...right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~

Gentlemen !

Last week I said my Hetzer is about two days from paint. It still is. Sometimes real life on planet Earth distracts me from my imaginary life. I hope to post photos of my Hetzer this weekend........I'm correcting some things and dealing with some last minute details I didn't even consider until now. This won't be the first time I built something twice before I got it right (or just gave up on it).

It ain't gonna be painted..........you will be able to see all of the warts and bondo.

Nice project. Beauty of these things...like a jeep or Mule with a 106mm recoilless....you can hide them anythere and it's almost like being a mobile land mine. Be interested in seeing the finished model.

Great project, the little Hetzler has always been a favorite of mine.

Nice project....


What are you using for tracks and gearboxes? I started one but could not get the width accurate without cheating. The new Sherman gearboxes might make it a reality for me once again.

Darrin

great looking tank but man, look at price somebody paid for it[:@]. He could build a few more and retire.

Think I will jump in on this subject. I too want a full option Hetzer and here is as far as I have gotten. I bought the 1/16 Cromwell Resin kit and tore into it. The top hull and sides have been cut away until only the top and front/rear ends are left. The front and rear are notched on their sides to accept a metal pan for the bottom hull. I made a card stock template that fit and then cut an aluminum pan. Drilled holes, etc. I found that the Tamiya gears/motors will just fit....can't remember which version but can figure that out if someone needs it. I made a brass mount to elevate the motors to the proper position.

I also will finish up the front and rear side fenders in brass (one is done) and a few other parts.

I have taken a number of the Cromwell parts and made rubber molds and cast resin parts, such as the wheels, drive sprocket and return roller housings, etc. But some parts need to be made of metal to stand up, so high-temp molds were required for the rocker arms, return roller and upper track rollers. These were cast in Pewter.

But the drive sprocket and track needs to be from stronger metal such as bronze and that requires lost wax castings and a foundry.....which is where I have stopped. Need to find someone local that can handle a small order, which i'm betting will cost about $200.

I am not thrilled with casting 150+ lost wax track links, filing 150+ bronze castings of the same and drilling out two sets of holes in each piece, so if anyone else has an idea of how to recreate the proper Hetzer track links with 2 teeth per, I'm open to suggestions.

If any of you guys are "VERY" interested in doing your own model along the lines I am pursuing, I would consider providing the template for the pan, casting a sample of some of the other parts (so you can make your own with RTV) and most important, casting the hull as I have re-done it. But here is the catch.......its going to take at least 1.5 lbs of RTV to make that monster mold and that is about $150 for the RTV. I have no interest in mass producing this beast, but if enough of you want to share in paying for the RTV, I will make the mold, then cast the hulls, and you pay only for the resin for each pour, which also is not cheap (maybe another $50). If this has any appeal, speak up.....send me a private [email protected]

Oh....one last thing.....I am also stuck on how to make the barrel move up/down and R-L. There will be no room for recoil. There is not much room left above the gearbox, but I was thinking about a small servo for each direction, each connected with a 1.5" wire with some flexibility to the barrel inside the hull. It would probably take moving both servos to get the right position. The servos would be glued to the inside of the hull, with wiring that disconnects from the receiver when breakdown is required. Any thoughts on this?

I have fitted the Tamiya DMD and MF units, plus a custom built battery pack and there will be only a little room for a small speaker, so the sound may not be all that loud.

Here are some pictures for your consideration. Panzerpaul

I would stay away from taking molds off of other products.

Well one is entitled to his own opinion...right or wrong. You should tell your idea to the Chinese.........its their way of doing business. Different culture, different approach !

If I were mass producing for a profit.......you might have a point...but for private use, I doubt it. PP

Paul... you amaze me with your talents...

You and Moonshadow together could really do some great work....

...Got my seat, got my popcorn... roll the film.....

-TOMAS
TX ARMOR

pretty nice.. keep it coming..
i dont see any problem in the molding thing.. its just a private use not a commercial use..
daryl

TU's you are using are the original dual motor Tamiya Type 1's. They are pretty fast. The latest Type 3 for alll but the P4, or the Type 4 for P4, should give you much more room inside, and bring your speed down to scale.
Here's the etoarmour version of the Type 1's, set up for competition and just put on sight in a limited run. Will rummage up a photo of the Type 3's for you later today, but the Type 3 and 4 have the black plastic covers and much smaller, and more, gears.

Well guys, for starters, thanks to all who show an interest in this project, but I have to say, that it would not be my work if I did not do make the hull or other parts myself, granted, making a mold from a current item thats out there would be much simpler, it's just not me and I would never know if I could do it on my own. Yea, I will be utililizing some other peices parts for some other things, it's because I just do not have the resources available to me or do not have said equipment in my possesion.

I did have a very good talk with fellow club member firenick last night and he brought up a few pointers that I will be considering and I will be consulting him on a regular basis as work continues on this project.

I have also been in contact with the caretaker/personal driver for the real hetzer at the Texas Military Forces Museum and he has shown a great interest in this as well.

Am I going to offer this as a kit to the general public? I dont know at the moment, it just all depends on how this goes...if I do, it might be a partial kit with the basics (upper hull, lower hull, road wheels) and let the person do the rest as he/she pleases them.

But hey,...every one is different in their own way of doing projects like this, none are wrong in their approach...I just like to do things on my own just to show myself that yes, I can do it, and if someone comes up and says, "hey, I can do this..can I help?" and their way is better than mine or it's something that I cannot do but will enhance the project, heck yea, I'm gonna let them help.

But anyway, I will be going to the museum later on today for some detail shots of the roof and rear of the real hetzer and work on the master will continue and hopefully I will hjave a few more pics availabe before the week is out.

-Mike

Moonshadow,
I think it will be a pretty cool TD. I look foreward to seeing how your work progresses. I missed your Stuart project and was wondering if you could repost the thread to it.

Keep posting pics of your work and thanks.

Jim

[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8928635/tm.htm]1/16th R/C M3a1 STUART TANK BUILD [/link]