PzKpfw I Ausf.A ohne Aufbau ~ Tristar

[Jamie Tainton]

I am going to build the German tanks that are available in the order that they showed up all those years ago. I have always had an interest in how the development of tanks progressed.- I will be using the Peter Chamberlain Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two as a guide to the order of these developments.
Bk-Ency-German-Tanks.jpg
I would like to start with the very first ones from WWI but I will wait till better kits become available
The first one mention under Panzerkampfwagen I and variants is the Panzerkampwagen I Ausf A ohne Aufbau. The other designation was Krupp Traktor LaS.
15 0f these were produced from February to April 1934.
The chassis Nos. were 8011-9000 and the manufactures were, Henschel, MAN, Daimler-Benz, Rheinmetal-Borsig and Krupp- Grusson.

I will add to this as I find some time.

I will be using the kit from Tristar for this build- Number 025 in their catalog. I will also be adding as much aftermarket as I feel necessary as well.
coverPz.IAohneAufbau.jpg

[Dario Risso]

Nice idea!!! I have the same intention too months ago, but I quit, because I like to jump from 1939 to 1945 with panzers
Those vehicles was used as trainers ? Why the "teacher" is seated on the fender? It has not a second seat?
Wainting for updates

Darío

[Rudi Richardson]

Sounds like an interesting project, Jamie. I'm looking forward to following your progress

[Jamie Tainton]

Okay, well I was able to actually find the time and the head space to do a little modelling today. Going by the instructions I start by looking at and then cutting from the sprue tree, the parts needed to build up the transmission and other parts in the first step. But before I get to far I see some modifications are needed to the side parts that make up the two sides of the hull tub. Looking at the instructions that come with the Aber fenders I need to remove some of the upper molded on detail, which will be replaced by the PE items. Careful employment of an X-Acto, Single sided razor blade, and sanding tools results in the required adjustment.
Here is a scan of the first page to show you what's required.


some shots of the parts on the tree.










Here you can see in this drawing that comes with the Aber set where you have to shave off some of the molded on fender mounting details


one side started. In the pic you can see some plugs on the bottom edge of the side piece. These need to be very carefully shaved off. You can't just move them back and forth and break them off as this will result in damage to the front plane of the part.


one side completed




and the result of some careful shaving, two done showing inside and outside views


the Aber fender PE set

[Jamie Tainton]

Hello again time to update what is happening regarding this project. Over the last week or so I have been going through all the E-bay photos on my hard drive hoping to catalouge all the ones that pertain to this trainer vehicle. I will post those once I have gone through all of the collection, which is a pretty big haystack to be looking for the few needles that are hidden there!

While fiddling with the clean up of some of the transmission parts, which was fairly laborious due to very prominent mold seams and some slight misalignment, I had an inspirational thought about including the developmental history of the transmission, and all other aspects of the tank, in my build log. I want this website not to be so much about slap happy back slapping or polly anna "friendliness" but rather to be more about serious investigation and replication of factual data on tanks. To this end I hope my builds will be a bit "deeper" in all the aspects of each particular vehicle that one typically sees in other websites blogs. I'm in no rush

So for now here is a photo essay that I took of the transmission for Panzer I/A's that was at the Munster tank museum last time I was there. I hope it may be of use to any that are planning on detailing the piece of machinery. I know these pics will help me in my now planned upgrade using the Aber catalogue number: 35120 Pz.Kpfw. I, Ausf.A (Sd.Kfz. 101) interior Vol.3 additional set.
Click this url for a pdf of the instruction sheet
http://tinyurl.com/yaxqdpy

[Jamie Tainton]

Now for the photographs. The images are 1272 pixels wide so if you seem to have a cut off picture try widening your browser window as the sites software has a pretty hefty default right hand side margin.

[Jamie Tainton]

Here are some shots showing the Tristar transmission. A pretty good effort at detail although some of the molding was flawed - the parts needing a fair amount of care and attention to cleanup the seam lines.






After working with the Tristar parts my mind clicked on the long forgotten memory of an interior set put out years ago that I bought for the Tristar Panzer I/A. I pulled the custom made wooden box I had made to store it and take a look at what's inside!
I got a carpenter at work to whip up a little storage box for my Aber Interior Set. The plastic/cardboard box arrangement that it came in just didn't do it for me. I gave it a coat of 1 Hour Varnish.


























a shot showing an over view of the Aber resin castings and then a couple close ups to show the detail as an example






These parts are definitely more accurate and detailed than the Tristar parts.

[Laurent Moitrot]

they don't look like exactly the same thing do they ?

[Zsolt Marvany]

James, that Aber set seems to be quite detailed... you are a brave man with lots of time and patience, I think!

[Jamie Tainton]

Here is a few pics which will have to speak for themselves for now- I will edit and rewrite later- just want to get some progress shots up.

(Edit: added some captions to these photos)
The first 9 photos show the diminutive size of some of the PE parts. Crazy small! :o I use an X-acto knife blade to cut the parts from the tree and then use the Hold & Fold as a vise to trim and/or file the attachment nubs off.


















This pic shows the U shaped joint threaded through the part seen above into a hole drilled into the upper side portion of the transmission. It is a part of the linkage. This is mirrored on both sides. The hole is kinda guessed at as the Aber part has no clear indication of where it is exactly supposed to be. I deliberately have to go slow with all these linkage parts and the way the fit with each other and this solid piece of resin. I have had to make many after finding things did not line up after these pics were taken. :? This is very slow going! I hope it'll be worth it.
As you can see in the following pics there is another part at the front of the depression on the left which some wire will be threaded through . This rod will sit just before this U shaped part. The U shaped part also has a three fingered part that will hook up with other parts of the linkage. I am only doing one side at a time so any mistakes won't need to be corrected twice.












What you see here is some stretched sprue threaded through the U part and the 3-finger part. The ends are melted into nubs on either end with a piece of lit incense, thus securing the 3-finger part betwixt the U shaped one.










These are the tiny resin parts that attach to the inside faces on the upper aspect of the transmission. Not sure what they are for. I ended up having to take these off trim the inside faces of the parts further that seen here. I then drilled a hole in the middle and a hole in the bigger part. A pin was then used to create a stronger attachment point.




Here some of the components thus far. And yes changes were made after this pic was taken!