Harrytheheid
Banned
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 4,672
Received an email from my brother in the UK yesterday. He's also an Engineer, (runs in the family), and builds scale models as a hobby. He'd attached an article he'd written for a UK based Modelling Magazine that I thought might be of interest to some members here.
Here's the article and a photo of his rough sketch.
It's too long to post in a single message, so I'll post part 2 and a photo of the completed model later today.
Cheers
Harry
*****************************************************
UDES Part 1.
Whilst perusing the internet one night, looking for photos of Swedish vehicles, I came across a photo of an unusual vehicle. It consisted of a Marder APC with a long box turret with a long gun sticking out the front. Knowing that Revell do a Marder I thought ‘I can do that’, no probs.
HISTORY
Like a number of other countries, the Swedish army in the 70’s ran a series of vehicle trials to test the theory of an AFV with an unmanned, automatic gun turret. One of these trials vehicles was given the title UDES 19 and rather than build a bespoke vehicle the Swedes obtained a surplus Marder APC from the West German Army onto which a new turret was mounted.
The turret was a box structure, around 800mm wide by about 3500mm long. At about mid point there is a bolted angle connection permitting the rear half to be detached, so exposing the working parts. The gun was of 105mm calibre with a long tapering barrel ending in an unusually large, square, muzzle brake. There did not appear to be any sights located on the upper turret. The turret was supported on a cradle mounted on a domed roof, which was mounted into the turret ring of the Marder. The front of the cradle appears to be solid with a large window/ sight.
In the course of the trials an electrical generator was mounted on a frame over the rear of the vehicle. This precluded the use of the rear hull door so access must only have been through the drivers and vehicle commanders hatch.
Originally in Olive Green it was later repainted in the 4-colour splinter camouflage.
While the trials may have been a success they were obviously not THAT big a success as Sweden, nor any other country has built this sort of vehicle. Whilst a smaller, lighter turret leads to a cheaper vehicle, as well as a reduction in the manpower, it also gave rise to a number of problems.
One question that has always bugged me is where do the shell cases go? Unless there are bagged charges there has to be a shell case and as the rear of the turret is filled and there are no side hatches, where does it go when the gun is fired? One photo appears to show some sort of cover to the front top of the turret so I figured that there must have been a rubber or vinyl patch which could be folded up so allowing access to the breach for maintenance, loading, etc.
MODEL
The model is based on the Revell 1/72 Marder A1A3 kit and so, as you do, I started to gather some information. I e-mailed the Swedish Armour Historical Society who very kindly forwarded some photos. From the photos I ‘scaled’ out the dimensions of the turret. It was whilst examining these photos that it occurred to me that the vehicle is an early Marder version, whereas the Revell model is a re-built version and somewhat different in places.
The Lower hull and running gear was built up as per the instructions and set aside. The lower hull sides were painted dark green as on Swedish vehicles these are never painted in the splinter scheme.
The early Marder version was significantly different so remove all surface detail from the hull, except for the drivers hatch and periscopes and the details to the front right of the engine hatch. In addition remove the track covers at the front, along the panel lines, leaving the hull with a slight boat shape.
Fill all the engraved panel lines and bring the rear deck up level using card. The A1 version had a raised grill either side of the rear deck but I could find nothing useful in the spares box. But, the rear engine deck of a Chieftain looked promising! Out came the Airfix kit and I cut the rearmost grill off, halved it and cleaned it up. Hinges came from slivers of triangular card.
The four hatches caused problems as in reality they are domed but all I turned up was four flat disks, which were the right size. The hinges came from the radar array from the front of a Revell Me1101 kit, suitably doctored up and bent. The vision blocks are from spare rubber track pads from a previously built Marder. The ventilator and other details came from the spares box or were scratch built. The A1 had a remote controlled machine gun mounted at the rear of the hull. The UDES vehicle retained the ring but had a box on top into which fed the cables from the new generator.
To the front I added a new shot deflector in front of the turret ring as well as scribing out a new hatch behind the drivers for the vehicle commander. Again these hatches are supposed to be domed. New track guards were manufactured and the hull, where cut away, was filled and sanded. The kit lights and guards were used. Rain-guards, handles and sundry details were added. Driver’s mirrors came from the Revell M48 kit.
The sides of early Marders had various brackets and attachment points on the hull sides. The spares box had turned up some panels from, I think, an Italeri Leopard, with some useful bracket details, which were shaved off and used. The Leopard track skirts were also utilised in place of the Revell ones as they seemed to be the same but slightly better detailed. Other details for the hull sides came from various sources – the gun ports are scrap and whilst the real vehicle only had the slides for the track grousers (that replace some track pads in winter) I still had some left over from the Leopard kit, so these were cut and attached.
The hull rear seems to be the same between the early and late versions except for the door, which on later versions was bulged. For simplicity, and because it was going to be covered anyway, I used the bulged door from the kit.
Using my ‘scaled from photos’ drawings I first made a paper turret for playing about with prior to constructing one from plastic sheet.
To create the cradle I found two discs, the larger just a little smaller than the turret ring with a smaller one on top. Filler was spread on top and sanded down to give a dome shape. The gun supports were manufactured from sheet. There is a slight shadow at the back so I am guessing that the rear supports consist of a web and flange. The vision blocks are Marder tracks (as before) with a hatch from the spares box. This was all attached to the kit turret ring.
Once complete I could now try on the paper turret, which of course did not fit exactly. But it did give me a feel for the size and relationship when comparing to the photos. (honest this was all planned). From this I decided to lengthen the turret slightly. The turret was subsequently built up in thin card with bracing panels internally for strength. A wee bit of filling and fettling took place to get a decent fit. The angles were added with bolts coming from Grandt Lines (after posting a question on the IPMS website). The open, rear end of the turret rear was filled from the spares box. The gun barrel is one of the leftovers from a Trumpeter Pershing tank kit. The strange looking muzzle brake was built up from bits from the spares box.
GENERATOR
The structure supporting the electrical generator is an add-on. Looking at it as a structural engineer it looks like it has been made from whatever materials were to hand. There are various channels and angle sections. It looks like cleats have been welded to the hull then supports for the deck cut and welded and bolted to suit. My local model shop had some channel sections of a suitable size and by cutting off one of the flanges I could create an angle. Photos only show support to the rear of the deck, which means that it is out of balance so I added a cleat to the door and rested the deck on that. With a bit of fiddling about I got it to look reasonable acceptable. The generator was built up from sheet. The side vents came from the leftover Leopard kit – the grills from the rear hull side, suitably cut to shape. To its left is a jerry-can (spares box) and to its right is a solid steel sheet. Copper wire was used to simulate the cable going into the vehicle.
*********************************************************
[Harry] Part 2 coming up later.
Here's the article and a photo of his rough sketch.
It's too long to post in a single message, so I'll post part 2 and a photo of the completed model later today.
Cheers
Harry
*****************************************************
UDES Part 1.
Whilst perusing the internet one night, looking for photos of Swedish vehicles, I came across a photo of an unusual vehicle. It consisted of a Marder APC with a long box turret with a long gun sticking out the front. Knowing that Revell do a Marder I thought ‘I can do that’, no probs.
HISTORY
Like a number of other countries, the Swedish army in the 70’s ran a series of vehicle trials to test the theory of an AFV with an unmanned, automatic gun turret. One of these trials vehicles was given the title UDES 19 and rather than build a bespoke vehicle the Swedes obtained a surplus Marder APC from the West German Army onto which a new turret was mounted.
The turret was a box structure, around 800mm wide by about 3500mm long. At about mid point there is a bolted angle connection permitting the rear half to be detached, so exposing the working parts. The gun was of 105mm calibre with a long tapering barrel ending in an unusually large, square, muzzle brake. There did not appear to be any sights located on the upper turret. The turret was supported on a cradle mounted on a domed roof, which was mounted into the turret ring of the Marder. The front of the cradle appears to be solid with a large window/ sight.
In the course of the trials an electrical generator was mounted on a frame over the rear of the vehicle. This precluded the use of the rear hull door so access must only have been through the drivers and vehicle commanders hatch.
Originally in Olive Green it was later repainted in the 4-colour splinter camouflage.
While the trials may have been a success they were obviously not THAT big a success as Sweden, nor any other country has built this sort of vehicle. Whilst a smaller, lighter turret leads to a cheaper vehicle, as well as a reduction in the manpower, it also gave rise to a number of problems.
One question that has always bugged me is where do the shell cases go? Unless there are bagged charges there has to be a shell case and as the rear of the turret is filled and there are no side hatches, where does it go when the gun is fired? One photo appears to show some sort of cover to the front top of the turret so I figured that there must have been a rubber or vinyl patch which could be folded up so allowing access to the breach for maintenance, loading, etc.
MODEL
The model is based on the Revell 1/72 Marder A1A3 kit and so, as you do, I started to gather some information. I e-mailed the Swedish Armour Historical Society who very kindly forwarded some photos. From the photos I ‘scaled’ out the dimensions of the turret. It was whilst examining these photos that it occurred to me that the vehicle is an early Marder version, whereas the Revell model is a re-built version and somewhat different in places.
The Lower hull and running gear was built up as per the instructions and set aside. The lower hull sides were painted dark green as on Swedish vehicles these are never painted in the splinter scheme.
The early Marder version was significantly different so remove all surface detail from the hull, except for the drivers hatch and periscopes and the details to the front right of the engine hatch. In addition remove the track covers at the front, along the panel lines, leaving the hull with a slight boat shape.
Fill all the engraved panel lines and bring the rear deck up level using card. The A1 version had a raised grill either side of the rear deck but I could find nothing useful in the spares box. But, the rear engine deck of a Chieftain looked promising! Out came the Airfix kit and I cut the rearmost grill off, halved it and cleaned it up. Hinges came from slivers of triangular card.
The four hatches caused problems as in reality they are domed but all I turned up was four flat disks, which were the right size. The hinges came from the radar array from the front of a Revell Me1101 kit, suitably doctored up and bent. The vision blocks are from spare rubber track pads from a previously built Marder. The ventilator and other details came from the spares box or were scratch built. The A1 had a remote controlled machine gun mounted at the rear of the hull. The UDES vehicle retained the ring but had a box on top into which fed the cables from the new generator.
To the front I added a new shot deflector in front of the turret ring as well as scribing out a new hatch behind the drivers for the vehicle commander. Again these hatches are supposed to be domed. New track guards were manufactured and the hull, where cut away, was filled and sanded. The kit lights and guards were used. Rain-guards, handles and sundry details were added. Driver’s mirrors came from the Revell M48 kit.
The sides of early Marders had various brackets and attachment points on the hull sides. The spares box had turned up some panels from, I think, an Italeri Leopard, with some useful bracket details, which were shaved off and used. The Leopard track skirts were also utilised in place of the Revell ones as they seemed to be the same but slightly better detailed. Other details for the hull sides came from various sources – the gun ports are scrap and whilst the real vehicle only had the slides for the track grousers (that replace some track pads in winter) I still had some left over from the Leopard kit, so these were cut and attached.
The hull rear seems to be the same between the early and late versions except for the door, which on later versions was bulged. For simplicity, and because it was going to be covered anyway, I used the bulged door from the kit.
Using my ‘scaled from photos’ drawings I first made a paper turret for playing about with prior to constructing one from plastic sheet.
To create the cradle I found two discs, the larger just a little smaller than the turret ring with a smaller one on top. Filler was spread on top and sanded down to give a dome shape. The gun supports were manufactured from sheet. There is a slight shadow at the back so I am guessing that the rear supports consist of a web and flange. The vision blocks are Marder tracks (as before) with a hatch from the spares box. This was all attached to the kit turret ring.
Once complete I could now try on the paper turret, which of course did not fit exactly. But it did give me a feel for the size and relationship when comparing to the photos. (honest this was all planned). From this I decided to lengthen the turret slightly. The turret was subsequently built up in thin card with bracing panels internally for strength. A wee bit of filling and fettling took place to get a decent fit. The angles were added with bolts coming from Grandt Lines (after posting a question on the IPMS website). The open, rear end of the turret rear was filled from the spares box. The gun barrel is one of the leftovers from a Trumpeter Pershing tank kit. The strange looking muzzle brake was built up from bits from the spares box.
GENERATOR
The structure supporting the electrical generator is an add-on. Looking at it as a structural engineer it looks like it has been made from whatever materials were to hand. There are various channels and angle sections. It looks like cleats have been welded to the hull then supports for the deck cut and welded and bolted to suit. My local model shop had some channel sections of a suitable size and by cutting off one of the flanges I could create an angle. Photos only show support to the rear of the deck, which means that it is out of balance so I added a cleat to the door and rested the deck on that. With a bit of fiddling about I got it to look reasonable acceptable. The generator was built up from sheet. The side vents came from the leftover Leopard kit – the grills from the rear hull side, suitably cut to shape. To its left is a jerry-can (spares box) and to its right is a solid steel sheet. Copper wire was used to simulate the cable going into the vehicle.
*********************************************************
[Harry] Part 2 coming up later.
