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Armor/AFV: Axis - WWII
Armor and ground forces of the Axis forces during World War II.
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Meng KT armour thickness accuracy?
TKmodelmaking
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Friesland, Netherlands
Joined: September 03, 2020
KitMaker: 7 posts
Armorama: 7 posts
Posted: Wednesday, September 02, 2020 - 07:33 PM UTC
hey all,

I've been planning out a project with the meng king tiger (TS-031), interior set and extra detailing stuff.

These will be used to make a cutaway model so its rather important that all the armour is to scale as well.
However, I am not entirely sure whether or not the armour thickness on the kit is accurately scaled.

can anyone tell me if it is accurately scaled or not?

cheers
18Bravo
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Colorado, United States
Joined: January 20, 2005
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Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 12:23 AM UTC
You bring up a very valid point. I had thought about mentioning this in the current What to do with an interior kit? thread.

Take a T-55 with interior kit. There's no way the interior components are completely accurate in their placement as the armor thickness affects the "shelf" around the base of the turret on the inside. A cutaway only exacerbates the problem, showing how thin the kit armor is compared to the real thing, I've been waiting a long time to see someone replicate this with putty. If it's out there, I have not seen it.
HeavyArty
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Florida, United States
Joined: May 16, 2002
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Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 12:30 AM UTC
I don't know. I bet the 1/35 plastic thickness is usually thicker in scale than the actual armor thickness.

Here is a cut-away T-55. It doesn't look like a 1/35 cut-away model would be too far off.

18Bravo
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Colorado, United States
Joined: January 20, 2005
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Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 12:36 AM UTC
Funny. It's exactly that cutaway tank I thought about when I typed my response. That side armor on the turret (especially down near the bottom by the shelf I alluded to) certainly looks thicker than kit armor to me. And I"d bet my right salty that the armor around the driver's hatch is not that thick on the Takom kits. The frontal turret armor would have to be 5.8mm thick to be correctly scaled.
grunt136mike
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Florida, United States
Joined: November 24, 2012
KitMaker: 1,896 posts
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Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 08:00 AM UTC
Hi;

The Kit Manufacturer's really Don't take into account the Scale thickness of the makeup of parts ! esp;) like the Turret's ! There really is no call on this because it is not A selling point when A kit is made. The only Maker that even mite consider this feature would be Miniart !
Now for Aircraft that mite be of Interest as Tamiya offered this on some of there kits.

CHEERS; MIKE.
TKmodelmaking
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Friesland, Netherlands
Joined: September 03, 2020
KitMaker: 7 posts
Armorama: 7 posts
Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 08:10 AM UTC
Yeah its a real shame but understandable seeing how relatively little models will be used for cutaways.

I think Takom has KT interior kits with scale thickness armour but my dumb brain decided it would be a great idea to buy the kits and PE first and do some research afterwards this time around

Looks like I might have to get the Takom one and PE afterall, which would be a shame as the Meng interior looks a lot more detailed.
sam_dwyer
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Victoria, Australia
Joined: November 03, 2008
KitMaker: 294 posts
Armorama: 291 posts
Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 10:02 AM UTC
Meng did a good job of getting the armour thickness right.

Heres one i prepared earlier:

https://photos.kitmaker.net/showphoto.php?photo=480775&cat=500

https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=shelfqueenmodels&set=a.1352686184923713
hugoalejandro
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Buenos Aires, Argentina
Joined: June 09, 2020
KitMaker: 23 posts
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Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 11:09 AM UTC
There's no need to make educated guesses nowadays.
You can do the math to check if your cutaway is accurate enough for your preferences.
Measurements in mm


So, for example, 80mm in 1:35 are equal to 2.2857mm
That should be the thickness of the turret and hull sides...

And a cutaway of the real thing
Bozothenutter
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Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Joined: December 06, 2017
KitMaker: 48 posts
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Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 09:26 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Yeah its a real shame but understandable seeing how relatively little models will be used for cutaways.

I think Takom has KT interior kits with scale thickness armour but my dumb brain decided it would be a great idea to buy the kits and PE first and do some research afterwards this time around

Looks like I might have to get the Takom one and PE afterall, which would be a shame as the Meng interior looks a lot more detailed.


I actually bought a Meng interior set for my Takom.
I am mixing and matching whiver part looks better.
beware though that the firewall for example is overscale.
I read the real one was 8mm, which translates to 0.23mm in 1/35!
0.25 styrene sheet is VERY flimsy!
Removed by original poster on 09/04/20 - 13:32:21 (GMT).
TKmodelmaking
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Friesland, Netherlands
Joined: September 03, 2020
KitMaker: 7 posts
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Posted: Friday, September 04, 2020 - 01:33 AM UTC

Quoted Text



Was only just now able to bust out the ruler and measure the thickness.

It seems like you are right, the kit thickness on the side armour is about 2mm where to be 100% accurate it would have to be around 2,2 or 2,3mm thick.

So certainly close enough to be convincing.
Ringleheim
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Florida, United States
Joined: September 04, 2009
KitMaker: 184 posts
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Posted: Friday, September 04, 2020 - 05:25 AM UTC

Quoted Text

hey all,

I've been planning out a project with the meng king tiger (TS-031), interior set and extra detailing stuff.

These will be used to make a cutaway model so its rather important that all the armour is to scale as well.
However, I am not entirely sure whether or not the armour thickness on the kit is accurately scaled.

can anyone tell me if it is accurately scaled or not?

cheers


The thicknesses aren't going to be exactly to scale, but I would suggest it doesn't matter.

Worrying about a couple tenths of a MM is silly.

You aren't designing a real tank, so don't think like an engineer.

You are making a scale replica of a tank, so think like an artist.

As long as the thicknesses don't look "wrong" to the naked eye at a glance, you're fine.

I have built 2 Meng King Tigers; I think you'll be good to go.

 _GOTOTOP