Cardboard Nashorn Tank Destroyer Model

Welcome to an incredibly complex build of a cardboard Nashorn tank destroyer.

First, some background:

Developed in 1943 by the German arms company Altmärkische Kettenwerke GmbH (anybody speak German, gut gemacht), the tank destroyer mounted the magnificent German 88 mm artillery gun on a Panzerkampfwagen III/IV chassis. This tank proved its worth during the Battle of Kursk in 1943.

Length: 8.44 m w/ gun

Width: 2.95 m

Height: 2.65 m

Engine: Maybach HL120 TRM 11.9 litre V-12 gasoline engine

296 hp

Now forget that technical stuff, cuz who cares? On to the build.

Cardboard (duh)

Scissors

Hobby knife

School glue & hot glue gun

Ruler

Pen

Pictures of Nashorn

Radio and some good beats

First, figure out how long ya want it. I made mine 8 inches excluding the gun. Draw the grid onto the tank pic. Draw another grid (by inches) on the cardboard. Now draw the hull out, and cut the shape out. Trace, cut, trace, cut, trace until you forget your name. You should have calculated the width of your model out. So stop when the hull is the right width. Mine was about 2 inches wide.

Then, glue very thin cardboard on every surface.

Basically, look at pictures of the Nashorn until you get what the cockpit looks like inside.

Hot glue the fenders on the tank, and follow the pictures.

Add the side, front and rear armor, ammo cabinets.

Cut the doors from the rear armor(see pic)

What can I say? The pictures are quite self-explanatory.

I would encourage you to examine pictures of the 88 mm artillery gun. I made several mistakes on the gun, but I think it turned out pretty good. If you can do better, awesome!

Adding elevation and side to side motion is optional. The pistons turned out really well, and the side to side motion, though a little loose, worked pretty well.

Yeah, okay there's a lot of pictures. Just pay attention to them. You'll want to make this step twice. (This calls for a resounding duh, unless you know exactly what you're doing).

List of products: forward wheels, back wheels (which look like motorcycle wheels), the bottom row of support wheels, and the top row of smaller support wheels. The tracks are cut from single ply cardboard with the top sheet of paper torn off. Then glue a long strip of double ply cardboard down the center of the inside of the track, making the 'teeth'. Then glue it all together.

You can paint it if you want; I chose not to because I think plain cardboard is pretty cool.

If you have any questions, ask me; any criticisms, tell me. I would like to thank the making facet for the idea of making cardboard models.

-The Cardboard Armeror