Tamiya 1/35 M60A2 motorized RC 1974 vintage >RRC

[modler]

Tamiya Scale series NO.48

Tamiya, made single motor "Motorized" models and dual motor "Motorized Remote Control" military model kits. Both are all metal gearbox setups. Not sure how long they made these great kits but am thinking late 60's, and through the 70s, partly through the 80's... As a kid, I never managed to get one of the metal drive kits because they cost much more money and were rare even back then. This year a lot of these kits suddenly showed up on ebay just before Christmas 2019. I managed to get two of these "motorized remote control" kits before prices jumped to the moon

The first kit I will present here is a M60A2. This kit had parts in in from 1970, 1974 So I am assuming it is 1974 vintage Tamiya kit. I never noticed before but the "parts trees" have dates on them. I have posted pictures of this below.

Now the Remote Control on these kits consists of a "wired 2 ch controller" so the model has wires coming out the back to the controller. Hey, that is all we had back then and we were thrilled to have that! Of course these days, I build these models a "Radio Remote Control" So there are now "motorized Radio Remote Control" as I present them here.

Power source 1s 130mah lipo. The stock motors are wires in series.

M60 on the white table run... https://youtu.be/iwq_9JeL0Wg
Bridge video... https://youtu.be/rRs8ZUh1FZo

[c.rainford73]

Very nice to see a smaller scale vintage model come to life! As most of us can look back and relate with fondness, the wired motorized models are all we had.

[Von Mooflesaaa]

That looks like a little beast, cannot wait to see you paint it all up.

[modler]

That looks like a little beast, cannot wait to see you paint it all up.

Yes it is a little beast. I spent a lot of time tweaking the tracks, suspension, chassis, GB so that the tracks stay on and everything is smooth in its operation before actually building the outer hull.

I noticed Von Mooflesaaa you have a "Elefant" tank as your avatar, I recently bought a Nichimo 1/35 "Elefant" motorized remote control kit that has a metal gearbox that looks just like the Tamiya version. I will be doing a thread on that model soon.

[modler]

Very nice to see a smaller scale vintage model come to life! As most of us can look back and relate with fondness, the wired motorized models are all we had.

Very true. I was not fortunate enough to own one of these motorized scale models as a young modler and was pining for them a long time before finally getting my share lol.

I forgot to mention that this M60 has torsion bar suspension. It is very stiff but does have some give but as lightweight as this M60 model is with its 130 mah 1s lipo, the suspension deflection will be moderate at best lol.

Also some pictures of the factory "remote control system"

[c.rainford73]

Super cool

[Von Mooflesaaa]

Oh brilliant, I shall be following that thread my man, one of my fav tanks.

[modler]

I finally got a video of this beast. It is difficult to shot video and drive the Tank on the Table as I would be very unhappy if I drove it off the edge to its DOOM

WEll, that is not going to happen but if I had some help I could do a much better video but this video does show and good running
tank.

M60 white table video... https://youtu.be/iwq_9JeL0Wg

Climbing the bridge video...https://youtu.be/rRs8ZUh1FZo

[c.rainford73]

Excellent job. Moves really well

[modler]

Excellent job. Moves really well

This M60 has a custom speed control that piggybacks the 2ch radio control receiver. Here is what it does.

left stick moved forward position, Tank ramps up to Max speed, Left stick back to neutral position, Tank ramps down after a few seconds to a low speed forward, then after it travels about 3 feet at low speed, comes to a stop. So in effect, it has a deceleration with timed delay that allows it to continue forward at low speed for 3 feet before coming to a stop. At any time, Left stick can be moved down which would cause the Tank to stop before throttle time out. If Left stick held down after the Tank has stopped, it will start to reverse in direction. Right stick is used at any time the Tank is moving to steer left\right also the turns are done keeping the track in the direction of the turn at a low speed which makes for a smooth controlled turn in either direction and is proportional to the ESC speed as it ramps up and down, much like a piston engine does.

This speed control helps me when doing a video as I know where the Tank will stop after I let go of the throttle to run the camera or move the focal point of the camera which requires taking your eye of the Tank while it is moving on a table 2.5'' of the ground