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Hello
The T-12 was an ill-fated prototype created in 1929 as a medium breakthrough tank by the Soviets that was quickly replaced by the T-24 after some testing.
As far as I can see there are some conflicting informations as to what it looked like exactly. It seems there are some drawings available that show what it was intended to look like, some photos of how it ended up in prototype form and some photos/drawings of T-24s that are mislabelled as T-12s.
The above picture seems to show how it was intended to be. The two pictures below show models and graphiocs from the time of a T-12 that bears strong semblance to the plans above.
Then you have what seems to have been built:
The Hobbyboss kit of the T-12 seems to reflect the photo above rather than what appear to be the designers intention
The important deviations are the cupola, the cover on the drive sprocket, the engine deck, the front glacis/driver vision port and the rear end.
I will maker another post to avoid this one being to big........
Then there are some obviously mislabelled pictures such as the one below:
which is obviously a T-24 (the rounded turret back, cupola, track height and hull overhang on the tracks among other things giving it away.
Then you have photos like this one which seems to show the designers version of teh T-12 (the back end of the hull does not resemble the T-12 as represented by the HobbyBoss kit but rather that of the designer version) and even this gets mislabelled as a T-24 which it obviously is not.
Either way and irrespective of which is which and what actually was built in 1929 (there are references that confirm that the prototype was different from what the designers intended), I decided I would cobble together a metal 1:16 scale version of what I assume to be the designers intended tank.
P
The tank will be made from steel and brass and aluminium if necessary. It will be entirely scratchbuilt except for the tracks as life is too short. I will use Pz III tracks - I have a set in plastic and if it looks nice I will get metal ones. I will also use a PZ III sprocket as it is close to the real size in dimesion. I hope to make it RC ready to teh extent that it will have gearboxes and working suspension but if it never actually runs, I do not mind.
All the pieces were cut from 1.2 mm sheet steel using a jigsaw and then filed into shape.
I will deal with the turret first. This was simply built up from the relevant pieces using a stiff solder. The brass thingy in the bottom is the thing that the drive shaft for the turret motor to fit into.
The pieces were added one by one until I got most of the final shape. The cupola is an aluminium petrol cap that I hacked up until it was OK. The cannon and machine guns are simply bits of stock brass formed into approximately what I needed (I'm not getting into a discussion as to what sort of machine guns actually ended up on the prototype!)
Here it is sans cupola machine gun which I will fit later. This cupola should rotate I guess otherwise I dont know how the hatch was supposed to open.
There are some mistakes....some of the rivets are wrongly positioned but drilling those holes and banging in those rivets nearly broke me so I don't care.
Then it was onto the hull.
Here are most of the hull pieces held together with magnets. There are some problems ahead in that its not clear to me from the plans I have as to certain aspects of the hull. But most of these are not visible so Im just going to wing it. I hope to be assembling this completely in a day or two but first I have some butchery to do on a set of gearboxes to get them to fit in a space they were not designed for.
There were some mistakes made -surface blemishes, layout lines visible but Im hoping they will (A) be unnoticeable or (B) removable.
I will update this as I get more progress. The next thing will be the wheels I guess. Of which there are a delightful 32.
Very impressive,I can barely handle a model kit
To make the running gear, I started with some brass tubing. I cut off an appropriate length and then bored out a bit of brass rod to form a ring with an internal diameter a bit smaller than that of the brass tube.
I then soldered the ring to the base of the brass tube. This forms a retaining ring for the bit that will go up and down inside the tube.
The brass tube bit from above is the spring chamber for want of a better word. I then had to make the "caps" for this chamber which the spring can push against and which support the return roller struts. I used some 2 mm steel and cut out some rectangles of teh right size. I drilled a 4 mm hole in each.
I then used some 12 mm silver steel (the same diameter as the brass tube) and cut off some slices which were center drilled to 4 mm. These were then hardened to form filing buttons. They were bolted to the rectangle pieces through the 4 mm hole and the rectangles then had a curve put on them using the filing button.
The stumpy bits on the bottom to which the road wheels are mounted were simply made from brass bar stock which was centre drilled and a piece of 4 mm brass rod soldered in. This narrower piece functions to centre the spring within the chamber. A retaining ring was then fitted and soldered to the top.
The road wheels were made from aluminium round bar from which I cut a lot of slices and filed them smooth to the correct thickness. The tires were made from a delrin tube of appropriate OD and ID. I cut off slices and press fit them to the wheels. They are a bit shiny but when sanded down and the sharp edges taken off....they dont look too bad.
The cross member of whatever it is was made from 5 mm square mild steel. Lengths were cut and holes drilled on eaither end to hold the axles. A hole in the middle was drilled and the area around this hole filed down to a thickness of 3 mm. This narrower bit will be held in a brass fork soldered to the stumpy bit that forms the base of the road wheel assembly.
The return rollers were made in a similar fashion but using brass instead of aluminium.
Then all these bits were soldered together to form the road wheel/return roller assemblies.
A spring was then stuffed in and the whole thing screwed down.
These assembles were then bolted to thull. The pictures below show them at various stages but give an idea of how they will look.
The idlers and exhausts were simply made from aluminium slices from ebay with delrin tires and various bits of brass bar stock. Here they are beside the road wheel spring chambers. Its all a bit rough but they are not fully finished yet.
The motors and gear boxes were also fitted. The sprockets are from a 1:16 STUG III tank which were about the right diameter and fit the gearboxes.
The central bolt is temporary until I get something that looks better.
Oh wow, that's awesome! Love that running gear, very clever and nice work!
"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen
That's what it's all about!
Modeling is an excuse to buy books.
Finished off this T-12 a few days ago. Still some niggles left - including the stupid bolt holding on the rear sprocker. I have to get something more suitable.
Otherwise, I am not doing any more with it until I get round to actually wiring it up for RC. One problem is that the tracks are plastic which will not hold up. But I would have to buy two sets of metal tracks as one set is not enough and that amount of money is a bit prohibitive really given the tank itself is worth about 30 quid in metal
Very impressive, how much does this thing weigh?
Very impressive. I would be so hesitant to paint it.
Thanks,
John
It weighs 4.2 kg as is. If I put metal belts on it, probably plus another kg.
If and when I ever RC it, a battery and all the doodas will probably be a half kg or so.
I dont think I will ever paint it. It can weather itself as nature intended!
Oh wow that's cool!
Please post more when you get the R/C installed, she will look even more neat driving around.
lposter It weighs 4.2 kg as is. If I put metal belts on it, probably plus another kg. If and when I ever RC it, a battery and all the doodas will probably be a half kg or so.
Very nice work. Looks like it wont be breaking any time soon with that much steel. Will you use like a Taigen or Henglong rc setup?
Panzer Joe Very nice work. Looks like it wont be breaking any time soon with that much steel. Will you use like a Taigen or Henglong rc setup?
I think I will just stick with general purpose speed controllers and a reciever. Im not a fan of these proprietary units. Although the sound aspect is a bonus. But I have a sound unit lying around somewhere.
keavdog Very impressive. I would be so hesitant to paint it.
Totally agree.
So strampunk
- Joe the SMG
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