Erebus - a new tank (2)

Hi all,

Strap in! This is a large update today with 44 images :)

Continuing from the last update I wanted to close the hull section. But before i could do this, I wanted to have a removable piece that I can use to build out the interior.

 

So this is currently just 2 simple walls and a floor that I can slide in and out of the hull

 

With this in place I could finally close the hull and fill gaps and sand it smooth.

 

With this the basic hull was done.

 

And the interior does still slide in and out easily

 

The other vehicles of this family use 1:35 T-55/54 road-wheels and tracks. But as usual I'm trying to do as much as possible from scratch.

For this I glued together a stack of discs of plastic card

 

Then I wrapped a strip of .5mm plastic card around it

 

To make things smooth, I mounted this onto my drill 

 

After running this over the sanding block it looks really nice and smooth

 

With some nuts and bolts it is done!

 

Would be ready for molding and casting

It looks nice, but putting it besides the existing vehicle, it is a bit on the large side...

 

Almost as big as a soda cap...

So I gave it another try this time smaller

The end result is also very cool - I think :)

compared to the other

 

But Ouch!

Now it is too small...

 

Maybe i should go with the first, bigger one?

 

Luckily my friend Massimo from Italy was so generous to send me a brand new set of T-55 wheels and tracks from MiniArt - THANK YOU Massimo!
This tank will proudly carry your name on the turret :)

With the hull squared away I started to work on the turret.

For this I built two discs and spaced them

Glued together

and wrapped a strip of plastic card around it - giving me the base for the turret.

 

Then i cut the base shape for the turret

 

And the first angles.

 

The turret will not show any interior, so really simple building here.

 

Here i added the shape for the ammo storage and auto-loader 

Side view

Applying the actual armor sheets was a pain in the butt and I had to sand a lot...

 

But in the end it looks pretty much the way I had intended

 

Looking at the hull with the turret on, I realized something was wrong...

I made (again) a measurement mistake and the hull is too high!

So I built another hull (1 evening), this time lower

 

Now it looks sleeker 

 

 

 

 

 

So for this new hull I need the interior option again, so another slide in-out tray

 

And I added the rear door to that slide in

 

With the closed door

 

And the door in the open option

 

And as a outlook I positioned the new turret on the EPIALES hull

 

Next up would be the armor sides and skirts.

But since I want to have access to the hull side for mounting the wheels, I designed the basic shape removable again.

 

It can easily slide on and off

 

and i can start fleshing out these sides

 

but am still able to remove them and have access to the hull

 

So this is as far as I got.

Again a HUGE thanks to Massimo for the wheels and tracks :)

Cheers

Klaus