M1A1HA, 9/18/23 update. Delay of Game, two week penalty!

[BarryC]

It's a fantastic construction, well done! What details Why not take the Tamiya engine with the chassis?

Thanks Mitch!

I had purchased the Tamiya Display model and considered purchasing the Tamiya Drive but $$$$ made me give a go at fitting what I all ready had.

Barry

[c.rainford73]

Barry how have you fared so far with linking the upper and lower hulls? How difficult has it been? I'm very confident you will prevail

[BarryC]

Hi Carl,

I am making progress, but lots of head scratching, teeth noshing and hand wringing!

It never ceases to amaze me that the very same model of a subject by two or more manufactures can have so many different dimensions. The width of the HL upper matches the Tamiya chassis at the rear and down the sides quite well but the width at the front between the fenders not so much. The HL upper is nearly .025" wider that the Tamiya lower.

It really is just a matter of picking the best fit point between the two and working through the mounting scheme. I'm just about there and I told the wife if it did not come together today it would be "brown elixir" time!!

Barry

[tankme]

I was going to go down this road of fitting the Trumpeter M1A1 upper to the HL lower and kinda ran into the same problems. So I decided to take the plunge and adapt the Tamiya suspension to my Trumpeter lower instead. I've got all the parts I need to do it, but I need to get my metal lathe back in working shape so I can make the Tamiya axles work with the HL wheels I have. I know the Tamiya wheels are more detailed and all, but I have the HL wheels already and the Tamiya wheels I've seen for sale don't come with the rubber. Decisions...decisions. Good luck with your fitting.

[BarryC]

I was going to go down this road of fitting the Trumpeter M1A1 upper to the HL lower and kinda ran into the same problems. So I decided to take the plunge and adapt the Tamiya suspension to my Trumpeter lower instead. I've got all the parts I need to do it, but I need to get my metal lathe back in working shape so I can make the Tamiya axles work with the HL wheels I have. I know the Tamiya wheels are more detailed and all, but I have the HL wheels already and the Tamiya wheels I've seen for sale don't come with the rubber. Decisions...decisions. Good luck with your fitting.

Yep, the need for the Tamiya Wheels was what drove me to this "lunacy". But I think I've turned the corned on getting it to fit and look right. Now I'm going to have a LOT of the Tamiya kit left over.

Barry

[BarryC]

Hi All!

Continuing the adaption of the Tamiya chassis to HL Upper and after market electronics.

WOW! trying to stuff 120 cubic inches in changes into 90 cubic inches of space. Needing to mount everything above the torsion bars reduced the space by at least 20 to 30 cubic inches over the HL Lower.

I had to reduce the height of the speaker box by .5”, lay the battery on its side and modify the battery box and add a retainer bar. Also had to rotate the turret traversing servo 90 degrees inboard and lower its mount height by .080”. this pushed the servo into the available floor space for the TK60G2 board. I had to mount the board between the servo and the speaker box, and it just barely fits. After all that the receiver was a bit of a problem but by removing some material from the Clark mounting tray it fit, Yay!!







All in all, it took quite a bit of effort, but I have got it all fitted into the available space and it is tight as you can see by the pictures.


Next came added details to the hull sides below the sponson. There are armor build ups protecting the crew compartment. Though most of this will not be readily visible I felt the need to model it. I had to compromise at the front around the Idler Wheels to insure clearance.





I have also temp installed one of East Coast Armory’s “Clear Wheel Hub Covers”. They are designed to fit the HL wheel, so a bit of modification needed for the Tamiya wheel. They are on all US Abrams and it allows for visible verification of hub grease level.



Next, I will be working on the scale/actual Belly Armor attach points and skirt supports the supports will be largely invisible unless viewed form certain angles. The challenge is plotting a way to put the supports in and still be able to remove the upper without destroying the supports.

TTFN,
Barry

[Jarlath]

Barry

I was going to suggest that you relocate the receiver to the other side of the speaker box to give you a bit more room for the clark to "breath". Some new RX wires or some short extensions.
Originally I was going to suggest mounting on top of the sponson floor on the lower hull, but remembered that there really are no side hull sponsons on the Abrams..

Will you be adding in a facsimile of the side skirt supports that are above/amongst the road wheels?

[tankme]

Barry,

Now you need to hollow out the clear hubs, put actual liquid in them, and seal them back up. Only that would good enough for this fine model... On a serious note, I think the space is limited mainly because Tamiya put the main parts in the turret so they didn't really care how much space was in the hull. Personally I would prefer that the bulk of the weight was in the hull and not in the turret.

[BarryC]

Barry

I was going to suggest that you relocate the receiver to the other side of the speaker box to give you a bit more room for the clark to "breath". Some new RX wires or some short extensions.
Originally I was going to suggest mounting on top of the sponson floor on the lower hull, but remembered that there really are no side hull sponsons on the Abrams..

Will you be adding in a facsimile of the side skirt supports that are above/amongst the road wheels?

I too considered relocating it but decided where it is at works without running more wires.

Yes the skirt supports I am talking about are the same you are referring to. Will prove interesting to say the least.



Barry

[BarryC]

Barry,

Now you need to hollow out the clear hubs, put actual liquid in them, and seal them back up. Only that would good enough for this fine model... On a serious note, I think the space is limited mainly because Tamiya put the main parts in the turret so they didn't really care how much space was in the hull. Personally I would prefer that the bulk of the weight was in the hull and not in the turret.

Liquid in the hubs, don't think I had not considered just that!

The main issue with the space is that the Torsion Bars and Axle Mounts Take up the lower .625" or so of the available space forward of the Gearboxes. I believe that is why Tamiya chose to move the electronics to the turret. In the Tamiya installation the turret installation is OK because of the ball bearing supported turret rotation ring.

I agree the lower the weight the better!

Barry