16t Panzer "Laupen"

[Mig Eater]

After making the Czech TNH 57/900 I'm still in the mood for some obscure TNH/38(t) designs & came across this while looking for ideas/references.

The 16T Panzer "Laupen" was a 1950's Swiss project to design a new light tank based on the Hetzer/G-13 hull. The upper hull was redesigned & fitted with a cast turret equipped with a 90mm gun, the engine was also replaced with a more powerful diesel powerplant. Development of tank didn't get very far & the Swiss decided to buy the AMX-13 from France instead.

 

There are no model kits of this very obscure tank available so I'll being designing & 3D printing the whole thing. I've started with making the basic shapes for the hull & turret, I'll work on getting the basic suspension & wheel parts done next. Then its adding all the smaller details, some of which I'll have to be a bit creative with as the blueprints doesn't have much detail.   

[Frank3k]

Cool design! It looks like they switched the driver's position.

[robunos]

I'll work on getting the basic suspension & wheel parts done next.

Looking at the blueprint, they appear to be the same as used on the Hetzer, so you may be able to use kit parts, or find an .stl file to use . . .


cheers,
Robin.

[Mig Eater]

Yes they copied the Hetzer's running gear for this design. I already have 3D models of the TNH/38(t) suspension/wheels/sprockets, I just need the Hetzer specific mounts for them. It would be a bit of a waste IMO to use up a Hetzer kit for only those a few parts, so I'll just make them myself    

[Claymore]

Looking good so far and I appreciate how troublesome designing can be especially when the plans you have are vague and contradicting - I note that the plan view (bottom left) does not accurately depict what is going on with the sides of the upper hull and contradicts the other cut-away plan view. 😕

Good luck and I look forward to the final completed model. 👍

What design program are you using by the way?  I really must get myself into 3D printing one of these days! 🤔

[Mig Eater]

Yeah the top view doesn't completely match the side & front views where there is a difference I'm going with the side & front.

I'm using 3DS Max, it's not free & can be difficult for beginners. If you are interested in 3D modelling then I'd recommend trying Blender or Fusion 360, both are free(ish) & have lots of tutorials available online.   

[Claymore]

Thanks mate, much appreciated. 

[Mig Eater]

I'm making some progress with the Laupen's 3D model

I made the suspension mounts, I used the Hezter as the main reference but because the Laupen's rear hull is a different shape from the Hetzer I had to modify the design of the rear idle mounts to make them fit. I already had the wheels & sprockets from a previous project & I found a 3D model of the Hetzer's tracks online, so it didn't take that long to finish the running gear in the end. I also hollowed out the hull, added a base for the turret ring & scribed some panel lines/weld seams on the top of the hull.

There are a few more panel lines to add to the hull & then I'll probably work on sculpting the machine gun ports & cupola on the turret.

[Claymore]

Lookin’ good! 

[Buzzbomb]

Finding the hull shape to be rather interesting on this.

So will this be a full 3D construction then a deconstruct to print and perhaps build ?

[Mig Eater]

Normally when 3D printing a tank I'd design & print it in parts (Here is a Mauschen I designed a few years ago) but as this is a small tank I'm going to try & print the hull as one part, along with the turret, wheels/sprockets & tracks as separate parts.

[Mig Eater]

I've finished the working on the major parts of the turret & hollowed it out. I hate making complex curved parts like this & I'm not 100% happy with how it turned out, After I've printed the parts I'll probably add a bit of putty around the machine gun ports & main gun mount & sculpt it a bit to smooth out the transitions into the main turret surface. I also made the main gun, I though about making the barrel movable but I'm feeling lazy so the barrel/mantle will just slot into a hole in the front of the turret. For the cupola the diagram shows the layout of the view ports but not the hatch mechanism, I decided to make something similar to the Panther tank's cupola hatch as the view port layout reminding me of the Panther I still need to add a hatch on the rear of the turret, a view port for the driver & the fenders to the front & rear. After that the largest part left is engine deck, which is blank in the diagram so I'll have to take my best guess to fill it in.

PS: Finally added some proper lighting & shadows to the model

[Mig Eater]

Work on the 3D model is nearing completion, I added the fenders, view port & hatch for the driver, crew hatch to the rear of the turret & detailed the engine deck with hatches, cooling grill & exhausts. I also redid gun mount on the front of the turret so it blends into the turret's shape a lot better now.


I could start printing the parts but I feel like there is something missing from the tank, then again sometimes you need to know when to stop on a project like this Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Mig Eater]

Well turns out there was a lot missing from the tank after all

• Side skirts (I'm going to scratch build them from metal sheet but added them to the 3D model anyway)
• Loaders view port (so he can fire the machine gun!)
• Radio antenna
• Smoke grenade launchers
• Turret lifting points
• Headlamps
• Brake lights
• Tool box
• Fuel cap
• Spare tracks

After looking at photos of the Swiss Panzer 58/61 tank I decided to change the driver & cupola hatches to a split hinge design too. I'm now happy with the design but before I can start printing the parts I need to organize the model a bit & also add some locating holes/pegs to a few parts to make it easier to put together after printing.

[Claymore]

 Very impressive! 

[Buzzbomb]

Very good work on the design.
There is a lot in that design that really works well.
Not quite so sure about the rear facing MG as that, to me, looks a bit anachronistic on a tank in this timeline.

[Mig Eater]

Yeah I'm not sure what the Swiss were thinking with the rear machine gun, the commander is going to have the machine gun's handle poking him in the back all the time. But it does give the tank a unique look tho

[Mig Eater]

Here is a breakdown of the tank into its separate parts. There are a total of 38 stl files but I need to print multiple copies of most of them, a rough count comes to 75 parts for the tank & another 615 parts for the tracks!

I've started printing the main hull which will take about 10 hours, so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post some photos of the physical model instead of just 3D renders.

[Frank3k]

The 16t looks great! I’d like to see your supports and settings for the successful prints. Assuming this is a resin print, are you going to split the hull or just print it as a single part?

[Mig Eater]

I printed the hull as one part in resin, here is a pic of the supports I used. I probably added way to many but after a few failed prints in the past I prefer to err on the side of caution As for the settings I'm not sure as I set it up when I got the printer years ago & haven't needed to changed them since.

[Frank3k]

Are you using Lychee? Do you have drain holes? It looks like you're doing to be trapping some resin near the top.

[Mig Eater]

Yes I'm using Lychee, the entire hull is hollow & the turret ring is a giant drainage hole The print is done now & it came out really well, just need to sand down the areas where the supports were.

[Mig Eater]

I've finished printing the parts (except for the tracks), everything printed first time without any issues, which I think is a first for me normally at least one thing fails during printing or something brakes when removing the supports I still need to sand down the nubs leftover from the printing supports, I'll probably need to sand the locating holes/pegs a bit to get some parts to fit too, after that it should be pretty quick job to put it all together.

The lighting were I am at the moment sucks & the white colour of resin isn't helping with photography. It's hard to see but  all the small details on the engine deck & wheels etc printed fine, some paint & a wash will make them a lot clearer.

[Claymore]

Awesome!! 

[Old Wombat]

It's all Black Magic, to me!