3D Printed E100 Project

[tank_me]

I love big strange, unique tanks so when I saw Inkor's E100 I decided I needed to buy it and build it (https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/e-100).



This project was my second tank that I attempted to 3D print and a lot of it was printed with Overture PETG (the bright green) which I found to be really inconsistent while printing. The T26 was the first and the IS-4 was the third. Holding my own feet to the fire with my "finish projects this year" mantra, the E100 was pulled down off the shelf of shame and dusted off. I started back into the build and realized I never posted any progress on the E100 on any online media. Will all of that being said, I don't have any early pics of this build as I was printing it. Seeing the Hooben version of the E100 and having played the World of Tanks version of the E100 I wasn't a big fan of the Maus turret. I wanted my E100 to look similar to the WOT or Hooben versions:




Rather than bug the designer to change the design, I took matters into my own hands. I found the E100 with the Krupp turret on Cults3D (https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game...ustrian_3d_art).



The only issue with the version from the Austiran_3D_art designer is that it was never setup for RC use. That meant I needed to modify the STL files to make them RC ready. I virtually disassembled the turret so that it would fit on my build plate.



Since the turret ring was different between the two models, I then had to modify the files from both designers. I virtually cut the turret ring off of the Austirian Art E100, filled the hole in the turret base, added a resized hole, and cut the turret ring interface from the Inkor Maus turret. The E100 turret is large and I didn't want it balanced on that center hole so I printed a "bullet catch ring" for the turret to sit on (very right hand build plate). I also had to separate the gun mantlet and pivot point while also cutting holes in the parts to make them functional.



You can see just how massive the E100 is when you compare the turret to an M60 turret:



I pulled the Hellcat out and measured it against the size of the E100. My ADHD kicked in during the initial build of the E100 which resulted in the Hellcat getting far more finished than the E100 even though I started the E100 first.



I was able to fit the Krupp turret base to Inkor's E100 successfully. I needed to use some M2 screws for attachment and some M2 nuts between the ring and base of the turret to get the correct height of the turret.






The barrel was printed and it so happened that a 9mm brass rod fit perfectly as an extension into the turret for the recoil servo connecton. You can also see the modified mantlet now ready for recoil.






And this was how it looked after the final turret fitting.



To be continued in the next post...

[tank_me]

I think at this point I started printing the 1/6th KV-1 as I compared the size of the E100 tracks in 1/16th scale to the 1/6th scale KV-1 tracks.



I started some of the finishing work like flame cuts, installed the Heng Long PDGBS style gearbox, finished printing/installing the suspension/running gear, dropped in a HL TK6.1, started the wiring, and test fitted the tracks. Here it is next to an IS-3.



Due to my crappy printing skills I had to use some 3M red body putty to fix issues and do a bunch of post processing due to poor layer adhesion and the brittle Overture PETG. That red putty did me no favors. In some cases it cracked and didn't really leave me a great finish.



Rather than continuing with the ugly parts I decided to reprint all of the parts below.



The new parts were printed in PETG-GF (glass fiber). It produces a very nice grainy finish and the parts were much cleaner and stronger.




I also grabbed the vent grill guards from the Austiran Art E100 and added them to my build. You will see from this point on that the light gray parts are produced on a resin printer for better detail.



Being a "what if" build, I decided to add some customizations to the tank that made sense to me for a combat operational vehicle. The first of which is a fully functional travel lock stolen and downsized from my 1/10 Jagdtiger files.




By this point I had finished the main wiring and built a custom speaker box for a Dayton speaker. That also meant it was ready for a quick test drive. The clicking noise that is heard is the tracks hitting the underside of the track skirts. I did have to cut the underside supports of the track skirts back somewhat to eliminate the contact (not shown). The mobility of the tank is actually quite good. WAY better than the Maus.

https://youtube.com/shorts/WGQLCR5vQmo?si=m0LDiIk07Aj44WkL

Then it was time to wire up the apple mount. I 3D printed a base for it and mounted it in such a way that the hatch can still be closed when the apple is not installed. More weld lines, flame cuts, and texture added.




And this is how the project sits at the moment.




The rear end parts were all cut off and replaced with resin parts for better detail.



Created a track rack on the front end of the tank ala PZ4 or Tiger type design. The U channels were designed in the Bambu slicer and printed. I figured the crew wouldn't want to have those heavy arse track links stored on the turret. Storing them near the ground would make them more accessible.




And that's all for now...

[SoCalBobS]

Wonderful!

[tank_me]

I've been working on this project intermittently and it's been a long time since the last update. I will admit I've had a bit of tank burnout lately and started a new job within my current contract which has put a lot of my projects on the back burner. I've been pushing in the last two weeks to get the vehicle ready to battle at the National Mounted Warrior Museum at Fort Hood, TX this weekend. She's finally ready and the battle system is tested and working great.

This is a recap on the history of this build. This tank is one of Inkor's designs, but he designed it with the Maus turret and the 3D printer files included that turret. Being a World of Tanks player years ago, I preferred the Krupp turret. That meant I needed to find suitable Krupp turret files that were 3D printable as I'm not CAD proficient. I found them from a designer named "Austrian_3D_art" on the Cults3D website: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game...ustrian_3d_art . He has a lot of prototype German designs available. I had to modify his design to work with Inkor's lower so there were a lot of functions I wanted that were not included in the Krupp files like servo recoil, servo elevation, and IR battle functions. After redesigning the turret ring to fit Inkor's hull and reworking the Krupp gun mount, I integrated one of Inkor's gun recoil mounts into the Krupp turret. I designed a small mount for the IR "apple" in one of the turret hatches and mounted the IR LED in the secondary armament in the gun mantlet. I still had no elevation and that was were it was until last night.

In the early days of my 3D printing journey, I found a bunch of free files from https://rctanksaustralia.com. As I was digging through all of my servo mounts last night I ran across one that I had test printed and it seemed to fit the space perfectly in the turret: https://rctanksaustralia.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_14&produ cts_id=39. It is a full sized servo mount and I figured that it was better than using one of those little 9g servos and I had some full sized servos laying around. The other issue was that the slot on the side of Inkor's recoil mount was designed for his little doohickey that slides on the end of a servo arm providing a round peg that rides in the slide. The servo arm I decided to use to give the gun a full range of motion was too wide to slide the little doohickey over so I drilled an M3 hole in the end of the arm to accept a cap head screw. Unfortunately the cap head itself was too large to slide freely in the recoil mount slide so I took it to the bench sander and reduced the size of the cap head to fit. I drilled a few holes in the servo mount legs, drilled corresponding holes in the turret floor, and everything came together to create a reliable elevation system. It ended up being a very elegant solution to a problem I had been avoiding for a long time. I do have to finish cleaning up the cables, but that shouldn't take too long. I will eventually add tow cables and tools, but I knew I just won't have time to get the little details sorted out before this weekend.





I know I painted my Maus and my Panzer III in Dunkelgelb and Olivgrün, but the Maus is getting a revision adding some Rotbraun as of today. I didn't get any pics of it in primer so here it is in the initial (maybe final) camo pattern:











She's a definitely a big girl.

Well, that's all for now...