HL M41A3 within scale inches of being 1/16th scale

[greengiant]

Cut down bulldog to be Within scale inches of what should be its correct size

[Dietrich]

Hello greengiant,
Please can you explain what parts you had to alter, and how you did it to get the Bulldog into the correct scale?? Photos of the changes would be great if by any chance you took any?
Alb.

[greengiant]

If you look at the showcase forum I discibe much of what was done. I didnt take any photos of the work in progress but if you wish I can descibe in detail how to achieve the result. And since I used a secound bulldog wreck I purchaced off ebay to try out ideas( and use for replacement parts when I goofed up) I may be able to cobble together some pictures of how to do it.
First off you must delink all the track pads cut away just a bit in each side of the center guide tabs to establish the width of the padded part of the track then cut off the excess from the two outer parts of the track pads. If done right this will leave you with the outside parts having little to none of the center link pin guide left. then slide the 3 pieces onto two link pins and while pressing the 3 pieces together and down on a flat surface whith the center guide up and with a small soldering iron melt the three pieces together in the depression wells enough that they stay together when you remove the link pins.Turn this over to make sure the tack pad is flat or very close to flat. Turn it back over so you can see the center guide and the wells that you melted to form the complete pad and fill the wells with an industrial strength super glue. If all goes well the glue will stay in the wells, if not some may whick into the center pin link guide which can be removed by filing it out or if your good with a dremel type tool ground out so the pad link pins will slide through from one side to the other. Repeat over and over again untill you have all the track pads for one side done then assemble them with the link pins pushing them into what will be the inside if the track when mounted on the tank ( remember that the track pad cheveron will point down ). There should be about a quarter inch of the pins sticking out that can be cut off when your sure you have done everthing right. at this point you will no longer be able to maount the tracks becouse they will be to narrow for the drive sprocket. That will Keep you busy Untill I can add more to this posting.
remember patience is a virtue and you will need it most when doing the tracks.

[greengiant]

Hers some quick pics I made using my parts tank to show how to modify the road wheels return rollers and shock mounts so those skinny tracks will fit nice and close to the hull

[Dietrich]

WOW....Sorry for the late reply...My email to the site isn't working........THAT, is an awful lot of work !!...I am amazed at how far out the tracks themselves are from the real thing....The amount of work to change each link is staggering.....You sir. are a braver and more patient man than me
Alb.

[greengiant]

Well thanks. Besides being disatified with the way it originally looked I found an old forum in a us based rc board in which a guy did the track conversion ( but in a much more difficult way) and then was not wiling to mess with the suspension to move the tracks right up to the hull thus he had a slightly better looking unit but it was still way to wide to be scale'

he who has the most toys when he dies wins

[RC-Sakke]

That is really cool what you have already done, but "only" narrowing the tracks wont make the the tank's parts to be in scale when compared to all the other parts on the tank, as either the hull is also too long, or the turret is too small, anyways heng long ****** up this one
At the moment I am not able to upload a picture, that I made to highlight the areas that are made wrong about the tank... But I could list those things:
1. There are two solid plates behind the engine grilles, both of them should be at an angle, but only the last one is.
2. In the front the foremost periscope should be right beneath the tip of the main gun mantlet, not at all closer to the front end.
3. The distance from the first return roller to the second return roller is too long. (about half of the return rollers diameter)
4. The storage boxes in front of the exhaust silencers (the longer boxes) are a little too long.
5. The rear end of the turret/the storage box behind the turret should reach to about half way over the plate that is behind the engine grilles.
6. The distance from the tracks to the fender is a very tiny bit too long too...
Those things may not make the tank to be 1:16, but they will make all the parts to be in the same scale, and I think that that was a bit more important. I might be wrong and if I am I'd like to know that(I made my conclusions about the things made wrong by heng long by comparing some sort of a M41 blueprint to a picture of a HL RC version of the tank) , and I wrote this because I was a little bored.

-Sakari

[greengiant]

The upper hull is lowered around 3/8 of an inch by cutting that much off the lower hull. Then using the original screw poles (which also have to be shortened) the top hull is placed on the lower hull and a few screws put in> I only use the front and the two rear screws anyway. This lowering of the upper hull shortens the tank and some modifications must be done to make the two halfs match up like lowering the rear lifting rings and the trans cover hinges ect. on the front the upper hull must be shortened slightly and every thing on the sloping plate (lights snd brush guards, lifing rings and hatch supports ) must be moved further up the Plate. The headlights should also be moved back but the amount is so small that I didnt move them. This movement of parts put the hatch supports in the correct position to support the hatch as it should be which was nice because I made the hatch operational. Then about an 8th inch of the lower hull must be built out in the front to match the new location of the upper hull and tapered doen to the point it reaches the hull bottom. As for the other items you mentioned I was aware of them but the finished product looked good enough to me so I halted modifications at that point. Using a scale ruler the length,height and width of the finished model are like I said within scale inches of being correct. One thing you didn't mention is that the hull top fan on the original model is much to small and the turret roof machine gun mount and the machine gun rest are in incorrect places both of which I corrected. On the model as it comes ther is no way the machine gun barrel could rest in the rest. On the real M41 the rest had a swivel head so that the gun barrel could be locked in place whether it was mounted on the turret roof or the position next to the commanders copula (on the early models) On later models the mount by the copula was deleted.
My main intent was to get it not be as big as the M26 pershing and I did accomplish that> I also found that the M41 was actually quite large If you check the width length and hieght demensions compareing the M26 and the M41. It was mainly a light tank only because of its thin armour. Other countries upgunned, repowered and more heavly armored those we gave to them are they purchased turning them into what could be called a heavily armed medium tank.
Thanks for the comments and maybe someday when I'm bored I modify It further. But I must say I'd have to be really bored and not be working on a different tank.