M41 Walker Bulldog to M37 Conversion

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Will01Capri
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Location: South Scotland

M41 Walker Bulldog to M37 Conversion

Post by Will01Capri »

Hi Guys, so i have bought some more Henglong chassis for projects but also because i know a work colleague is looking to get into the RC tanks and i will be looking at selling one of my HL tanks to him for a project
So i have purchased a Walker Bulldog Chassis & for some reason 2x tops off ebay for pennies i think.....

But my idea is to get some metal gearboxes for it cheap and then do a M42 Duster conversion or something else a little different, unless of course there is a cheap turret out there Or maybe convert a turret to look like the Cadillac Stingray L7 105mm gun.

Any good conversion project pictures out there of either and useful build threads? I did look but not found much info
Last edited by Will01Capri on Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
HL camo E' Tiger
HL L' Tiger
M26 Pershing WW2 project
Tam K'Tiger project
HL Walker Bulldog project?
HL Panzer IV Munitionsschlepper für Karl-Gerät
HL Sherman project?

1/24 Leopard 2 Custom mod

2 many trucks to list!
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c.rainford73
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Re: Walker Bulldog Conversion

Post by c.rainford73 »

Go into the "other builds section" Mr Wibbly has built an incredible m41 gorilla.
Tanks alot.... :wave:
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c.rainford73
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Re: Walker Bulldog Conversion

Post by c.rainford73 »

c.rainford73 wrote:Go into the "other builds section" Mr Wibbly has built an incredible m41 gorilla. Image
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=ht ... are_type=t

M41 Gorilla
Tanks alot.... :wave:
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Will01Capri
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Posts: 2704
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2017 5:34 pm
Location: South Scotland

Re: Walker Bulldog Conversion

Post by Will01Capri »

M41 Gorilla! never heard of that before. wow just wow, thats cool
HL camo E' Tiger
HL L' Tiger
M26 Pershing WW2 project
Tam K'Tiger project
HL Walker Bulldog project?
HL Panzer IV Munitionsschlepper für Karl-Gerät
HL Sherman project?

1/24 Leopard 2 Custom mod

2 many trucks to list!
User avatar
c.rainford73
Major
Posts: 6104
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2016 7:34 pm
Location: Connecticut USA

Re: Walker Bulldog Conversion

Post by c.rainford73 »

Will01Capri wrote:M41 Gorilla! never heard of that before. wow just wow, thats cool
That's why this forum is top notch! So many wonderful builds and incredibly talented buildersImage
Tanks alot.... :wave:
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Will01Capri
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Posts: 2704
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2017 5:34 pm
Location: South Scotland

Re: Walker Bulldog Conversion

Post by Will01Capri »

M37 I think looks fun and a little different. So I need to find a few spare parts to complete my lower hull.
Does anyone have any front idler wheels? I am.missing one on left side!
The turret only needs to have a limited rotation so I am think servo control and use a HL lift motor. Then another servo for MG.
Need to think.some plans
HL camo E' Tiger
HL L' Tiger
M26 Pershing WW2 project
Tam K'Tiger project
HL Walker Bulldog project?
HL Panzer IV Munitionsschlepper für Karl-Gerät
HL Sherman project?

1/24 Leopard 2 Custom mod

2 many trucks to list!
User avatar
Will01Capri
2nd Lieutenant
Posts: 2704
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2017 5:34 pm
Location: South Scotland

Re: M41 Walker Bulldog to M37 Conversion

Post by Will01Capri »

So some pictures of what i have bought so far!
https://flic.kr/p/XguAyp

https://flic.kr/p/WSw2j1

https://flic.kr/p/WSw2mA

https://flic.kr/p/XpzfMY

So as you can see i don't have alot, but this is ok for me as i want to build something as much as possible from scratch.
Now i am not a 3D printer, so this is going to be a bit of a hard slog. But the intention is to try and use plasticard and some ingenuity!

I have two upper hulls, one in great condition, the other not. So the idea here is to cut up the bad one and use as much as possible.
The M37 looks really cool but there are some differences that need to be addressed.
The list so far
- The M41 is rear drive, but the M37 front. So straight away the easiest thing is to swap the ends.
Thankfully the rear of the M41 lower looks very similar to the M37 Front :)
- The M37 has 4 return rollers, but the M41 3! Therefore my intention is to add in the 4th return roller and build up the plastic where the axle bolts in. Hey if someone has a broken M41 chassis, maybe i could cut off the axle mounts and use some of the return rollers?
- The upper is obviously completely different! However i want to try and modify the front of the M41 front so i can swap it round to the back and then get creative with it.
The turret is obviously different, but i am thinking about cutting out the turret ring in the upper hull and moving it with the rotation motor. Then some stops will need to be carefully added to limit the movement.
As for the turret itself, i only need a turret bottom to attach the ring, but for the top i am not sure if it will be easier to make from scratch or maybe take an existing turret from M41 or Sherman and adapt it to make it look right!!!!!
Everything else is going to be fiddly and take alot of custom building in various gauges of plasticard.
Looks like i gonna need alot more epoxy and some model filler

I am not entirely sure if anyone has built a M37 before, but it looks like a good bit of a challenge.

As for running gear it will feature metal low slug gearboxes but remain with plastic outer tracks and sprockets until it is up and running.
I will add a smoke generator for effect and plug it up quite basically with either seperate escs and a 2.4ghz Rx with mixer, or i may just get a full RX18 setup and use the basic sound setup from a HL tank.

I also need to find some good 1/16 allied soldiers
HL camo E' Tiger
HL L' Tiger
M26 Pershing WW2 project
Tam K'Tiger project
HL Walker Bulldog project?
HL Panzer IV Munitionsschlepper für Karl-Gerät
HL Sherman project?

1/24 Leopard 2 Custom mod

2 many trucks to list!
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