Kirchner Main Battle Tank

[Kjev]

I took a break from some of the bigger projects I've been finishing up, and decided to build this little tank. It's a "near future" job that, to me, looks like a direct descendant of the Abrams.

I decided to build this straight from the printer, and I learned...I can't. I can't build anything just like the instructions say. Everything I make ends up tweaked, adjusted, customized, fiddled with, improved (which may be a matter of opinion), or added to.

But I tried, this time, I really, really, really did.

In actuality, the only things I did "non-standard" were to reinforce the insides with cardboard, pin the gun barrels in place with a bamboo skewer and a toothpick, make a pin-and-socket "joint" under the turret, then add a cardboard disk under the turret so it could rotate.

The disk was because I got ahead of myself and decided the turret was going to rotate before I added the driver's hatch, and put the turret pin and socket in the wrong place. I should have put it about a quarter of an inch closer to the rear of the tank. To keep it from running into the driver's hatch, I had to jack it up some.

But even with all the over-engineering, it took me about a day and a half from start to finish. Well-designed model, and a lot of fun to build. It's probably the cleanest build I've made thus far.

Here is my new tank with G'nea Pyg the Tau Test Dummy, and a Jotun mecha that is in the middle of being painted.

 

[Sanginus]

looks great, I love it

 

[Famous Dave]

If you didn't tweet something, some of us may think you need a doctor. Awesome build, as usual.
I do love the models on the ebbles site.
When I opened your post here, I thought that the tank looked like an old plastic model i had that was for the GI Joe line.
Really glad you shared it.
Dave

 

[Kjev]

Thanks to both of you!

I guess I have to just accept that tweaking is part of my building process. I think I may end up building every model I want to build twice: once to figure out what I'm doing, and once to get it right.

I always thought it looked like a descendant of an Abrams. At some point later I may add machine guns for the Commander and Gunner's hatches. To me it just looks incomplete without them. The model did come with a remote weapons station that could be added behind the hatches, but I didn't really like it. I saved it in my bitz folder for some future project.

 

[Revell-Fan]

That looks great!

 

[Kjev]

Thanks! The more I look at it, the more I like it! I even took it out and played with it some today. (I may not be a child, but I can always act like one! Just ask my wife!)