RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

After producing the Matilda and having viewed many videos of the North Africa campaign I decided to take a look at possibly designing a 3d printed Crusader.



As this tank uses a Christie suspension, I am hoping to use existing suspension arms/springs from an existing HL tank to save me having to develop them from scratch, plus they will be stronger. What I need to know is what HL tank has suspension arms approximately 30 mm long? Perhaps someone out there with a squadron of tanks could check and get back to me please (and if possible if they have a spare plastic arm and spring in their scrap box could they please let me have one - happy to pay any postage/packing costs).

Alwyn

I always liked shape of the Crusader

You could take inspitarion from Ludwig's kit:
https://www.ludwigs-hobby-seite.de/Crus ... 0Tank.html

Had a quick look around the 'toy cupboard' - KingTiger, Pz 3 and Pershing/M41 look to be too short, and KV too long. Don't have a HL T34, but the arms on the WSN ones seem to be closer to 25 than 30mm, as are the ones on my Panthers.
Challenger 2 looked promising, but having pulled the arm off it measured 27.5 at best...

Hi Tiger, 27.5 is probably close enough, so I just need to find some chally2 arms now. Thanks for the help on this, much appreciated.

Alwyn

Hmmm, this isn't looking straightforward at all, so may change tack and go for a Churchill. I know Ludwig does a kit but I priced it up once and it added up to about £750! I have shied away from the Churchill as it looked complicated, but compared to the Matilda it will be easy-peasy. I have mastered the sponson issues and the Churchill is far simpler than the Matilda. The other thing that has held me back in the past is the narrow chassis and getting gearboxes to fit, but I think I have probably solved that problem.

So watch this space

Alwyn

If it’s of any help Ludwig has 2 versions of suspension that can be used on his. The tiger 1 or his own

The Churchill just has sooooooo many little road wheels...

I'm still trying to get my head around what to build next. The main thing with both the Crusader and the Churchill is finding tracks that would fit. The tracks on Ludwigs model look nothing like the Churchill tracks, and the closest I can find in size terms are the ones from my Centurion and Chieftain builds, which were KV-1 tracks with the edges trimmed off, but again these don't resemble the Churchill tracks in any way. The Crusader tracks are very narrow, and the closest I could find would be Panzer 3 tracks, which I used on the Matilda. Hmmmm, what to do?

Alwyn

Im sure that Mr Hugill had Churchill track on one of his Shermans hull.........a Firefly from memory ?
maybe he could give you the skinny on where they came from