Zik-20

[Vincent Power]

Looking impressive Bryan.

By consumables you mean Beer....right?

Vincent

[Bryan Krueger]

Yeah, I'll need to give the wife a lot of beer before I could ever bring a $5000 3D printing machine into the house.

[Bryan Krueger]

It's been a productive few days on the Zik-20. The hull and running gear was tedious but went together quickly. I've replaced most of the kit welds with epoxy putty. At our local club meeting yesterday I built up the armored casemate. It's just held with tape for the time being. The roof plate is also a 3D print. It has a slight bow that I am trying to work out.

[Bryan Krueger]

Progress on the Zik-20.

The casemate has been assembled and welds created with epoxy putty. The 3D printed roof plate was still warped so I glued it to a 1/8" thick piece of acrylic. I've started on the PE using the and Eduard PE set. Fenders will be replaced with a Royal Models PE fender set but it will require some modifications

Tracks are just for show until the MasterClub white metal tracks arrive. I'm also waiting on a couple other MC resin rivets to finish up the mantle bolts and roof plate.

[Adam Durrant]

It's looking good Bryan. Do you think they would have beefed up the front torsion bars to cope with the extra weight over the nose or would it have had a bit of a "nose down" attitude like the early Hetzers?

[Bryan Krueger]

Optimistic estimates placed the weight only 4 tons heavier than the KV-1. Maybe they planned on heavier torsion bars but the design never got that far. The design factory was unaware the KV-1 was being phased out in favor of the KV-1S. The KV-1S was used as the basis for the KV-14/SU-152.

Trumpeter doesn't make it easy with the indexed mounting holes for the support arms or I might have made it a little more nose down.

[Bryan Krueger]

Lots of detail progress since the last update. I added MasterClub Tracks and lots of MC rivets. I used the Royal Model fender set but it was a bit simplified. I had to add the missing angle iron sections from Albion Metals extrusion. Nothing like buying aftermarket for your aftermarket set. The tow shackles are from Aber. Eduard PE was used for the basics like vents screens and hatch details. Other bits are scratch built. I still need to add some additional details but getting close.

[Adam Durrant]

Nice work Bryan, all the added welds and flame cut edges are great!

[Bryan Krueger]

Thanks Adam!

[Philipp Gross]

Most impressive, as usual

I just realized where that poor sod of a driver was supposed to sit

Philipp