Palepainter's Century M48A3, HL Pershing mashup.

[Ad Lav]

Bloody marvellous.

You and Michael C are like buses! Timing is impeccable!

[palepainter]

Bloody marvellous.

You and Michael C are like buses! Timing is impeccable!

Thanks Ad Lav, but in all fairness, I owe a lot to Michael C for sharing his build. I was contemplating scratch building the top half. I may pick up another Pershing and build an M60 in the future, but I think a calliope Sherman is on the horizon.

[MichaelC]

Don't have the skill to scratch build, so I am always looking for opportunities for conversion......... This one turns out much much easier than I have expected.

[palepainter]

Don't have the skill to scratch build, so I am always looking for opportunities for conversion......... This one turns out much much easier than I have expected.

It really is a great fit between the two. Michael, did you keep the same distance between the driver and the idler when you relocated the gear box? I am thinking of cutting out the bottom of the HL with the mounts and then angle it up in the rear to avoid any possible clearances. I will be re building the entire bottom anyway at this point.

[Ad Lav]

If you make an M60A3 with ERA I might have to buy it.

[MichaelC]

It really is a great fit between the two. Michael, did you keep the same distance between the driver and the idler when you relocated the gear box? I am thinking of cutting out the bottom of the HL with the mounts and then angle it up in the rear to avoid any possible clearances. I will be re building the entire bottom anyway at this point.

I didn't move the idlers as they are tied to the first road wheels. I try to cut as much back as possible so that he front has the boat bottom shape. I have to use low profile gear box for the back, raised them to match the sprockets which I have them as the same height as the return rollers. One thing I found out is that if you remove the final drive cover and flip it up side down it fits perfectly and gives your the right height for the drive shaft.

The back end I have to add a piece of styrene as the curvature of the backend is too tight for the Heng Long gearbox. If you look at the picture of the back end on mine you will see where the rear lights are and that's the piece I have to add. The top piece and the bottom piece are from the original hull.

[palepainter]

It really is a great fit between the two. Michael, did you keep the same distance between the driver and the idler when you relocated the gear box? I am thinking of cutting out the bottom of the HL with the mounts and then angle it up in the rear to avoid any possible clearances. I will be re building the entire bottom anyway at this point.

I didn't move the idlers as they are tied to the first road wheels. I try to cut as much back as possible so that he front has the boat bottom shape. I have to use low profile gear box for the back, raised them to match the sprockets which I have them as the same height as the return rollers. One thing I found out is that if you remove the final drive cover and flip it up side down it fits perfectly and gives your the right height for the drive shaft.

The back end I have to add a piece of styrene as the curvature of the backend is too tight for the Heng Long gearbox. If you look at the picture of the back end on mine you will see where the rear lights are and that's the piece I have to add. The top piece and the bottom piece are from the original hull.

Thank you Sir. What motors should I be looking for? Tiger? Kv1?

[MichaelC]

Pershing, no ? I just happen to have a set in my spare bins......... I think it is the long shaft. I used the plastic set that came with my Leo, it is the same as Panther and King Tiger I believe. Try using the one that came with the Pershing first as your upper height might be a little different than mine. I think originally I have just envision tilting the gears so that only the back end is raised but then I ended up raising the whole thing and hence needed the lower profile ones.

For the life of me I can't remember why I didn't just tilted the shaft end of the gearbox. I believe if you do that you might not need the lower profile set.

[palepainter]

I was able to get the stock Pershing motors to work with an angle. Still have clearance under the upper hull. I will have to make a new base plate and get it glued in at an angle. Probably better than cutting out the existing mounting structure and repositioning it.

IMG_3872[1].JPG (97.19 KiB) Viewed 4406 times

[MichaelC]

Looks great pale ! Tilting is definitely better than re-doing the whole lower.