Hooben T55am merida

User avatar
tomhugill
Captain
Posts: 4745
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:21 am

Hooben T55am merida

Post by tomhugill »

Hey folks, this one's been rumbling a while. Due to photo bucket issues I've been pretty terrible about posting builds, however this Tapatalk thingy seems to make life easier.

I bought the t55 off a chap on Facebook, it was in a sorry state, the wheels had been assembled incorrectly, much detail broken off and an interesting paint job (to be fair I think it was being returned). The good parts about it were it came with the metal hull strengthening plate which adds some heft to what is a light weight model, it also eliminates hull twist. It also came with the dklm 3dprinted speaker designed for the tank. Finally the very expensive metal tracks were present. The model came with a t55 tk22 but that wasn't going to cut it. A family member kindly bought me the t55 meridia kit from dklm.

ImageImageImage

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Last edited by tomhugill on Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
tomhugill
Captain
Posts: 4745
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:21 am

Re: Hooben T55am2

Post by tomhugill »

First thing to do was rebuild the wheels as the bearings had somehow ended up on the outside of them. The stock idler adjuster wasn't very good so I also got a henntec one which was fantastic. Just two screws needed to install.

The tk22 was replaced with a tk60 to allow use of a 3s lipo and superior sound. Trying to keep it neat as there's limited space in there.

Externally the dklm upgrade kit went on perfectly. I intend on adding a hidden battle unit so some.head scratching will be required. ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
User avatar
maxmekker
Warrant Officer 1st Class
Posts: 1689
Joined: Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:47 am
Location: Norway

Re: Hooben T55am2

Post by maxmekker »

Nice writeup Tom :thumbup:
Drammen Rock City
User avatar
tomhugill
Captain
Posts: 4745
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:21 am

Re: Hooben T55am2

Post by tomhugill »

Next job was to install the hidden battle system. Went with a vampire 2 from Ian at rctankelectronics. I managed to get three sensors in the cupola vision blocks. The rear facing one had to go under the commanders hatch.

The emitter was put in the laser range finder which sits on the mantlet.

Here's a quick video of her battling with my tiger.

ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage


phpBB [video]

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
User avatar
HERMAN BIX
Brigadier
Posts: 10234
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 12:15 am
Location: Gold Coast,Australia

Re: Hooben T55am2

Post by HERMAN BIX »

Looooove that '55 Mr Hugill

The extra armour really toughens the look.
I can tell there is stuff-all space in there for all the gear you've shoved into it , so good luck with that !
HL JAGDPANTHER,HL TIGER 1,HL PzIII MUNITIONSCHLEPPER, HL KT OCTOPUS,HL PANTHER ZU-FUSS,HL STuG III,HL T34/85 BEDSPRING,
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
User avatar
Model Builder 4
2nd Lieutenant
Posts: 2329
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 3:46 pm
Location: South Wales valleys
Contact:

Re: Hooben T55am2

Post by Model Builder 4 »

Looking good Tom, some nice upgrades and it sounds great too :thumbup:

Cheers, Lee.
Me ? Addicted ? Never !! :crazy:
User avatar
tomhugill
Captain
Posts: 4745
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:21 am

Re: Hooben T55am2

Post by tomhugill »

HERMAN BIX wrote:Looooove that '55 Mr Hugill

The extra armour really toughens the look.
I can tell there is stuff-all space in there for all the gear you've shoved into it , so good luck with that !
Cheers Herman, I had a bit of a push before the nipper arrived to get as many tanks running and battling as I could. I've got a lovely set of fuel lines ready to install and have gone to Ludwig's to get the protective panels for fuel tanks on the sponsons which are missing from the dklm kit. Also considering a shapeways aa machine gun.

I've also been talking to attracks, they're doing a set of the correct t72 style tracks which the modernised t55 have.
User avatar
c.rainford73
Major
Posts: 6104
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2016 7:34 pm
Location: Connecticut USA

Re: Hooben T55am2

Post by c.rainford73 »

Looking absolutely stunning
Tanks alot.... :wave:
User avatar
Soeren
Warrant Officer 2nd Class
Posts: 1356
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 3:27 pm

Re: Hooben T55am2

Post by Soeren »

Oh, so tempting :think: :D
User avatar
Ad Lav
Captain
Posts: 4154
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:44 pm
Location: Kent

Re: Hooben T55am2

Post by Ad Lav »

Looks and runs great, jealous of that upgrade armour kit from dklm lol :)
Post Reply

Return to “Modern Builds”