DAF M39 PanTraDo

October 27 2022

A new print, with a couple of improvement in the main structure, and again all visors, hatches and doors cut out. It's getting a complete museum of M39's by now. Even one in 1:144th scale....

October 15 2022

The front an rear glacis is too steep for the printer to make a smooth plate, so with ca glue an outer plate added. Now an update of the build gallery and on with the next step.

September 30 2022

My solid printed hull is a good tracing for 0.5 mm plates. Maybe I can beter cut it from card... But that is a lot of work! Eelke provided me with hull measurements and my filament printer knows a neat trick. It's able to print only the outline, so I get a paperthin hul. And a whole new field opens. It's roughly the exact material thickness in scale. That provides me with the possibility to cut out all the hatches openings and doors, so we can try to figure out how the internal fittings would have been.

September 18 2022

And september 18 is a very happy day. Finally meeting my fellow enthousiast in the M39 field, Eelke Warrink, since a very long time in real life. A scoop for me: he brings his 3d printed tower! See his report, on his project to print a complete vehicle in 3D.

September 13 2022

The trado axless het their springs and the wire holding them in is flexible so they are movable. Hope the wire is strong enoug. It's a heavy modell.

July 25 2022

July 18th sees a new fresh swing at the TraDo and the wheels. A cone for the tower to get a feel of the dimensions. It's stil a long journey to a correct tower. The Trado axle is 3d printed also. In fact, it are 2 different ones to fit the holes of the MR-models ande the Scale-line wheels. The scale-line axle has the leave springs under the axle, but they are on the hull behind the axle. The original scale-line wheels are cleaned of all extra detail on the cheeks, but I could not get me to cut of the super fine writing. The get the re-enforcements of the original wheels, as seen in early pictures. A new puzzle with the cone and some pictures and drawings gives a better form for the next version of the tower.

March 26 2022

I fixed a 3d file of a M39 I found years ago. It turned out to be 1:91 scale(the white one), and I rescaled it to 1:72(the first green one). That is easy. But the 3d artist had made it fixed in one part. I chopped every thing in parts and fixed the front suspention. Now I have a crude M39 in small scale. To get grip on the differences in modells and drawings I printed the hull in 35th. The production vehicles have 2 horns in a round shape, drawing them is not hard, printing them in filament impossible. The sanding on the tower hole got done besides that. It's getting into a family!

February 16 2022

The second hull is even more croocked than the first. and the tower has a smart design feature. On the left side the armor has a indentation that lets out the water (Holland is green, and so, has a lot of rain.) The tower hole is to narrow. With a cutting compass a line is scribled into the resin top deck, beyond the original low point of the tower hole. a sheet of plastic in and filler, and sanding again.

February 12 2022

The fixing of the cracks in the rear fenders was getting a hasle, and by placing them higher the where to short. So my 3d skills and 3d printer gave me a straight fender.

January 11 2022

The MR-wheels have one set back. The writing on them is way to big, and I cannot find one picture showing a single letter on a tyre, so, of with them. The hull has lost it's prototype horn and the rear fender alligns with the weld rim.

January 7 2022

And as you probably know, sanding resin is not adviced. The fibers are reported to having the same effect as asbest. Wet sanding is the only way, and that makes another great find! The filler that makes a lot of fine powder and a britle finish is ransformed into a dense smooth surface by the water.

January 4 2022

First action to get these resin bricks to look more like their part. So off with the fender (that is only 1,5 mm to low), but optically it has to align with the weld of upper and underside of the hull. Scribbing in the seam of the fenders. Making one break into 3 parts. Next leveling the bottom and sides. Simple adding a sheet of plastic and thin car putty.

December 25 2021

It's getting more complicated. The support wheels of the vacu and the resin are very different in spacing, and the tower of the vacu is way bigger. The hatch is also in reverse on the vavu-formed. The armoured headlights are aligned over the support wheels on one of the original design drawings. But even the prototype has the headlights shifted inwards. Roughly the outside over the middle op the support wheels. The front hatch and periscope on the scale-line are visable wrong here. far So both the vacu and the scale-line are incorrect.

December 9 2021

First evaluation of drawings, pictures and available modells spells out: Mayor project, mayor headache. The wheels where the main reason I put my vacu formed Airpress / Schmidt model on the shelf in the 90's. The wheels of MR models have the right tread, and they'r sendd to me for free! Magnificent! My own wheel from the 90's has the wrong thread, the airpress wheel has 6 wheelnuts. The bottom of the vacu next tot the resin makes me wonder about the form of the hull.

November 21 2021

A second M39. I already had an unbuild that I have put back in it's box several times. Together with a M38 Landsverk. Both are build and from the Scale Line label. I promised the Dutch Cavalery collection in Amersfoort to correct them and lend them to them. With 2 specimens, a Dutch May 1940 version and a German in 227th Infantery Division livrey makes sense. But what is that half Opel Blitz axle doing at it's bottom?