Steves Elefant build

[simon_manning]

zim looks good, i like the pattern, regards simon.

[Robert E Morey]

Steve
Beautiful work on inside hatch details. This vehicle is going to be a beast. Watching with interest - Although I do miss your fantastic Panther A build updates!
Best regards,
Bob

[Steve Norris]

Not a huge amount of progress to show at the moment, lots of bits and pieces that take forever especially when doing 2 tanks at once.
Wheel assemblies are now ready for paint and the sprocket rings have had their teeth chamfered, chamfering the teeth took forever as there are 8 rings per tank X 19 teeth per ring X 2 sides x 2 tanks = 608 individual teeth to chamfer. Glad that's over.

Wheels and sprockets

Front end

Regards
Steve

[Chang]

2 sides per tooth X 19 teeth per ring X 8 rings per Elefant = 304 chamfering jobs per Elefant.

[Tim Page]

Good value for money on these builds.
Steves hourly rate must have dropped to about 15pence per hour.

[Chang]

Found the two hinges on each front fender were linked by a single long pin --- a not-so-obvious modification.

[Steve Norris]

A bit more progress made over the last few days

Wheels and sprockets painted and now attached

Starting to look like an Elefant !

The second Elefant is almost at the same stage, I have just had a issue with some of the wheels that I need to speak to Monique and Kian about.

Regards
Steve

[Russ Clark]

Hello Steve
Were did you get the fender support bracket? I need one for my elefant I did ad the rain gudders to my tank.

[Steve Norris]

Hi Russ
I used B@Q E section aluminium extrusion 16mm X 10mm and cut off one of the legs to give me a U section. It may be possible to get the correct U section but my local store did not have any. Each fender support was made from 2 pieces cut to give the correct joining angles and the triangular reinforcements are from 1mm flat plate. If you look at the real supports you will find that the triangular reinforcements are welded edge on to the U section but I thought this may be to weak for the kit and compromised with plates that are attached on the sides.
Hope this helps
Steve

[Russ Clark]

Thank Steve
Did you ad any mess under the engine vents

[Steve Norris]

No Russ
Everything is clean and tidy under there
Regards
Steve

[Stephen White]

What, no fag packets, oil cans, spanners, gunge?

[Tim Page]

Hi Steve, I thought that Russ was talking about MESH for the engine vents.

Tim

[Russ Clark]

sorry
Did the elefant tank have any mesh on the engine vents. Like the panther and tiger

[Steve Norris]

More progress

2 sets of tracks have now been built, not the easiest tracks I have ever put together due to the split pins being partially buried under the track plate.
I have assembled the citadel for a trial fit and it went together quite well with only minimal fetteling required. Next job is to strip it down and apply primer and the inside top coat. Does anyone know what colour the inside of the Elefant citadel was ?

Regards
Steve