The Brummbär begins.

First off, a little of the back story.

This build is intended from the beginning to be a PAV (paintball armored vehicle) for use in paintball/airsoft games. It is intended to have a minimum crew of 2, though I am trying my best to cram three in the thing.

The Brummbär was selected as the model for this build for several reasons. First of all, construction is pretty straight forward and in line with my skill level. Second, it has a very high profile (unlike the Hetzer) making it easier it fit in the thing. Third, it has a big gun. What I mean by that is the original had a 150mm main gun with a short barrel. This gives me a lot of options for designing a scale version. And fourth, it is casemate (turretless) design. Though not having a turret will be a slight hindrance on the paintball field, it is safer without one. I have several ideas to make a turreted design safer, but that will have to wait for future projects.

This project will progress a little differently than the last one. The first items on the "to do" list is suspension, drive sprockets, road wheels, rear idlers, return rollers and tracks. After all of that is done, I will then start tackling the frame/hull and what not. Since this project will be much heavier than the Hetzer project, it is important to have all the suspension and tracks ready to put on the hull as soon as it is done so the lower hull can be moved around. How heavy do you ask? It is my goal to keep the finished tank under 5000 lbs.

I have had a couple days so far working on the Brummbär. So far, it is not very exciting. Just cutting up the little pieces that will get put together for the suspension. Progess has been slow as I am still learning how to effectively use my plasma cutter. I also had an issue with my circle cutting jig not fitting the torch of my plasma cutter. Everything was correct, except for some reason the diameter of my torch head was about 1mm too big. Just enough to keep it from sliding into the jig like is suppose to. I fixed that problem by carefully sanding the torch head.

First picture is some of the small pieces I chopped up last week.

The next is of some discs that I cut out. These ultimately will become the road wheels. 20 down, 16 to go. 

One other item of note: I have started a video log for the project. It can be seen on YouTube here:

Brummbär Progress Video Log 04-12-14

First video I have taken with my phone. Audio went in and out a little. I will try and correct that in future videos.