SDKFZ 222 Armored car project continuation

It's felt like eons since I posted last on this build, but with the commission work out of the way time opened up again to get back on it again.

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The time off was actually beneficial as the pause gave me some time to regroup and tackle the project again with a fresh mind. Since the completion of the tiger I picked up again on the gun carriage where I left off

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Since my last update the carriage body master was completed as was the mold. With the large casting out of the way I then turned to the seat mounts and counter balance mechanism.

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Starting with the seat mounts the 222 gun carriage had adjustable seats that were on arms that would pivot by loosening a lever... much similar in the way large drill press tables are adjustable. The seat master is complete and will be entering into mold along with the next batch of parts,

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One of the other more difficult parts to the gun to engineer was the counter balance mechanism. The gun carriage featured a hinged cylinder which contained a large spring.

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This cylinder would connect to the carriage via a roller chain. The chain would run up into a hooded receptacle that would be on the upper carriage. The spring pulls the chain taught which gives resistance to the carriage.

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It sounds simple, but to fabricate the parts, and make them work in 1/6 took some time to tool / engineer. Because of the importance of these parts the gun would be unable to elevate or depress if modeled static, so for the chain I used a real small scale roller chain,

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Since the chain had to be articulated the cylinder also needed to be functional as well because if the gun were elevated the chain would slack and would hurt the look of the model, so I designed a real spring buffer system for the model.

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The system works very well, and not only animates correctly, but also holds up the gun preventing it from drooping and making it easier to elevate / depress the gun

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In addition to the chain animation the spring pressure allows the elevation gears to mesh properly and they rotate with each other when the gun is elevated / depressed

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The whole setup still fits into the tight space of the 222 interior, although it is a tight fit... as was the case with the real vehicle

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More pics were posted on the ECA facebook page,
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Lots of more parts still need to be fabricated and molded bu it looks like I will be about 60% with the gun after the next update... more to come!

Awesome build

Getting Closer and Closer John

Phenmenal build..!!

More work was made to the gun mount and the lower portion is now all done!

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The whole bottom portion of the gun mount serves two purposes, it acts as a place for the crew to place their feet, and it is also where the gunner fires the guns.

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The gunner has two pedals, one for firing the main gun, the other for firing the coax MG34

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The entire harness is supported by tubes, that connect to the rear portion of the mount, there it is connected to a complex support system that connects to the seat mounts.

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On the front portion for added support there is a segmented strut that emerges from the bottom of the mount that connects to the front of the harness, with this design the mount can fully rotate as the entire harness is only connected to the top mount and not the base

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on the model I fabricated this portion out of segments of brass tube with nuts and bolts soldered to it. with this method I assembled and adjusted the parts like the real one.

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As for how the pedals connect to the triggers is another very elaborate setup. The pedals connect to linkages, these linkages run along the foot rest of the harness, they then engage two clevises (one for each gun). To prevent damage or injury to the gunner there is a guard on the footrest that covers up the linkage system (something like you see on a old tractor)

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The clevises then enter into a tube that is mounted on the harness support. They run through to the other side where two smaller clevises then run linkages into the hollow seat support tube to the top side of the mount. There they run upwards to the two guns (more on that to come)

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As for the seats the seats are fully adjustable, they are found on swing mounts that are fixed to the two tubes that emerge from the rear of the mount. They use tightening levers to set them to the proper place for the crew member, this system is very similar to the adjustable table you see on Drill presses.

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on the gunner seat the seat can also be raised and lowered by a crank on the bottom of the seat mount. There was also a different style of seat used for the gunner which was a bucket type seat. More info will follow on the next update.

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Currently I'm now moving up to the mid section of the mount which will include work on the crank wheel, and turret mounts.

more pics were posted on the ECA facebook page, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

More to follow!

John,

This coming along very nicely..!!