1944 M4A3 105mm

[sassgrunt]

I like the idea of the self-adhesive plastic slides to lessen the friction between the turret and hull. In the past, I have used a compass cutter to cut rings out of those snap-on plastic lids for gallon cans. When those were too thick, (meaning that you could then see an obvious gap under the turret), I have cut them out of colored plastic sheet protectors for notebooks. Anything that helps save the turret motor in the long run is a good effort. -Mike

[scalawag]

Hi Painless,

I'm sure you must have mentioned before, but i can't seem to find it .

Could you offer a few more details about the self adhesive plastic slides you use for turret races.

Do you have a product name for them? or do you have a link for where you buy them from?

I am interested in possibly getting some to try.

Thanks

[PainlessWolf]

Good Afternoon,
It was a really late night (3:00 am MST ) so I am a little slow to get started today. Guys, to have the assistance and praise of Masters at the Craft like yourselves is pure ambrosia to someone like me who is still learning the right ways to do things. Thank you all. *bows* Scalawag, the hard work of cutting out the engine bay grills and replacing them with working ones is _so_ worth it when you can turn everything on without picking up the tank. Pale, I am looking forward to warmer weather and some lunch one day and a tank run in one of the nice parks we have around here. I would love to see your hard work up close. For Scalawag and Sassgrunt and anyone else interested in the slides, they are available in almost any hardware store from these guys:
http://www.waxman.com/getProducts?category_id=36
Thanks again, the most fun in the build and running the finished tank is being able to share it with friends.
Painless

[PainlessWolf]

50th Day: After all of last night's work, I started out by plugging in everything on the upper hull and trying it out. It all worked great and the main gun at max elevation cleared everything inside. Next, I tested the thing that has given me the most goosebumps, the searchlight. It 'had' a 'grain of rice' led headlight bulb in it from a headlight kit I got for my Panther build. I say 'had' because I wound the contacts around the hot and ground on a headlight and switched the tank on. I got an odd behavior which consisted of the headlights flashing as normal then the searchlight flashing and back and forth. ( the headlights would flash then the searchlight would flash ) I think this may have been because the battery was low. I started the tank up using the controller to see if all three bulbs would light. The headlights did but I heard a loud pop up on the turret and quickly shut everything down. I removed the led from the back of the searchlight housing and yep, it and the red wire were fried. I'll go to Hobbytown tomorrow and see if they have a slighter stronger bulb and actually solder it on. I'll use a fully charged battery and see if that fixes the weird and intermittent flashing issue. Pictures:

[Phil]

Fantastic job on that Sherman Painless, I'm enjoying the build keep up the good work.

Phil

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Phil,
I am glad that you are enjoying the build, Sir. Your recent Sherman build is the template that I have used for this one. A look at my turret is like looking at yours during your build. I may learn slowly but I do learn. If I may be so bold, are there any tips you would like to pass along for the searchlight part of it? I have seen yours work in pics and video so I know it can be done. Bulb type that you used and what contacts you attached it to would be a huge help in keeping me from frying another bulb. Thanks, Phil, for chiming in here. I was hoping that you would. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[PainlessWolf]

51st Day: While looking at Phil's YouTube video of his Sherman searchlight in action again this morning, it struck me that I didn't see any headlights on his tank. Knowing Phil, he has it rigged up for a separate on\off on a IBU-2 or summat. On the Taigen RX-18 tho', I learned after going out and sourcing some LEDs and coming home and replacing the fried one in my light, that if you are hooking to the headlight circuit, you either have the searchlight or once that connection is removed, the headlights. No other way would it work. Bearing in mind that I had just blown one of the LEDs the night before, I made up a test one using wire and mini alligator clips. I had bought a pack of twenty assorted LEDs so I could afford to poke around. I used the Taigen basic layout sheet and looked for empty pin connections that would have constant power ( and not frizz anything important like the speaker port, etc. ). I did eventually find a hot\ground and now have a working searchlight and headlights at the same time. If anyone is interested, the connections are the left two of the three pins normally left empty of the M.Q.Fire 5 pin port. The other two pins are taken up by the two pin plug from the airgun (which btw, no longer needs to have the pins swapped out in the plug for it to work normally on these new Taigen sets). That was pretty much my afternoon. I may redo the LED connections a bit in the searchlight now that I have gotten it to work. The new LED and wires are a bit kludgy compared with the elegant grain of sand LED I had in there before. It is a nice old school yellow tho'. I will have to coat the headlights yellow to have them match up more now. Pictures:

[Phil]

Hi Painless

Sorry for the slow reply, your just a quick worker.

I used a yellow LED and wired it up to the main lights, but I didn't really want the front lights on so I disconnected them. The IBU-2 has a feature as you guessed that can turn them off with the TX stick held in a position for 5 secs.

Good news is my eye op is set for 8Feb so after that and another eye test and glasses I should be able to do more tank stuff! They say my long vision will be fine but reading and close up will need glasses, I'm so happy.

Sorry to hi jack this awesome build tread.

Rock on dude.

[PainlessWolf]

Morning, Phil,
Hearing that you are on the mend and will be tanking more often is the best news I've had all morning. It will be good to have you back. ;o) You haven't hi-jacked anything, my Friend. I need your thoughts on what I'm trying to do anytime you feel like passing them along. ;o) Stay safe and well. Today, I'm going to try to cleanup the wiring going into the searchlight so after it's painted, it will be less obtrusive. I'm going to remove the heat shrink I put on and instead, put rubber cement on the hot wire where it is soldered to the LED. That should prevent shorts and allow me to push the LED all the way into the searchlight so I can close it up. ( I spent some time yesterday carefully sanding down the LED so it would fit inside. )
regards,
Painless

[ALPHA]

Hey Painless ... good to see you solved your electrics .... I'm having problems with mine as well.... a little different... but at the moment I have to do a trouble shoot on my lights... it's tough suffice to say... since the FoV hull is made of metal... I had to make insulators for the leads of the LEDs... problem is I think now the wires are touching each other even though I took the careful steps to keep them apart...but hey that's my deal

Your deal is looking great... it'll be a real gem

ALPHA