Blackadder's Landkreuzer P500; Die Wühlmaus A 40K WIP

    The Mantle Of Lunacy:


    Since I am so very often labeled "Crazy" I may as well don the appellation and adopt it for my very own to wit; last night I deemed the bogies too plain and spiffed them up a bit. with center axles and lugs.


    http://i.imgur.com/YFEzXU7.jpg


    After drilling close to 400 holes my placement became a tad erratic.


    http://i.imgur.com/dhQX89Z.jpg


    Since the skirting of the side armour eclipses half the road wheel I'm sure no one will see the discrepancies.


    But I'll have to be more careful on the very prominent Idlers.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Well, you are rocking that mantle...

    "Matt Ward was to the Ultramarines what smallpox blankets were to the Native Americans" - electricbayonet2 on Youtube

    Thanks for the reply........


    Time To Space the Road Wheels:


    Well the new tread block seems to be just about perfect; the tire hubs appear slightly below the proposed fender skirting and the block sufficiently long enough to mount the outrage number of bogies. Yeah I'm guessing about all this; that's what comes of working without a plan boys and girls..........


    http://i.imgur.com/plMUYT8.jpg


    The next step will be to determine the best spacing taking into account the drive sprocket and nose idler wheel the hub of the nose idler being just under the leading edge of the fender.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Looks Like a Plan:


    With very little forethought and purely by accident everything is rosy, the bogies seem just the right size for the tread run. i need to space them about a millimeter apart as opposed to the present image but nothing critical.


    The two nose tires which are at odds with standard 'Christie suspension'


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christie_suspension


    conform nicely to the FW/GW design none the less so it's acceptable.


    http://i.imgur.com/GbiwiJx.jpg


    Even without the front idler the wheels look businesslike and seem adequate for the extra two hundred tons this tank has over the Baneblade


    http://i.imgur.com/ZQhYR7R.jpg


    With the body removed the clean installation is revealed so those who want to copy this design, feel free.


    http://i.imgur.com/KfELvs0.jpg


    Only please don't ask for plans, diagrams or templates; I regret to say there aren't any.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    No Need To Rush:


    Let this be a lesson, it doesn't pay to rush these projects. I was about to affix the road wheels to the wheel base but on seeing this I will have to wait until the drive and idler wheels are done. Otherwise the wheel placement would have to be redone.


    http://i.imgur.com/CjK0qfR.jpg


    but everything else seems satisfactory.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Smacks Forehead:


    On re-examining the side armour fender skirting there's a grievous error in the rear cutout and only this image brought it to the fore:



    http://i.imgur.com/CjK0qfR.jpg


    My problem is that I was following the Armorcast Baneblade profile when I initially built this.


    http://i.imgur.com/SRV3wxa.jpg


    Where the cut out is significantly larger.


    http://i.imgur.com/JK0IvrB.jpg


    That's why the skirt access panel cutouts won't work out.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Okay; I promise, I'll have a production post readied later today


    Wow; searched "Latest version of Baneblade" and found this:



    Surely someone has a lot of talent and time on his hands.


    Now I see (infer) at least eight crew members and half a dozen or so free roaming servitor skulls, a bin for spent small shell casings, a lot of skulls, icon, and altars and a tech priest but I see no live ammo magazine for the big guns and no perceivable engine; what am I missing?



    Appended to; "What am I missing..........."


    Well the upper tread run to be sure. The artist has acknowledged that he was aware of the necessity of the upper run of tread as he shows the tread cutoff end in the front of the tank fender but then he ignores the issue and has the sponson gun server (gunner?) and some abbreviated individual smack dab in the space where the tread should be.


    Then there is the question of fuel. In my reading preparing to make my version of a Landkeuzer I referred a lot to the largest produced tank (to my knowledge) the German Panzerkampfwagen VIII 'Maus'. The spec's show it carried 710 US Gallons of fuel internally and 400 gallons of fuel in the external reserve and had a battlefield range of 39 miles. BTW that works out to 185.5 feet of travel per gallon if you're interested and at top speed of 8.1 MPH. The big problem with the Maus was developing an engine powerful enough to move the tank and small enough to actually fit inside.


    The artist here didn't address either the interior fuel storage 95 cubic feet or a reservoir cube size of 4.56 by 4.56 by 4.56 or appreciable space for any sort of propulsion unit.


    Certainly the tiny barrels at the end of the fender couldn't carry enough fuel for more than a few miles at most. BTW note the surge baffles.........nice touch.


    But it is a pretty picture......XD

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    The Wheel Thing:


    Every type of model has certain pieces that if done right no one notices but if done wrong ruins the model.


    That's how I feel about the road and drive wheels on tanks.


    seemingly insignificant, partially covered still if less than detailed they stand out like sore thumbs when it comes to displaying your work.


    Witness this beautifully detailed effort that somehow just doesn't make the grade because of the painfully plain road wheels. (and fenderskirts but that's a different story......)



    So now I shall attempt to detail the drive and idler wheels on the Landkreuzer and also fix the fender skirt doors on this and my Titan Hunter. It's about time since I shelved it more than six years ago.


    http://i.imgur.com/gNnpaRB.jpg


    In the images above and below we see the tools required to make the wells in the wheels for the final detailing. Now that the blanks are fully formed the rest should be easy.


    http://i.imgur.com/nhl8Fjb.jpg


    The procedure came to me on the long drive to Florida last week and I was aching to see if it would work and it did.


    Now why was I so confounded by such a laughingly simple process?

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Disc Making:


    There are a lotta ways to make small discs but this is the easiest way I've found to do it without a lot of special tools and compasses, trammel points, and expensive disc cutting dies.


    I glue scraps of plasticard (in this case 1,0 MM) to the ends of styrene tubing by simply dipping the very tip of the tube into the glue vial.


    and allow to dry for a few minutes..........


    http://i.imgur.com/hQ8B0Hd.jpg


    Once dry take your standard household scissors and trim off the rough excess.
    (upper end of the medium length tube)


    then take your sanding block and fine sand off the rough edges until the disc is flush with the side of the tube; usually takes a few seconds.
    (lower end of medium length tube)


    Once shaped take your utility knife and slice off the rounded end cap.


    http://i.imgur.com/rZtG4W6.jpg


    Walla! a relatively perfect disc in a few minutes with no special tools and if you need a larger disc than a half inch use a bit of plastic gel cement and an appropriate sized metal washer same procedure.


    http://i.imgur.com/GNZNLpr.jpg


    Yeah I know it's Voila but I sometimes post on a French site and it drives 'em crazy........Ha!

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    The Never Ending Process:


    More and More this track manufacture seems interminable. The more I do there is even more left to do..........


    I'm trying to make a reasonable facsimile of the FW Superheavy suspension and track.


    Below see the beginning of both front and drive wheels marked for detail drilling for boltholes and reinforcement strapping.


    http://i.imgur.com/8r5G86G.jpg


    And please don't tell me just to buy them from some other tank kit.


    No one has captured the pure artistry of the FW original Baneblade.


    http://i.imgur.com/1YkXBvR.jpg


    The GW Baneblade runs a poor second.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Playin' the Odds:


    Well I have four chances to produce two acceptable outer drive wheels of the eight sides I have to work with. The others I can hide on the inner track where they won't be seen (Whom I kidding? I could never accept that...........)


    http://i.imgur.com/SD6Xkgk.jpg


    Anyway the one on the lower right seems to be acceptable so now I have a one in three chance of duplicating that effort.


    The inability to calculate odds is one of the reasons The Blackadder does not gamble.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    I'd have gone crazy a long time ago with that project. But that's why I mostly kitbash :D


    Btw. I know you don't get nearly enough responses here, but it is such a detailed work that really we usually can only say "Great work!" which gets pretty stupid after a few comments. So be asured, we keep reading! Look at the hits you project gets ;)

    "Matt Ward was to the Ultramarines what smallpox blankets were to the Native Americans" - electricbayonet2 on Youtube

    I would be disingenuous were I to say I don't enjoy 'attaboys' but a little part of me is saddened when I receive a response that doesn't ask a question regarding technique or procedure.


    The main reason I post is to share techniques and help budding scratch builders into the interesting and challenging world of "Do It Yourself" instead of paying outrageous prices for kits.


    BTW while I'm thinking of it; my browser is Google Chrome and it automatically translates this forum into English for me. Do you have similar browsers in Europe that translates my text into German or is everyone just super intelligent enough to speak and understand English?


    When I use words like "disingenuous" and "attaboy", obscure and made up words in the latter case I wonder if I am being unnecessarily confusing.........


    I have to say I have a smattering of knowledge of the German language but some of the words that seem to contain the entire alphabet are hard to decipher. :D

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    I really enjoy reading your tutorial, but this scratchbuild-stuff is just too far away from my personal skills. I'm more the collector/fluffbunny type, personally.


    And I cannot speak for the rest of the forum, but I just read your texts "as is". But then I lived in the US for half a year and I consume most of my information online in English, am switching over to playing 40k in English and only watch American TV, no German one. So while I guess that sort of sets me apart from many others, I'm pretty sure that your readers don't use any programs. Most Germans are pretty adapt at speaking English!

    "Matt Ward was to the Ultramarines what smallpox blankets were to the Native Americans" - electricbayonet2 on Youtube

    I am able to diskuss in english at a, lets say, "Highskool"-Level, which means, that at my age english was the first foreign language to learn at skool in the 5th Year of going to skool. In my job I do not have to speak or write english, so I am "out of training" ... So i can follow yout posts in general, but not, when you are too specific in explaining your technical methods.


    I also use Google Chrome, but I have tried the auto-translation many times and in my opinion the translation in german is so bad, that I could not use it, especcially when you explain yout techniques and you use terms that belong to the more technical things in your work. Very often I do not understand, what you are exactly doing, and in which way you are doing it, or for what reason. Weeks or months later it does make sense, when I see the progess.


    Thats the reason, why I am a loyal fan of your work, but way more a reader than a writer of comments. Like Valenric said, I only can say "Wow!" and "Great Work", which I had from time to time, but I do not understand all of the things you do, and i fear, if I would try to ask you somethind about it, I wouldn`t understand the answer, too ;-)


    But I love your work, and I would be very pleased, if you'd continue your documentations here in our forum!

    That's what I suspected. Google Chrome translates into English very well because English is a gender neutral language. We use the same 'article' "The" for male, female and inanimate objects and also multiple objects plus English is a very forgiving language to read even if the grammar is poor or if the sentence structure is constructed badly. I usually have no problem understanding the intent of the reply even if the wording is verbatim from German text. I suspect that is not the case in English to German because placement of the words changes the meaning.


    Further when I post here I also post the exact same words on as many as twenty other forums most of which are English speaking so they understand the English idioms whereas in German those idioms are non-translatable.


    But if you don't understand anything I write please ask me to explain it differently. I love posting here and on other foreign forums because of the different perspectives I receive and I will be more than happy to change the wordingto a more basic form.


    Now for the silliness:


    Prognosis Negative:


    This is where we separate the suspicion of mental instability from outright clinical insanity.


    Why I subject myself to this form of torture when I would give anything to say "good enough" is becoming of great concern to me.


    Gluing these little batons on the drive wheels is bad enough but folding them down to unify the diagonal reinforcements stretches credulity.


    http://i.imgur.com/Mw772tZ.jpg


    The closeup reveals the fraction of a millimeter variance that had me annoyed.


    http://i.imgur.com/uomMeQw.jpg


    Checking into a clinic on the morrow............


    The above is meant to be funny in English but does it come across that way in German?


    Maybe not; it may even be in poor taste. Verboten ja?

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."