Tatra 103 engine and Sdkfz 234 engine compartment

[Torben Nielsen]

At the beginning I thought it would be easy to build a copy of the Tatra 103 diesel engine, but as time passed on I painfully learned, that every new discovery, each new picture, each answer to the question - just lead to a new question, the need for a new picture at another angle, and it just kept going on and on. The reason for starting this blog is to keep myself on the track. It will not be a quick build as I have a lot of other things in my life to care for.

As far as I know there are 3 surviving engines on display (there may be other, but these are the ones I know about) one is in Munster, Germany, one in Falaise, France and finally one is at Bovington (UK). Besides these there are engines installed in the sdkfz 234/3 at Bovington and the 234/4 at the Patton Museum at Fort Knox. The Sdkfz 234/4 at Munster has an empty engine compartment and this vehicle will provide the base for the engine bay construction.

Since I havent actually seen the Tatra 103 myself, I have relied on other people to help me supply pictures and sometimes even measurements. Therefore I would like to thank the following.
Chris Garsky, Andreas Weichmann and Thomas Hartwig for pictures from Munster. Bruno Collin for pictures from Falaise, Larry Bloodgood and Carl Althaus for pictures from Fort Knox and finally, Keith, the guy who supplied a series of unique pictures from Bovington, but I lost both his last name and any contact with him - sorry.

Now, on to the project. The base for the project is of course Dragons Sd.Kfz 234/4. This kit provide a really good start, but there is always room for improvements. The pictures show the rear of the engine (Falaise engine) and the empty compartment of the Munster vehicle.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture02.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture01.jpg

[James Tainton]

Cool subject- are you going to scratch an engine? I have some pics of the engine at Munster if you need any more data,

[Larry Bates]

Oh Torben,

YOu're my hero. I've been wanting to add an engine to one of my 234's, and have been waiting for one from R&J, but have not seen one yet as I'm sure they have run into the same problems as you. I will be watching closely.

Laz

[james84]

Really interesting!

[Torben Nielsen]

Before I can start the work on the engine itself, I have to prepare the engine compartment, and the wall seperating it from the crew area. This wall in particular, lacks a lot of detail. I started out by rebuilding Dragons own part E30. This included some 6 rivets, some panel details and cutting off the quarter circular hatch in the center of the wall (to show a little more of the engine when it at some point in time will be in place). I also cut the opening for, what I believe to be, the crew compartment (warm) air intake.

The two handles in the middle of the picture are used to open and close the armored covers for the air intake on top of the engine compartment.

The manual fuel pump and the switch to shift between fuel tanks are undergoing so extra details and are not seen in the pictures.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture03.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture04.jpg

BUT, after having had a second look at the result, I have decided to rework it completely and build a completely new wall.
I am sorry for the slow progress, but the time I have left at the end of the day to build models is very limited.

[MikkoH]

I am sorry for the slow progress, but the time I have left at the end of the day to build models is very limited.

I know the situation. Having two little children I have noticed that only time I have to model is at night after everyone went asleep.

Nice progress btw.:)

[James Tainton]

Here are those pics I took at Munster. You can click on this pic to get a higher res one.
http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---44-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---44.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---45-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---45.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---46-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---46.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---47-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---47.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---48-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---48.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---49-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---49.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---50-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---50.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---51-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---51.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---52-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---52.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---53-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---53.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---54-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---54.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---55-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---55.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---56-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---56.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---57-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---57.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---58-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---58.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---59-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---59.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---60-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---60.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---61-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---61.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---62-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---62.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---63-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---63.jpg)

[James Tainton]

Part 2
http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---64-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---64.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---65-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---65.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---66-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---66.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---67-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---67.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---68-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---68.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---69-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---69.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---70-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---70.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---71-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---71.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---72-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---72.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---73-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---73.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---74-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---74.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---75-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---75.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---76-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---76.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---77-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---77.jpg)

http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---78-copy.jpg (https://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/234_engine/web/234---78.jpg)

[Torben Nielsen]

Finally back again!
Before I do anything else, I would like to thank James for posting his pictures of the Munster Tatra engine. Though I have a 9 cm tall pile of pictures of both the vehicles and engines, there are still pictures that can be usefull, and James pictures are just that! Speaking of the Munster engine, I am not so sure it is all original. Many of the components has a shield that says "imported from germany" - in french!. However, the underside of the engine has cast letters that says Tatra 103, so some of it must be original :)

As I mentioned in the beginning, this is a very slow build. Since last time, I spend a lot of time redoing the wall between the crew compartment and the engine bay, mainly becourse I wasnt satisfied with my first effort, but also because I had made some mistakes. The air intake is actually located too high in Dragons kit, so I made a new wall, and lowered the intake a few mm.
The quarter circular expection hatch is also too small in the kit. As with the first attempt, I removed this hatch once again. The "control panel" for the fuel system is not ready yet.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture11.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture10.jpg

The next thing is the fuel tanks. they where actually build long time ago, but I glued them in place with white glue, to make sure that the parts for the steering mechanism will fit. These parts are hard to make, due to my 10 thumbs :mad: I am not 100 % sure abouth the lenght of the fuel tanks, so they may have to be reworked when the engine is ready for installation.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture06.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture07.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture09.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/Picture08.jpg

This will be all for now! comments are welcome.

[RickLawler]

Gosh, I really enjoy watching this type of building....nice scratching.

nice collection of pictures James...thanks.

[tamiya0603]

thanks for the pictures, james. i was just going to build one on my famo. now i can start this project again.

[Larry Bates]

Nice work Torben,

Great pics James.

Laz

[James Tainton]

thanks for the pictures, james. i was just going to build one on my famo. now i can start this project again.
Glad you like them guys but Ying, I'm confused - Famos, (Schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t / Sd.Kfz.9, for the hyper anal retentive types, you know who you are ;),) used Maybach HL 108 TUKRM engines, same ones as used in Panzer III's, not this Tatra 103 one I took pictures of???:confused:

[tamiya0603]

Glad you like them guys but Ying, I'm confused - Famos, (Schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t / Sd.Kfz.9, for the hyper anal retentive types, you know who you are ;),) used Maybach HL 108 TUKRM engines, same ones as used in Panzer III's, not this Tatra 103 one I took pictures of???:confused:

there are two pictures of this kind from Nuts&bolts vol.12. some famos are fitted with tatra 103 engine by companies such as Vomag, Plauen and Ringhoffer tatra.

[James Tainton]

there are two pictures of this kind from Nuts&bolts vol.12. some famos are fitted with tatra 103 engine by companies such as Vomag, Plauen and Ringhoffer tatra.
Oh well, I did not know that - I'll take a look in that book, thanks for the enlightenment :)

[FJCabeza]

In Tatra truck ?(Falaise gap)
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5315/vlcsnap14652xm9.jpg

[Torben Nielsen]

Though I am not 100% sure, I believe that the engine seen in the turned over truck, is the Tatra 111. It is almost the same engine with only minor differences. The Tatra 103 was also intented for use with a late war Hetzer variant (Star?), but I dont think it will be powerfull enough to run a Famo........

Torben

[Torben Nielsen]

Hi guys

Long time has passed since I started this workbench and the last update was posted. Much has happened during these months. I have had a small surgery, no big deal, but it nailed me to the couch for 2 weeks. Further more I have started in a new job that fysically made me so tired when I got home, that there where no energy for modelling.
However, lately, I have been picking up from where I left and now I am able to make a small update. I have finished the rear right side steering mechanism and the left side is also near complete - if it wasnt for a missing item, that require me to start all over with a new one.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/PICT3360.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/PICT3361.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/PICT3362.jpg

I hope that I will be able to post the next update faster this time :thumb:

Comments are welcome

Torben

[Sticky]

Torben that is sweet! Gald to see you back working on this project.

[Larry Bates]

That is some VERY nice and clean plastic work Torben :thumb:

Laz

[Finnmodeler]

Hi,
interesting project. I have similar in planning stage :) Anyway, if you do not want to SB whole engine, you can order resin one from here: mk.model@volny.cz. They do not actually make engine for 234 but it is part of their truck kit. I was supposed to get one but something happened:D.

niko

[Flak]

Yeah...keep it coming. It looks great

[Bravo Tango]

This is great stuff, I am liking the work on the model a lot, as it is showing me a lot of detail I have not seen before on a 234.

Plus the added bonus of great pix of the actual engine.

It is amazing how you see stuff like this and the "gotta build" list from the stash gets aut shuffled in your mind, because this has really got me interested for a 234 build.

Looking forward to see more

Brian T

[Torben Nielsen]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the responses. As said before I have always been a slow builder, and my new job isnt excatly making it easier to move the project the right way. Hopefully I will make a small, but very important progress tonight so that I will be able to move on to the construction of the engine itself in a short time - BUT, no promishes :p

Hi,
Anyway, if you do not want to SB whole engine, you can order resin one from here: mk.model@volny.cz. They do not actually make engine for 234 but it is part of their truck kit:D.

niko

Hi Niko

A friend of mine had a resin engine for the Tatra 111 truck from a manufacture I can no longer remember the name of, but it could be the one you are mention. However, this engine isnt excatly identical to the Tatra 103. He let me have a look at it (it was a few years ago) and at that time I found that it was not a very good piece and it had features that wasnt on the 103, so therefore I decided to move on with my own project.

Gotta get back to the desk.....

Thanks to everyone who has shown interest in the project.
Torben

[Torben Nielsen]

Now for the next update. I finally managed to overcome one of the bigger tasks for my 10 thumbs. I has taken me quite a long time to figure out how to construct these parts, especially this "thing" that is located in the rear left corner and of which I dont know the english term for it. All I know is, that it helps turn the wheels :)

The first picture shows the entire left side assembly before it was installed (it is still not glued, only dryfitted) The worst thing about this is, that it is a waste of time building as it will be completely hidden once the rest goes in.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/picture14.jpg

This picture show the assembly installed.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/picture12.jpg

A closer view of the "thing". I looks a little rough, but please have in mind that is is a very small piece - and that I have 10 thumbs!!

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/picture13.jpg

The next step will be the construction of the little box-thing that covers the rear drivers pedals. While Dragons made that a very square piece (it is actually moulded on to the wall piece E30) the real thing is completely different. It is full of angled and sloping plates, and to be honest - I am not really sure of the correct shape. The picture here will give you an idea of what I mean.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii124/torben_nielsen/sdkfz%20234/picture15.jpg
As always, I am interested in knowing what you think about the above, and please, be honest!!! If it is looking like crap - tell me. Otherwise I cant improve myself.

Thanks for looking,
Torben

[Driver]

...I have 10 thumbs!!

Thank God you only have 10 thumbs; I don't want to know what you would do with ten normal fingers!! :eek:

But seriously, You are doing a great job with those bits of plastic. I really want to see when you tackle the engine itself.

Ruben

[Panzergrenadier]

It is looking just great! Keep going like this, you are doing a good job.:cool:

[Torben Nielsen]

Hi

Finally, after a summer with no modelling what so ever, I am about to continue the Tatra 103 project. I am currently getting the interiour of the crew/fighting compartment settled, in order to get the front part of the upper hull fixed.
As usual, dont expect updates on a daily basis, this is still gonna take a long time as my spare time is unfortunately quite limited.
Well, I will return to the work desk and try to produce an update soon.

Torben