Thank you, Gentlemen!

The mufflers are done:



And a test fit:



This is the final, symmetrical configuration for the MB517 engine, for the gasoline powered MB509 these mufflers were longer by one third, then just the port one was cut down when the MB509 was converted to Diesel.

Fantastic Job!! What's next along this build?

The cooling system.
As previously mentioned, there were three engine configurations on the Maus V2. As it came from the factory and identical with the other prototype, the V1, the generator was driven by a Daimler-Benz MB 509 gasoline engine, a modified DB 603 aviation engine. This was then converted to Diesel fuel. And finally they changed the engine to a Daimler-Benz MB 517, also Diesel powered.
I made a quick sketch of the cooling compartments as viewed from above to try and explain.
The initial cooling arrangement (for the gasoline powered MB509) was mirrored, both sides being "A". When they switched the fuel to Diesel it was "A" plus "B", just like in the drawing, and finally, with the MB517, it was "B" on both sides. The freed up space at the front was used by enlarged fuel tanks.
"A" had its two oil radiators and one engine radiator plus a smaller radiator parallel with the engine, cooled by coupled fans driven by the motor. In "B" the cooling compartment decreases in size, there is an enlarged oil tank at the rear that is perpendicular, while the engine radiator slightly increases in size and has only one fan. What needs to be built is two mirrored "B" compartments with the afferent ducting.

Very impressive! Thank you for the explanation!

Thank you, trying to make this as informative and fun as possible, a guided tour of sorts for something that otherwise could not be seen.

Dry fit test for the enlarged oil tanks specific to the MB517 engine. The parts need to be painted and completed with brass filler caps, a large one in the middle and two smaller ones to the sides.

Nice update. One of my favorite builds going on right now on the interwebs,
J

Great work. The attention to detail is fantastic. What are your sources for all of these dimensions?

Wow just a fantastic job Florin!

@ Jrutman: Thank you, Sire, this really means a lot to me!

@ pimpdogbert: Thank you for the kind words, but this was the super-easy part. Will post the finished radiators sometime next week and then the real work begins...

@ HistoricArmor_97: There are few factory drawings, some even have the dimensions on them. And due to the particular interest by the soviets we have beautiful schematics from them as well, dimensions included. Scaling down to 1/35th is elementary. And there are pictures. First stage would be to carefully study everything available on the area of interest. Then sketch the parts and finally build them.
The oil tanks for example: there are no line drawings published for the final configuration, only the pictures taken by the soviets of the blown-up V2 hull. You can see the length is from frame to frame, that would be 1.8 cm in 1/35th. Width is the same as that of the radiator in front of it - 6 mm. Height was judged from factory drawings of the previous configuration ("A" in the sketch above). In the original layout there was a radiator in place of the oil tank and under it was the mechanism that drove the ventilators. This mechanism is present in the final configuration as well, so height was judged to be 1.1 cm. Height may be questionable and will change it if provided with something solid, but the other two dimensions are good.
It is possible that original drawings exist for this final configuration, the modifications to the engine were made at Böblingen and the documents concerning the Maus ended up in English hands (see facsimile of French document at page 4 of this blog). These documents, thought to be lost for so many years, were found earlier this year by Russian author Yurii Pasholok in the Bovington Tank Museum Archives. Would really like to see their contents!

Two radiators, one for each side, in a final stage of completion.

Good to see your back at it .

Would love to see it complete, so better get to work. Thus far simple things were built, but from now on the real work starts with tricky, complex parts. Wish me luck!

Luck!

Cheers Rob.

Good luck sir! Keep it up!

A test fit of the radiators has shown that the vertical brace was in the way of the radiator that sat on the very edge. A study the photographic resources provided the confirmation that it was indeed removed in the final configuration. In its original configuration this brace had a double purpose: support for the engine deck and it also served as a partition between the radiators. The presence of those braces on the model was not useless after all as after removal marks remained, similar to the welds on the prototype.
The empty space needs to be filled with a small radiator, that is yet to be fabricated.

slow but sure !

Forgive me Sire, had a really busy week! And going through all the references is not what is used to be, there is now a good section of bookcase dedicated to the Maus (have everything that was published except a book in Japanese and Waffen Revue numbers 16 to 20), as opposed to a couple of magazine articles, the Panzer tracts book and some pictures from the Internet when this build began...

Are there that many pictures and diagrams of the Maus out there? I always thought there were a few of them and thats what made the mystique of the Maus grow.

Reprints of the Waffen revue here
http://www.dwjmedien.de/Waffen-Revue

@pimpdogbert: There are not that many pictures. The German pictures you probably know most if not all of them. The pictures the soviets took of both the prototypes in their blown up state after the war are hard to find but well worth the effort. And they were very interested in the Maus, measured it and documented their finds, diagrams included. Part of these was published in Russian books and magazine articles. But who knows what is still out there, in the archives?

@maartenboersma: Thank you so very much, link bookmarked. Will order them ASAP, hope they ship to Romania...

The smaller radiators, work in progress, need to add the sides from sheet styrene.

With the rough shapes done, it's time for a test to see how things fit, and it looks like everything goes together nicely.

The coolers are lookin good man !
J

Those things are rough, unrefined, Sire. The parts were put together to see how they fit. Everything is as it should be, so the next step would be to give them a polished, finished look. The gap to the rear will be filled with an exhaust pipe right where that chamfer is, and with the gear that drives the fan located behind the radiators.

Oil tanks done.