Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
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c.rainford73
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PainlessWolf
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Re: Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
Doc Phibes,
I knew you would have a plan and it would be brilliant. The only question I have is about the 360 wiring locus. It drops down pretty far into the lower hull on mine but I have everything attached with Velcro tabs up and out of the way. Will you shorten yours so as to use the deck or dispense with it altogether? ( or alter the second plate configuration of the deck so it drops past it ?)
regards,
Painless
I knew you would have a plan and it would be brilliant. The only question I have is about the 360 wiring locus. It drops down pretty far into the lower hull on mine but I have everything attached with Velcro tabs up and out of the way. Will you shorten yours so as to use the deck or dispense with it altogether? ( or alter the second plate configuration of the deck so it drops past it ?)
regards,
Painless
...Here for the Dawn...
Re: Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
Thanks for the praise guys, coming from builders with your skills means a lot.
Painless, yes, you are right about the positioning of the 360 wiring unit, and the Mato one is quite large. It was a case of trade-off really - whether or not I can keep the 360 depends on final position of the TK24 and to what extent I can move the mount for the 360 unit forward. Frankly I'm not too bothered about having the 360 turret, good if you can but for me no great loss if it has to go (excepting the re-wiring job it will involve). Then there's the turret/basket thing we spoke of before I think - installing an upper deck in the lower hull makes it tighter below the turret so I am 'winging it' a bit at this stage and kinda hoping I can make it all work
Painless, yes, you are right about the positioning of the 360 wiring unit, and the Mato one is quite large. It was a case of trade-off really - whether or not I can keep the 360 depends on final position of the TK24 and to what extent I can move the mount for the 360 unit forward. Frankly I'm not too bothered about having the 360 turret, good if you can but for me no great loss if it has to go (excepting the re-wiring job it will involve). Then there's the turret/basket thing we spoke of before I think - installing an upper deck in the lower hull makes it tighter below the turret so I am 'winging it' a bit at this stage and kinda hoping I can make it all work
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jackalope
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Re: Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
Apologies but I have missed some previous information, I went back but didn't find where you have what gearboxes you are using. I'm having fitment issues with my Firefly build and these look like they would fit into the narrow H/L lower hull.
Re: Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
Hi jackalope, the gearboxes are the stock Mato ones that come with their all metal version of the M36B1 as well, I'm guessing, their M4A3 Sherman. They are very good gearboxes with all steel gears and ball races throughout. I did, as can be seen, have to do a little minor tweaking but would still thoroughly recommend them. 
If it helps the Mato hull interior/bucket is 100mm wide and around 45mm deep.
I don't know for sure who can supply the Mato gearboxes but I think Forgebear might be worth trying as he does a lot of Mato parts.
If it helps the Mato hull interior/bucket is 100mm wide and around 45mm deep.
I don't know for sure who can supply the Mato gearboxes but I think Forgebear might be worth trying as he does a lot of Mato parts.
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jackalope
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Re: Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
Thank you very much good Dr. and for the measurements as well! I'm having a difficult time finding better gearboxes for my base H/L Sherman lower and I just refuse to use the plastic ones that came with the tank! Not when I've got the Mato T74 duckbill tracks and all upgraded metal bits for the suspension system for Mr.Deans fine Firefly kit! I'm SURE your understand.
I'll take some measurements and if they match up with yours these will save my build! I'm at the point of frustration with these gearboxes!
Thank you again sir!
I'll take some measurements and if they match up with yours these will save my build! I'm at the point of frustration with these gearboxes!
Thank you again sir!
Re: Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
You'll know better than me jackalope but I wouldn't think the plastic gearboxes would be up to the job of driving those heavy metal Mato T74 duckbills. With the quality components you have already put into your Sherman I would definitely only consider metal gears myself as well. Whatever you decide I hope it works out
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HERMAN BIX
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Re: Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
I'm watching on Dr................in quiet amazement
HL JAGDPANTHER,HL TIGER 1,HL PzIII MUNITIONSCHLEPPER, HL KT OCTOPUS,HL PANTHER ZU-FUSS,HL STuG III,HL T34/85 BEDSPRING,
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
Re: Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
Stunning work here Dr, taking something that is admittedly rough round the edges to a degree decided by which side of the bed the mayo operative got up, and turning it into a real diamond! Following with great intrest.
Re: Mato M36B1 Tank Destroyer (full metal)
Just a little update: The lower hull now has the TK24 conversion installed (a super audio upgrade over the TK22 btw) and I have been able fit everything in as intended. Apart from the Clark board a better 10k pot for audio volume control has been added and, next to the main/smoker switch mount, can be seem a small step-down voltage regulator. This was needed because, frankly, running the Tarr smoker straight off the battery was producing too much smoke for realism.
That's all for now folks, as I say a pretty small update. Now though I am looking forward to moving from the internals and on to the scale modelling bit that Painless keeps raising the bar on!
That's all for now folks, as I say a pretty small update. Now though I am looking forward to moving from the internals and on to the scale modelling bit that Painless keeps raising the bar on!
- Attachments
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- Finally, here is a picture of the finished result from the turret side; the 360 swivel drops neatly in place although, as I pointed out, it sits quite a bit forward. This means I may still have limited '360' ability depending on how inventive I can be with the turret wiring, though I'm confident it will work out fine (the tricky stuff is done).
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- I then fitted the metal replacement turret gear ring with bearings from DKLM so as to complete the metal transformation.
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- Returning to the modified 360 swivel bridge, I next fixed blocks to the sides of the upper hull to allow the bridge to slide in place. This is a firm fixing but easily removable if needed.
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- Before fitting the 360 swivel, however, I tested all the Mato upper hull wiring (oh me of little faith :D ). What I found was that the load resistor on the tail lights was woefully inadequate. Doing the math (sort of) I'd reckoned around a 150ohm resistor was needed but what I found was a very sorry looking 60ohm component. These lights are connected direct to the smoker output by Mato. That means on a fully charged NiMh battery up to around 8.6v are pumped to these leds. This is less for the TK24 because it's proportional but with the TK22 it's full voltage all the time. When I put even 6v to the leds through this resistor it became very very hot indeed. In the end I used a readily available 330ohm resistor that allowed a fairly bright tail lights even at the lower proportional output of around 3.0v but run very cool even at the full 8.6 volts.
I thought I would add this for other owners, or potential owners, just to keep an eye on because I really don't think Mato did their homework when hooking up the tail light leds to the smoker output on the Clark board, especially considering they were/are supplying these tanks with the older TK22 (full voltage on the smoker output). The headlight output is controlled by a dedicated output on the Clark board and so doesn't present a problem like this.
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- Moving on to the upper hull, I made a bridge to hold the 360 swivel in place. For this I used 2.0mm aluminum plate (the original is poorly cut plastic on mine - set inset pic) which allowed me to reduce the width of the bridge and produce much stronger fixing with the added bonus that is metal like the rest of the Mato. As can be seen, I also modified the 360 itself to a 2 instead of 3 bolt fixing.
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- The next thing I needed to do was ascertain just where the 360 swivel joint would fit between the new upper deck and the gearbox compartment - as can be seen a snug but feasible place (as I hoped) would be just above next to the Tarr smoker. This places the large 18 wire 360 swivel quite a bit forward from centre of the turret, but it's workable.
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- The two insert pictures show how easy the upper deck can be moved to access and remove the battery below:
Last edited by Dr Phibes on Thu Jul 20, 2017 1:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
