Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

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Herr Dr. Professor
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Re: Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

Post by Herr Dr. Professor »

What a fine build! I seldom see this ZTZ attended to here in the U.S., so three cheers for your work! :clap: :clap: :clap: The recoil is such an improvement and the LEDs are just plain fun!

I have "bone stock" ZTZ A and B, with HengLong's standard innards. The B is a shelf queen; the "A" is checked for stock operation, but has ever since been hiding in its box. Neither will likely get the kind of superb reinforcement you have created. But then, both will never be as excellent.
Likely more than five years ago, I found a few pictures of the real tank on the web. The camouflage HengLong provides seems to replicated some I have seen in photos of a ZTZ displayed in China, all rather dressy for showing off, but definitely nowhere near "work clothes," even for a modern tank. Your finish puts on the crowning touch.
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tankme
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Re: Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

Post by tankme »

Thanks for the kind words.

I kinda figured out the IR issue with the TCB. As it turns out it my problem was in my target. I had tested my target, a HL T-72 on TK-6.0, against my Haya Chieftain. Both sent and received hits fine. So I was testing the TCB against the T-72 since I knew everything worked on it. I had also shot my KV-2 at it with stock Tamiya electronics with no real issues. In my testing the TCB would accept hits from the T-72 fine, but wouldn't give hits to the T-72. I tried my Haya Chieftain and I had the same issues. I swapped polarity on my emitters, I swapped cables, I swapped emitters, and tested with a regular LED that lit up fine when the cannon fired. Finally I thought well maybe it has something to do with the target so I grabbed the SU-152 that had a Clark TK-40 in it. Guess what? Everything worked fine. So at this point it has something to do with the TCB not able to give hits to a HL tank or the Haya Chieftain. It will give hits to the Clark so it seems it's using the Tamiya protocol. Both are using the Tamiya apple.
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Re: Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

Post by tankme »

Got in touch with Luke from Open Panzer and it seems the problem is now solved. My TCB will now give hits to the HL and Haya tanks. It looks like the shorter IR pulse duration on the TCB was not registering with the HL and Haya. Luke spun up a custom hex firmware load that increases the IR pulse to 1 second like the Tamiya and it now works fine on both tanks.
Derek
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Re: Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

Post by Shootermcgraw »

tankme wrote:This is the Heng Long ZTZ-99 (non-A) model. It is a closeout I got on Matomart.

Ended up being right at $185 USD shipped to my door from Canada and it got here in 7 days. It does have the zinc gearboxes, but I have a plan to replace those eventually. Came with the metal tracks/sprockets/idlers, spare metal track links, the plastic tracks/sprockets/idlers, and spare plastic track. Road wheels are plastic. Metal tracks are single pin. I wanted to just weather this one up and make it battle capable so I don't care that it came with the old crystal based TX/RX system. It is amazing just how huge modern tanks are compared to WW2 vehicles. I have only one regret, I should've added the ZTZ-99 mesh engine deck grills to my order. They have now been ordered and are on their way. You can see the size difference as compared to my SU-152 which of course is based on a not so small KV-1 tank. The running gear is very similar to the T90/72 so I found this information on Wikipedia very interesting:

The development of China's domestic third generation MBT was started in 1989, under China's eighth five-year plan. In the early 1990s China produced one of its second generation prototypes, the Type 90-II series. The Type 90-II was designed by studying the T-72 tank. The chassis was to be based on the T-72's hull but with Chinese subsystems. The Type 90-II had a 125mm smoothbore cannon with an autoloader, modular composite armor and a centered driver position. While the Type 90-II series ultimately did not enter PLA service, it saw success as an export tank and was built under license in Pakistan as the Al-Khalid.

The Type 98 or WZ-123 was China's domestic Type 90-II derivative. It was first seen in rehearsals for the 1999 National Day parade and was officially revealed on 1 October 1999.

An improved version was shortly produced and was named the Type 98G or Type 99.

An updated Type 99 model was officially introduced at the 2015 Victory Day Parade as the Type 99A. This variant had previously been used by PLA troops during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) military exercises in 2014.

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I have added the unditching log to the rear.

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I modified an RC Tank Legion adjustable idler tensioner and brace kit from the T-72/T-90 they sell. It looked like it would work out of the bag, but I had to do some tweaking to get it to fit. Overall it was a good mod and really helps stiffen up the front of the tank for use with the metal tracks.

This is the before shot. It takes a phillips head screwdriver inserted into the small center hole in the idler to remove the screw holding the idler on.

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Once the idler is removed there is a small barrel like piece glued in the circle that must be removed. I just pried it off with a flathead screwdriver.

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The old flimsy hub needs to be removed and some material from the fake dozer blade to make room for the brace mounts.

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The area in the triangle was flattened and two 2mm holes were drilled using the brace as a guide to drill.

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The brace itself needed to be shortened to 47mm to fit inside the ZTZ hull.

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Shown installed. The lower hex head didn't come with any nuts to hold them in so I supplied my own M3 nuts which went on the inside.

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Bottom shot of the brace/idler assembly.

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Due to how far the brace sticks out I had to remove part of the sprocket hub. I removed the brass bushing from the plastic sprocket and bored the idler to 8mm on my lathe to accept the brass bushing. I may fit bearings later, but the bushing is fine for now.

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Bushing installed in the metal idler. Bushing needed to be bored to 7mm to accept the new idler shaft and it had to be shortened slightly.

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Track alignment is great after modding the sprocket.

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Metal tracks installed that came with the tank.

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Magnets installed. At this point the 10mm N52 rated magnets are so strong that you can pick up the tank from the upper hull and it won't come apart. You can also see that I switched the connector over to an XT-60 and will be running the tank off a 7AH 18650 Li-Ion battery pack. Also installed a large metal turret ring I had here that will be mated to a metal (fast) rotation unit. Magnets are the countersunk variety so you need to order both north and south versions.

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I think I may switch my T34s over to Clark boards so that I can install my Open Panzer TCB in this tank. There is tons of room for the ESCs and the TCB board.

That's all for now.
Also....the magnets are a great idea for maintenance....That I really like! Just the fact it screws into existing threads so it won't pull the other magnet out of its location when pulling apart.Image

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Re: Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

Post by tankme »

Yeah, the bottom magnets are actually using a small brass standoff dropped into the shaft mated to a an M3 fine thread screw. The uppers are screwed in using a course head countersunk wood screw.
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Re: Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

Post by Shootermcgraw »

Ok, would be great to see a close up photo of this because I'm thinking of doing this with my leopard 2A6 turret.....I have my TBU relocated in the turret along with speaker. It's an original Heng Long version and it came with a spring that's attached to the upper part of the turret that rests on the barrel recoil unit when you together. I believe that it stabilizes the barrel when traveling keeping it from bouncing to much. With the magnets being strong enough I was hoping the spring wouldn't pop the turret apart if I went that route?

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abramsky
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Re: Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

Post by abramsky »

Shootermcgraw wrote:Ok, would be great to see a close up photo of this because I'm thinking of doing this with my leopard 2A6 turret.....I have my TBU relocated in the turret along with speaker. It's an original Heng Long version and it came with a spring that's attached to the upper part of the turret that rests on the barrel recoil unit when you together. I believe that it stabilizes the barrel when traveling keeping it from bouncing to much. With the magnets being strong enough I was hoping the spring wouldn't pop the turret apart if I went that route?

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Give up on that spring. If you leave the spring on - any opening of the tower will cause it to pop out and a long search ... Plus, the magnets may not be strong enough to hold the top of the tower in place. The ASG / recoil mechanism together with the elevation drive when the barrel is set to the lower position will cause such a strong spring tension that the top of the turret will fly away like in a Soviet tank during the Desert Storm. Additionally, this spring causes in my son's Leopard that the barrel cannot be set in a negative angle (below the 0 degrees level) and the barrel jumps happily on every bump. I suggest removing the standard elevation mechanism and replacing it with a servo (you can remove the servo electronics if your MFU does not support it) and a rigid connection between the elevation servo and ASG / recoil ...
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Re: Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

Post by tankme »

I used N52 rated magnets. They will keep the turret together. In the pic below it shows the actual hardware used for my builds. The magnets are that far apart or else they will fly toward each other. Each magnet is 10mm in diameter by 3mm high with an M3 sized hole. Pan head screws are M3 type mated to an M3 brass 5mm standoff since it is smaller than an M3 nut and fits in the plastic screw channels better than the M3 nut. The other countersunk wood screw is a #4x1/2" size. With six pairs of 10mm N52 neodymium magnets holding the turret together on this tank, the turret only separates when I want it to.

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Derek
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Re: Heng Long ZTZ-99 (Type 98 actually)

Post by tankme »

With NAB mentioning the ZTZ-99 I thought I'd post up the pics I forgot to post here, but then I went through the tread and saw the new camo on page one...

Getting old sucks... :)
Derek
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