Author Topic: 1/35 TNH 57/900 (Read 2698 times)

Mig Eater · « **on:** July 11, 2023, 03:33:38 PM »

The TNH 57/900 was a light tank project by ČKD from 1949 & was one of the last Czech design based on the TNH/38(t) platform. The Czech army wasn't interested in the design so ČKD hoped to find a buyer on the export market like they had with the original TNH tank before the war, but no one would bite & none were built.

I loved the pre & post war mixture of this tank design & had been thinking of scratch/3D printing one for years. StahlhelmModels beat me to it tho & released a resin kit of this obscure design.

The kit is mostly resin but comes with metal barrels & plastic tracks/sprockets (taken from Thunder model's Bergepanzer kits).

I started cleaning up the parts & found some air bubbles, so I used some Milliput to fill them up. The leaf spring suspension bars were missing from the kit so I 3D printed some replacements.

The upper & lower hulls went together with some force & a lot of CA glue. I then enlarged the weld seams & added missing ones in preparation for future weld detail.

The tracks & sprockets that come with the kit are for the Hetzer, however the original blueprints show it fitted with the smaller TNH/38(t) tracks & sprockets. To fix this I 3D printed the correct sprockets & a set of 38(t) tracks. So instead of some quick & simple link-length tracks I now have to drill out & pin together all 200 individual tracks myself

Old Wombat · « **Reply #1 on:** July 11, 2023, 05:45:24 PM »

You're a masochist!

Have fun!

By the way, I've had a look at that on the Stahlhelm site & I really like the look of the finished product. It will go well in my "The Czechs are Coming!" collection.

That & the two Assault Shermans, they're neat, too.

Buzzbomb · « **Reply #2 on:** July 12, 2023, 06:53:40 AM »

that will go together pretty well from what I can see.

Story · « **Reply #3 on:** July 15, 2023, 05:56:27 AM »

Any idea of what the endstate will be?

Factory prototype? Fictional customer?

Mig Eater · « **Reply #4 on:** July 15, 2023, 07:34:18 PM »

I haven't made a decision of the paint scheme yet, Czech would be the default option but I'm also thinking that a Swiss tank could be interesting as they were buying the G-13/Hetzer from the Czechs when the TNH 57/900 was proposed.

Old Wombat · « **Reply #5 on:** July 15, 2023, 07:49:51 PM »

Not saying you should do Czech; that's my preference, should I buy one.

However, just having looked at their "under re-construction" website again, I see that they are not just out of stock but are no longer available.

Mig Eater · « **Reply #6 on:** July 15, 2023, 08:28:59 PM »

Yeah I think I got one of, if not the last one available

The owner only produces a few kits & then moves onto the next project, so if you want one of their kits you have to get it ASAP.

Mig Eater · « **Reply #7 on:** July 15, 2023, 11:10:42 PM »

I've made some good progress with the build.

The 3D printed tracks were a pain to build, but it was mostly my fault. The first batch of prints the program that I used put them to close together on the build plate resulting in a lot of them getting stuck together & failing

For the second batch I manually arranged the tracks but then I didn't fully cure them after the print resulting in the tracks being very fragile & most of them braking during construction. Finally third time lucky I didn't have any issues & put together the 198 tracks I needed. With that said it was very satisfying to design, print & build the tracks myself. Especially when it only cost me €1 in 3D printer resin, compared to the €30 it would cost for a set of AM ones

I applied some Mr. Surfacer to add some armour texture to the very smooth resin hull. Weld seam detail was added with green stuff putty which was a big improvement over the simple panel lines the kit had. After that the rest of the kit went together very quickly without much issue. I added a few extra parts such as a lamp from the spare box & some wire to power it. The kit comes with a radio antena mount but no actual antena, so I fitted a brass one from RB models (see in pics below).

The only really difficult part was the exhausts which didn't fit because the main pipe was about 1mm to short to fit into their locating hole, in the end I had to trim a bit off the end of the pipes to make it fit. I also drilled out the (other) ends of the exhausts as they only had a shallow hole. I still need to fill a few gaps around the engine deck & find/3D print some mesh to go over the engine grill.

The turret already has some cast texture but as I had the Mr. Surfacer so out I added a bit more. The front of the turret goes from a round curve to protruding box, it looks like it would have been a separate part IMO so I added a weld seam around it. I also added a handle to the hatch with some wire & some lifting loops to the turret's roof, which would have been a necessary feature as the only was to access the tank's transmission would be to remove the turret.

With that the build is nearly done, just the few bits with then engine deck that I mentioned above & maybe adding some spare tracks or a rolled up tarp as stowage etc. Due to circumstances I wont be able to start painting this build until next month, in the mean time I might start on another TNH/38(t) build. I haven't decided on what yet but it will probably be another obscure prototype or paper proposal.

Frank3k · « **Reply #8 on:** July 16, 2023, 12:11:39 AM »

That looks great! The 38(t) is one of my favorite tank designs, and I've build a couple of non-German whiffs.

The tracks look great, but why didn't you print a length of track together for the bottom run? It may have saved you some pain.

Where did you add the supports on the track links?

Mig Eater · « **Reply #9 on:** July 16, 2023, 12:49:38 AM »

Printing the tracks in sections could be an option but I didn't know how many track links I'd needed until I put them on the tank, so it was easier to make them individual links. For my next TNH/38(t) build I'll probably design & 3D print the whole thing, then I'll know exactly how it will all fit together & can printing the tracks in sections.

Supports on the track links? Do you mean the pins holding them together, that was done with some wire in the same the real tracks are connected.

Frank3k · « **Reply #10 on:** July 16, 2023, 01:01:00 AM »

I meant support the tracks in the slicer.

Mig Eater · « **Reply #11 on:** July 16, 2023, 01:54:01 AM »

Ah, here is a pic.

Claymore · « **Reply #12 on:** July 16, 2023, 05:46:51 PM »

Nice work and a beautiful end result.

Also your patience with the tracks is mightily impressive!

Mig Eater · « **Reply #13 on:** July 16, 2023, 05:54:59 PM »

Thanks, this is only my second time 3D printing tracks (first was for a Panther tank) so I'm still figuring out the best work-flow etc. There are plenty of possible TNH/38(t) projects tho, so I expect I'll be printing more of these in the future

Frank3k · « **Reply #14 on:** July 17, 2023, 02:24:15 AM »

The tracks came out great - did you have to drill out the holes?

Buzzbomb · « **Reply #15 on:** July 17, 2023, 06:52:09 AM »

Very neat.

Also, nice work on the tracks from me as well

Mig Eater · « **Reply #16 on:** July 17, 2023, 06:21:54 PM »

I added holes for the track pins to the 3D model but they are so small that some times they get filled in during the printing, so I have to use a drill to check that every single one was fully open.

Mig Eater · « **Reply #17 on:** September 07, 2023, 09:05:06 PM »

I finally finished doing the last few bits for this build, filling some gaps around the rear of the hull & also 3D printing some mesh to go over the engine grill. With that I can start painting, I've decided on the colours I want to use but I cant make up my mind on the scheme; blotches, squiggles, stripes, splinter etc

Any thoughts?

Old Wombat · « **Reply #18 on:** September 07, 2023, 09:34:02 PM »

I'm something of a fan of this type of scheme:

Mig Eater · « **Reply #19 on:** September 07, 2023, 10:01:45 PM »

Those are the colours I plan to use, as it's a post-war what-if tho I'm thinking I should maybe use a different pattern to differentiate it.

Old Wombat · « **Reply #20 on:** September 07, 2023, 11:48:23 PM »

Post-war the Czechoslovak army still used that type of pattern, just with different colours;

Or went with the standard Soviet green/olive;

Note: These are 1970's patterns and finding photo's of actual vehicles (especially in colour) of the post-war Czechoslovak Army is not easy.

Mig Eater · « **Reply #21 on:** September 08, 2023, 12:15:47 AM »

That T-55 pattern is interesting with the green bands braking up the two other colours, could do something similar to that but with the more vivid pre-war colours.

These photos of the PM-1 Flame tank are the only colour images of an immediate post-war Czech tank that I know of. Bog standard green is a bit boring tho...

Mig Eater · « **Reply #22 on:** September 14, 2023, 12:05:04 AM »

Painting has commenced, black primer with a white pre-shade. Haven't completely decided on the paint scheme yet, I'll apply a green base colour & then see were my airbrush takes me...

Mig Eater · « **Reply #23 on:** September 17, 2023, 08:37:00 PM »

I finally added some colour to the tank, in the end I went with a paint scheme similar to the one used on late/post-war Hetzers/ST-1. I painted highlights on raised parts, small light coloured & rusty paint chips/scratches. The exhausts were painted with several different shades of grey & white, in preparation for some rust washes later. Decals were added from an Archer set for Czech T-34 tanks, this was my first time using dry transfers & it was a bit tricky to get them positioned correctly. Everything was then sealed with some gloss varnish in preparation for the next step of filters & washes.

I also painted the wheels & sprockets to match the hull. The tracks were also paint with a dark brown primer & then mottled with several dark grey colours.

Old Wombat · « **Reply #24 on:** September 17, 2023, 09:44:43 PM »

Buzzbomb · « **Reply #25 on:** September 18, 2023, 08:56:31 AM »

I like that .. very nice scheme

Mig Eater · « **Reply #26 on:** September 21, 2023, 03:54:37 AM »

So a bit of a disaster! At the beginning of the build when I was cleaning up the resin parts I damaged two of the wheels & to fix it I 3D printed some replacements. Well just as I'm finishing the last bit of weathering on the build I noticed that the wheels I printed are a different size to the rest of the wheels that came with the kit. The ones I printed were for the Panzer 38(t) but the wheels that came with the kit are the larger ones for the Hetzer. So not only did the kit incorrectly come with Hezter tracks it also has Hetzer wheels

I cant be bothered to print & paint a whole new set of wheels so I'm just going to replace the two Panzer 38(t) wheels with new Hetzer wheels, so they will at least all match.

Edit: I checked the TNH 57/900 diagram & the wheel size is the same as the Hetzer (82cm). It's using the smaller Panzer 38(t) tracks & sprockets tho, which made me presume the wheels were the smaller Panzer 38(t) ones too. Well that teaches me that I need to double check every part of a kit before I start printing replacement parts.

Old Wombat · « **Reply #27 on:** September 21, 2023, 05:50:31 PM »

Yes! Absolutely!

... And as I have no clue how to do what you do ...

Mig Eater · « **Reply #28 on:** September 26, 2023, 11:06:29 PM »

After a last minute setback I finally finished this little tank. It was a fun & simple build that allowed my to try out several new tools & techniques. This is also my first Panzer 38 tank build, it will soon to be joined by several more tho...