WWII German Tiger 1 Tank
Built entirely from the LEGO Technic set 42097, the Compact Crawler Crane.
Watch the video on Youtube:
This post is not showing the instructions of how to build the tank, rather, this is a design breakdown, showing techniques and new ideas for creating your own builds. With that being said, feel free to look at the pictures and to create something very similar to this. I will try to take ampul amounts of pictures so you can, but know that the purpose of this blog and this post is to enlarge your understanding of LEGO techniques.
PRELIMINARY DESIGN
I always start with the end in mind- thinking about what I want the creation to do and to look like. The main functions of a tank are, of course, (1) rolling treads, (2) a rotating turret, and (3) a barrel that can rotate up or down.
The rolling treads were easy enough. But then I thought about how to move the turret and the cannon.
It would've been fine having a gear on the back of the tank that, when turned, would rotate a shaft that would rotate the turntable (which is what the turret is sitting on). It also would have been fine having a gear on top of the turret that would control the elevation of the barrel.
Though these options were perfectly fine, this was my first LEGO Technic build, and I wanted a challenge.
The design of the Tiger 1 tank gave way to inspiration. On the real tank, two engines are visible on the rear. I decided to make these on the LEGO model and to place a gear on top of either engine. These would control the functions.
THE "SHIFTER"
I have always been fond of the LEGO Technic driving rings (though I have never owned one myself), but since this set didn't come with any, I had to come up with a different design.
What I call the "shifter" actually controls which function to operate. This is a design you can implement into your LEGO builds too, and is especially helpful if you don't have the driving rings.
This "shifter" is something that I haven't seen before. It is actually quite simple. The shifter has a 180ยบ range of rotation. That range includes a down position, a top position, and a neutral position (which is anywhere between the top or bottom positions). At both the top and bottom positions are an 8-tooth gear. The top position gear controls the rotation of the turret, while the bottom position gear controls the elevation of the cannon.
NEUTRAL POSITION:
Below is a brief video showing the shifter in action.
(To view on Youtube, see link below)
The shifter is controlled via the back right gear on the tank, just above the right-side engine assembly.
By rotating the black 12-tooth gear on the top left of picture, motion is transferred sideways to that gray 24-tooth gear, which power is transferred through the red axle.
That motion is then turned sideways via the tan, 12-tooth gear. On that same axle is the shifter.
THE GEARBOX
After hundreds of attempts to create a working gearbox, this was the best design I came up with. The body of the tank here was still in developmental stages, but you get the gist. The black 12-tooth gear on the right is connected via an axle to a gray 8-tooth gear, which is the top gear that the "shifter" interlocks with. As the 8-tooth gear rotates, this series of gears rotates.
GEARBOX IN ACTION
The pictures and video below shows the tank stripped and how the gearbox works as a system.
PICTURES
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