And if there aren't any photos, does anyone know the chassis it's using?  Could I use balsa wood or sheet metal to make the upper parts?  What can I use for the gun and everything?  I could create the upper parts myself.

Edit:  I found out that it uses the T26E3 Pershing chassis.  It has an added wheel to each side, and the drive sprocket was moved to the front.  7 road wheels each side.  Another variant of it was made, called the T93 GMC.

Hello!

You can do it the easy way or you can do it the hard way... Kidding - two aproaches that I see right away would be the XX century way - to do the superstructure out of styrene sheet - aka scratchbuilding - or the XXI century way - draw all the parts that you can't scrounge off a Persching kit with 3D design software and have it printed on a 3D printer. You can also mix these approaches - for example do the major subassemblies with styrene sheet to save mass/material/money and print out minor subassemblies and details to save some time. In any way this is not going to be easy - good luck with your project and have a nice day

Paweł

How much experience do you have in scratchbuiliding models, if I may ask. Have you made other previously? What reference did you use then?

Drawings of the T92 aren't available. You'd have to use photos. The one you have above is located at the TACOM LCMC in Warren, MI -- an active Army installation.

No kits of the T92 exist -- no resin maker has even made one

I have never scratchbuilt a model.  The biggest problem with the T92 is going to be the added 7th road wheel.  I have no clue how I'm supposed to fit that in the T26E3 chassis.  The T26 only has 6 roadwheels.  

In order to add a 7th roadwheel, I'm going to have to cut off the front of the chassis, add a balsa or 3d printed body extender, and then insert 2 more road wheels for a total of 14 road wheels.  That's gonna be very hard.  Take a look at the added section versus the T26E3:

So I've decided that I would do the model in 1/72.  It'd be easier.  I could use modeling clay or even balsa wood to add the section.  I also found a kit of the 240mm M1 howitzer that's mounted on the T92 HMC.  The only problem now is finding 2 extra T26E3 road wheels, and the upper body parts of the T92 HMC.

I also found out how I can get the proper parts.  There's this game called World Of Tanks that I play, and one of the tanks in there is the T92 HMC.  I found this online 3D tank viewer.  I can now view all of the different parts of the tank.  

My next problem is the recoil spade.  How can I build that?

You ought to put aside any notion of using balsa. Its just not at all suitable as a material to model steel, or really much of anything. If you buy a little bit of sheet styrene, it'll make life easier for you.

A reliable method for adding extra roadwheels is, well, to buy a second kit. You think about the extra $$, but thats offset by the time spent making up two new ones, maybe even casting them, and still not having them quite right versus guaranteed perfect results.

That'll get you some extra track too, if its the same on the two AFV's. 

EDIT: in fact thinking about it a little more, you just may solve your hull extension problem as well. There ought to be a way to splice a four wheel per side front to a three per side back, or some version of that. Bear in mind they can't just be turned around, but it would get you off to a solid start. 

It's really fortunate you found the gun. That was going to be the hardest part.

Good luck with your project, and I really like your avatar. I'm a dog guy too.

Haha, thanks.  I love German Shepherds.  

How am I supposed to lengthen the T26E3 base to fit the 7th road wheel?

It's hard to speculate much further without getting down to detail, but the approach might be like this:

Buy two M26 kits.

Carefully shave off 14 of the trailing arm assemblies from the hull sides, unless they are separate parts to begin with. Seven each side.

Shave off the drive sprocket hubs/ gear boxes and the idler wheel hubs.

Now here's a detail you'll need to consider. Is the hull wider than the Pershing? Often these type of conversions were. Wiki actually lists it as narrower. Maybe thats just the fenders on the tank(?) In any case it looks pretty close.

So now you lay out the two sides on styrene sheet. It'd be handy at this point to have a good sideview photo, scaled to 1/72.

Determine if the fronts or rears of the original hulls are useable (fingers crossed!).

Flipped around. Put together the new sides, front and rear ends and bottom. Glue the trailing arms etc. onto the sides, minding that there's a gap between 6 and 7 wheels and the (now) front drive sprocket is much higher than before on the tank.

And a sixth return roller each side as well.

lazyfortress

also found out how I can get the proper parts. There's this game called World Of Tanks that I play, and one of the tanks in there is the T92 HMC. I found this online 3D tank viewer. I can now view all of the different parts of the tank.

I would avoid using anything World Of Tanks for reference.   Their tanks are FAR from accurate.  Even the common tanks aren't close to what the real tank was.  I have converted several tank kits into versions used by WOT and not much of the base kit is left once it is changed into the WOT "interpretations".

I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but I honestly think you should shelve this project for now until you become more advanced in your modeling and scratchbuilding skills.  I'm sorry but by the questions you've asked, it's clear you have a long way to go before attempting such a project, even in 1/72.

 How would you lengthen a 1/72 hull?  Cut it and shim it with the appropriate width styrene plastic (not molding clay or balsa wood -- both are complete non-starters).  Where do you get more roadwheels?  You buy a 2nd T26E3 kit as a donor.  You build the spade out of appropriate thickness sheet styrene to match plans/photos.  Where do you go about getting  the proper research in order to make even a rough and inaccurate model of the T92?  There are sources to be had.

May I suggest perhaps upgrading or modifying other 1/72 kits or minor corrections with 1/35 kits for now?  I'm not trying to be condescending but this hobby is about incremental improvements and to do that, you've got to enjoy the learning process along the way.  

Start small and build up.  You'll get there!  But don't bite off more than you can chew up front and get discouraged.  May I suggest Kalmbach's "Modeling Realistic Tanks and Artillery: An Illustrated Guide"?  Good tips and advice about tools for beginners wanting to correct/modify kits, eventually leading to scratchbuilding.  Good luck

Currently I'm trying to modify my 1/72 T-54 with a VK 45.02A turret with a PAK 43 gun.

I was thinking last night about that T92 project.  I do agree that it's way above my experience level.  I just started modeling about 3 years ago.  I'm also thinking about getting that guide you recommended.  It looks pretty interesting.

You might try taking your plans and mocking it up in 1/72nd scale with index cards. Looks like to me the superstructure will be the most complex part and you can get a good feel how much work it will be and the cards are cheap. If you do get something you like you can then use the cards as templates to cut the sheet plastic for the real deal.

As far as lengthing the chassis, get two of the one you are going to use, make your cuts so you have 3 road wheels on one chassi and 4 on the other, swap the drive and idler, move the new idler position up. That should put you pretty close in length, plus you have the extra road wheels and return wheels you would need.  Then the hard part of building up the rear deck and gun position.

You can get an idea of what is involved by looking at mustang1989's "Der Beetle Bus" thread in the auto section.  He stretched the whole thing, using two kits as the starting point.

Personally, I think this project looks much more difficult in 1/72 scale than 1/35. The reason being that mistakes in cutting will show up much more on a smaller model. 

However, you do need to do some reasearch. For example, which way are the idler arms oriented? Sometimes they were set forward, rather than to the rear. It looks as if the strockets weren't 'moved to the front' but the hull reversed. I'd imagine that they face to the rear, but am not sure. It also looks as if the cab (turret on a howitzer) also rotates slightly, so is not fixed as in an M40... another challenge to research and build.

You can also hone your scratch building skills. It's not difficult to use sheet styrene and you'd need to be able to figure out patterns (paper, bristol board or old file folders work, as do 3X5 index cards for smaller details). I started by making interiors for my tank models (I'm old enough to remember when there was no such thing as 'after market'). If you can make a small box out of styrene, you can construct a cab superstructure for something like this. It just takes practice, patience and planning. 

Some objects can be scratch built as 'solids' such as smaller equipment boxes, intercom boxes, etc. As mentioned, there are also 3D printers and resin. So, start gathering resources, drawings, etc and work on some simple scratch building. Also, if you have access to photoshop, then you can do a lot of scaling, etc. with that or other graphic programs using arsenal photographs, which you can find on line. 

I wouldn't give this up, I'd just start developing the skills I need to complete it. If you need help or advice, send a me a PM. 

Cheers!

Ron

I hate to dash anyone's hopes but it terms of the 3D design area, it would be extremely complicated to try to draw up this vehicle and make a conversion set. You'd essentially be designing the entire vehicle save the running gear and middle ⅓ of the lower hull. I'm not saying it can't be done, almost anything can be done, but it wouldn't really be worth the time and effort involved in designing what would essentially be a full kit only to buy yourself one copy at an outrageously expensive price tag. To design something of this magnitude would require a pretty high end computer as well and a good amount of training in advanced CAD/3D design programs. But like I said, it's not impossible. Just very complicated and highly intensive. 

Hey all,

When I was building models as a kid ~20 years ago I was playing with the idea of scratchbulding a T92 from pershing parts. This many years on and Im starting to get back in the hobby and I still dont see any kits or conversions for this thing, despite its World of Tanks presence driving popularity.

Ive got plenty of 3D modelling experience and want to tackle this issue again. Would anyone be interested in a limited run homebrew kit for this?

I would! I can help with the testprints too, if needed.

Other option would be to extract the 3d model from World of Tanks and edit the mesh so that it would be 3d printable. As far as I know, there is an application in WoT community that handles the extraction..