Herr Doc's Famo

[tankme]

Woo Hoo! What are you going to use for electronics? I'm all eyes and ears!

It's one of the kits from 35rctank.com for the Trumpeter 251. I have seen a lot of vids of German half-tracks with really poor mobility and the kit vids shows a pretty good turning radius. I went with that kit rather than spin up my own solution.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

I will keep that kit in mind to see if the electronics might carry over. As you likely know, I just got one of Will and Catherine’s SdKfz. 251.That I plan to be the RC one, with the 1/16 I got from Andy’s HHQ to be static. But I got busy today with my DDay Build T26E3 and am looking forward to progress on that front.

[MrChef]

I will keep that kit in mind to see if the electronics might carry over. As you likely know, I just got one of Will and Catherine’s SdKfz. 251.That I plan to be the RC one, with the 1/16 I got from Andy’s HHQ to be static. But I got busy today with my DDay Build T26E3 and am looking forward to progress on that front.

With all due respect Herr Dr. I'm voting you concentrate on the D-day T26 build or it's going to become a winter 2024-25 build.

B'bbut, I still need a team of Famo's... Tigers can be finicky

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Yes, MrChef: I have turned back to my T26E3. Again and again, I consider Ecam's Jan 10 comment that "static Famos are cool too." But it's better to set it aside, think it over, and return later. I may just find the solution, as there are so many choices of electronics out there. Heck, I might even make the FAMO run without coordinated steering, using separate sticks to control both the track differential speed and the front wheel steering, so I would be, as Foghorn says right at this moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx98pskffOY&t=119s.
But for now, paint is appearing on my T26E3 and nifty detail parts are coming (I hope ) from Germany.

[MrChef]

Herr Doc,

Although it's entertaining to poke at the "Static Famo" I feel compelled to help somehow and point you in a direction. Through my many RC tanking travels on other forums and Facebook RC tank groups I have met a guy who is also on here who recently did a half-track truck where he has worked and is perfecting controls for operation and steering of said unit. Meter Rat also knows him.


He has several SN's on that forum, HDMM and DANOEL.
I'll give a link so you can read up on his build, process and progress from the squawk forum:
https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc-ca ... post395492

His SN here on RCTW is HDMM and you have seen him here before:
viewtopic.php?p=343289#p343289

I haven't seen him active as of late but he did a cool job on his half-track and I hope this helps or guides you just a little.

Best, Chef

PS. Bacon is food of the Gods...

[Meter rat]

Meter Rat also knows him.


PS. Bacon is food of the Gods...

Don’t bring me into this . I can get into enough trouble on my own.

Sausages are the food of the gods.
Bacon is the second food of the gods.

I so went to see this complete..

[Herr Dr. Professor]

MrChef, yes, the post you cite here on RCTW is familiar. I will check HobbySquawk a.s.a.p. But I will not pester HDMM. I only pester active RCTW participants and wise guys.

[maxmekker]

Se PM Herr Dr. Professor

[Herr Dr. Professor]

When I last posted about the FAMO on February 2nd, I had not made a decision about how to proceed with the FAMO. However in the past two weeks I have done so. I have had this FAMO for over three years and in June of 2022, I began the project in earnest. I abhor being a "quitter," even so much that when I was a college undergraduate, I drove myself to some psychological distress. (That explains a lot, doesn't it? ). However, I recently chose to turn the project into a static model because I have put far too much money and countless hours into the FAMO. All the while other less problematic projects have been waiting.

Apart from the seemingly inexplicable and repeated electronics problems I have had with the FAMO, I also know well that there are serious mechanical problems with the FAMO tracks and sprockets. For example, Malzburg Modellbau changed out the tracks entirely (https://malzburgshop.com/MSE-RC-Famo-1/16-with-Elmod). Other Germans have cursed the tracks and sprockets on the Asiatam FAMO and conceded that it takes serious shop tools to make the FAMO work. (See the comments at jhamm's YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=vleXSUEevdo). I salute jhamm's builds and am grateful for the help he has provided. That help even extends to ideas for the static build.

Now I am excited about the turn to a FAMO static build. So far I have removed the motors from my FAMO, while being careful not to so modify the model as to disallow a return to RC. I have done some re-painting and look forward to a bit of scratch building, as well as continued work on the D-Day build.

Should I at all continue the "build" report here on RCTW? If so, should it be here or somewhere more appropriate for static builds?

[Herr Dr. Professor]

With the winter build T26E3 Pershing waiting for parts and the Mato M10 somewhat weathered and again underway, with supplies just arriving today, I turned back to the FAMO as a static build. Just to prove that at least something is happening, here's my latest, baby steps of scratch building: home made hinges for the storage boxes on the sides of the bed.

The cast "decorative" hinges are too small to drill through to hold even the smallest steel wire I could find (less than .5 mm) that would stay rigid. So I fashioned loops out of brass wire, drilled holes for them, attached a long steel pin to the decorative hinges with E6000. After that dried 24 hours, wiggled it all together. (When upright, the steel pin will drop into the bottom loop (on the right). When it's cleaned up and touched in Dunkelgrau, it won't look so bad.

toolbox hinge.jpg (468.28 KiB) Viewed 84 times

I had to make the doors so they could open and close, but "piano" hinges or "door" hinges will not work because the castings are so crude that in 1:1, the storage box doors themselves would probably suit the glacis of a tank.