Steves Elefant build

[mark lawson]

SMS sent with the answer

[Steve Norris]

More progress

Zim applied, it's a nice quick job using tile cement.

Closer view of the zim and the interlocking casement plates

Lots of zim here, things are starting to look very Elefant like.

Elefant no2 is not far behind, I hope that both will be finished within a week or two of each other.

Regards
Steve

[simon_manning]

seasons greetings steve, with the zimmerit applied its starting to look very impressive, i like the look of it. regards simon.

[Chang]

Steve,
Not sure if you will add another pair of fender support brackets at the rear?

Happy New Year!
Best regards,
Lerh Chang

[Phil Woollard]

Hi Steve, this was one of the very first models I ever built many moons ago, Its an ugly brute to be sure and seems to be transformed once the Zim is applied. I have little interest in the Elefant as the vehicle was poor in every respect and has none of the appeal of say the Tigers, with little history for us to ponder over the romance is just not there for me, but having said that your build is looking so good. The cavernous interior just cries out for a gun and associated. Maybe I will grow to love the Elefant, keep up the excellent work mate regards Phil.

[Stephen White]

Steve, enjoying your build, always great to see a new project taking shape. I’m reminded of Billy Connolly saying “ooh look, a hoose wi wheels...”. Are you going for two Elefants or will one become a Ferdinand? Not a big job to modify the kit. Thanks for posting and Happy New Year.

Stephen

[Steve Norris]

Firstly, I hope everyone had a happy Christmas and wishing you all a merry New Year.
Thanks to all those that have commented on the Elefant builds and keep those comments coming.

Chang, I will add the fender supports at the back if I can find a good photo of them. They appear not to be fitted to all the Elefants, the one at Bovington does not have them but there are some rectangular blocks welded to the hull around the area that they would be fitted. It may be that these blocks form part of the mounting for the supports.

Phil. When I was 10 or 12 years old a friend of mine had a 1/35 scale kit of the Elefant and I remember being really impressed with the shape and sence of power of this vehicle, that feeling has not gone away the models have just got bigger.

Steven. I did think about doing one as a Ferdinand, as you say the conversion would be quite easy. What stopped me was the tracks, the Ferdinands tracks are not the same as the Elefants. I am sure the Germans must have had a good reason for changing them but it does seem a lot of effort when such a small number of vehicles were involved.

Back to the Elefants
Regards
Steve

[Chang]

Hi Steve,
I've found a few photos that shown the mounting position of the rear fender support bracket.

I reckon the size & shape is likely the same as the front one.

BTW, any plan to add the side spring and the diamond pattern surface on both fenders?

All photos are from http://data1.primeportal.net/tanks/davi ... php?Page=1

Regards,
Lerh Chang

[Per Sonnervik]

Lerh, Steve and others,

The fender support on the Ferdinand and the Elephant went throught some changes and some of the Ferdinand details remained on the Elephant which can be seen on the "102" vehicle. To understand this it´s best to start with the Ferdinand on which the brackets looked like this;



I´ve numbered the support brackets no. 1-5 of which no. 1,4 and 5 remained on the Elephant even though no. 1 brackets were not used. Here are some details from Kubinka´s Ferdinand front and rear;





Notice that all the brackets are mounted underneath the fenders plus I´ve marked out where a cover plate (a field convertion) was used to blank out a step in the hull construction to avoid this being used by the enemy to insert explosives - this was done on both rear sides.

As mentioned traces remain on the "102" showing where the Ferdinand brackets used to be - here´s the front;



The support no. 4 looks like this;



At the rear a new mounting piece was welded to which the new Elephant fender support was bolted which looked like the one at the front (U-profile). The photos also show the holders for the cover plate are different on both sides.

The new welded piece for the Elephant fender support which was mounted on top of the fender;







As can be seen on the captured "102" in the photo below, the rear fender brackets are both the old Ferdinand style (2) and the new Elephant style (1);



A thing to remember is that on "102" only the front sections of the fenders are original, the rest have been replaced. This means that the original Elephant fender supports are missing as well as the remains of the Ferdinand.

Hope it´s been of some interest and A Happy New Year to you all,

Per

[Steve Norris]

Per
Thanks for the great and very informative reply, looks like I will have to make a cover plate to hide where the rear supports fit.
There must have been some issues with the Ferdinand style fender supports for them to be changed, I guess the Ferdinands were rushed into service before all the problems were ironed out.
Regards
Steve

[Chang]

Hi Steve and Per,

Thanks for the information about the fender support mounting details.
Steve has added a small but interesting detail which can be seen in a lot of Ferdinand and Elefant photos:

Per, is it a lift eye for removing the engine grill? Why only one on each grill?

Steve, how did you install it into the grill's corner? It looks like you have drilled a hole then lock it with a very small screw.

Best regards,
Lerh Chang

[Steve Norris]

Hi Chang
I used some alloy tube cut to the correct thickness and tapped a m3 into it for a m3 stud. The lift ring was then installed into a pre drilled hole and secured with a m3 nut.
Regards
Steve

[Chang]

Hi Steve,

Regarding my comment on one piece of pin on front fender hinges dated 30 Nov 2017.
I tried to do the same thing, yet just realise that the two little short pins were too thin and tight to be replaced by a long single pin. How did you make it done?

Best regards,
Lerh Chang

[Steve Norris]

Just a quick update.

Colour starting to go on, lots of TS3 required

Regards
Steve

[Phil Woollard]

Nice one Steve you can't go wrong with TS3, and you can sleep soundly knowing it will look just great , Phil.