Anyway after driving all over the garden, chasing the unimpressed cat and annoying the neighbours it was apparent that the stock battery was not going to cut it. I chickened out of the LIPO route and settled on some larger capacity Ni-Mhs and followed the advice on here and elsewhere to rearrange the internals, ie move the speaker and receiver to one side and have the battery on the other on its side. Having done this my 360 mechanism still catches on the battery when I rotate the turret still, has anyone else experienced this? The battery is a standard sized racing pack type (ie 129*47*24mm) and its just catching the bottom of the 360 connector. Any suggestions anyone?
Some pics in the meantime:


While I'm at it, the T34 has a charging point and main switches on the base of the hull, would it be advisable to tape them up in damp conditions?