Rheinmetall 35,5 cm Haubitze M1 - 3D Printed

[EPOCH3]

A few more pictures (not in any order):
A) Initial prep of small parts removed from connecting sprue
B) Heavy assembly crane legs (these were done in the cheaper white Nylon material - to save some cost)
C) Heavy assembly crane wheel assemblies
D) replacement part for a damage section (I cut out bad section shown and simply super glued replacement section in)
E) close up of one of the ladder assembly parts - this is a good demonstration of the benefits of 3D printers - this was a very complex part and would have been very time consuming and difficult to do any other way (not mention the time needed if I needed several).

Note - cost of parts is basically = A (material) + B (Volume taken up in printer) + C (handling to clan and package etc). Sometimes I make minor connections to multiple parts and in doing so I can cut the cost down (sometimes by 30% to 40%). Also, connecting several smaller parts together makes the geometry much stronger which reduces breakage and warpage.

Happy Modeling

[EPOCH3]

Just rec'd the gantry assemblies for the Fries 15Ton work crane and the larger M1 assembly crane needed for my diorama. The larger assembly was really warped initially as I took it out of the box. I was initially very disappointed but I later ran it under hot water for a few minutes and then held it while it cooled. This did help quite a bit so I think I can straighten it out even further and save it.

Attached is a picture showing initial warpage and a few general pictures of the crane parts.

[EPOCH3]

Almost ready to begin assembly!

[EPOCH3]

Dry fit #3..... and a closer up pic of the main M1 carriage assembly

[EPOCH3]

Hi - just a low res, quick update on my M1 project

Railings attached (nothing else glued yet) and first coat of Gunmetal applied
(Testors Model Master Buffering Metalizer laquer no. 1455 in spray form)

Regards

[EPOCH3]

Forgot to add photo of top section of carriage mount
Regards
Greg

[EPOCH3]

As a point of reference, here is a comparison photo of two versions of the smaller 15ton Fries Crane.
The gantry on the top was made in the cheaper white Nylon material while the gantry on the bottom
was done in the photo sensitive resin. While the picture is fairly low res, you can still see the level of detail
is quite a bit better using the Resin material.

Regards
Greg

[gsollish]

Hi,

New to this forum and thread, discovered *after* acquiring Soar Art's M1. To say that I'm amazed by this rendering is an understatement --- modelling of a very high order, indeed. That said, I'm wondering what I might do with mine. I agree that SA's creativity increases as one descends to ground level, but even so, (1) how does the M1 traverse on its base and (2), what is the purpose of the double fixed carriage? Was Rheinmetall planning for alternate mountings --- a stationary box like Skoda's 42 cm or a 'mobile' mounting like 'Karl', perhaps?

Are prints for the M1 available? Where in the National Archives can references be found.

Thanks.

George

[EPOCH3]

Hi - the M1 basically lifts its tail and turns..... there are illustrations that I have found that show the carriage being jacked up at certain points towards the middle of the carriage. Once jacked up, the rear platform is clear of the ground and free to pivot about the center of the front platform and rotate the full 360 degrees. The rear platform is actually attached by basically a big bracket to the back end of the recoil mechanism on the front platform. The double fixed carriage as you call it was not fixed. Each section is a separate piece and basically stacks up one on top of the other and is then essentially pinned together. This was done so as to break the gun into several loads for transportation purposes. I am working on all the transport wagons now and hopefully will be able to do another M1 broken into loads for transport (at least that is the plan). On a side note - I do have a prototype drawing from Rheinmetall showing the 35.5cm mounted in a Karl like chassis. I have 3D modeled it already and was planning to use one of my Trumpeter Karl kits to mount it. I will try and get the specific finding aid data info for the NARA record you are interested in. If you search on-line for Digital History Archive, I think Marc also has the specific roll of film on DVD you need and sells them for a fraction of what NARA changes (like $20 vs $120+).

Note on Soar Art - I don't want to poo poo Soar Arts effort but the model is far from accurate (just plain wrong in many places) so I am not quite sure how you would approach "fixing" it. I tried to contact Soar Art last year when I heard rumors they were making an M1 and offered to help them since I had done extensive research on this gun and had figured out many engineering issues regarding how it worked etc. I sent several e-mails over several months but no one ever replied..... Kind Regards

[EPOCH3]

Just for fun, here is an image of the 35.5cm gun on tracked chassis -
Happy Modeling!

[gsollish]

Hi,

Looking at the photos I suspected that the rear pedestal might lift to allow pivoting on the forward; thanks for confirming. Re the double carriage, I could see they were fixed together in use, but wondered why they weren't built in one piece; transport, of course, explains this. Re Karl, I also have Trumpeter's on my workbench and noticed that the M1 could be fairly easily mounted on a similar chassis, thanks for confirming this, too. Question, though --- is there enough recoil clearance as sketched without a higher carriage? Doesn't the M1 breech extend beyond the pivot farther than the 60 cm?

I'm very interested in the DVD of M1 data.

Thanks.

George

[EPOCH3]

As a drawing board prototype it looks cool but you are right in that they would have had several issues to work out in order to make it usable.
As-is, I don't think there is not enough room in the gun carriage well to get an elevation similar to the M1 mount. It would probably have been much more restricted. I'll have to do some measurements to see - interesting question though.
Regards

[cgandy]

It is fantastic.

[EPOCH3]

Here are a few drawings for the base of the Rheinmetall M1. I am including for anyone wishing to improve the Soar Art M1 kit (which is basically wrong). These are just line drawings generated from my CAD file but are based on actual data from the manual.

Enjoy and have a great weekend

[EPOCH3]

Hi - had a friend ask me about how far off the Soar Art kit was dimensionally. Overall dimensions are off in every axis but some areas of the model are closer than others. I took profile pictures of two of the larger main carriage parts of the Soar Art kit and compared them to my model. The 3D model profile is shown in black while the red outline and part picture is the SOAR Art kit. You can see that they come close in one axis but are off quite a bit in the other (looks like the aspect ratio is off about the same amount on both of these two parts).

Regards