RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

[lmcq11]

Walk around of the turret

The Heng Long Sherman cupola was modified. It was reduced in size from the bottom, and was removed of some features not seen on the M24.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

This is the radio mount type as seen on French M24 at DBP.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The periscope slot on the TC hatch is a leftover from a Nick Aguilar Sherman conversion kit.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The gunner's hatch was made non functional. I determined it was too large and impractical to play with it on a RC vehicle. The removable roof would have been quite weak otherwise. I still have to give it its small brass handle and lock.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The turret ventilator cover and close up on the gunners hatch hinge. The rim around the ventilator is taken from a Heng Long Sherman turret and significantly reduced and refined.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

A Heng Long turret side port was used as material for the M24 port, trimmed and modified to look like one.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Capture18.JPG (91.2 KiB) Viewed 1391 times

The rear bin, minus its locking latch.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The frontal cast section of the turret was given layers of superglue that mimics cast texture. it will be more apparent when the model is painted.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Continuing on following post

[lmcq11]

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

I gave the turret detail some consistent heavy welding lines with mainly putty reinforced with a superglue coating. I will see how it looks once painted. This is the kind of detailing that can be easily removed and redone as required depending on results. I am also seeing a few things that i have missed and to be added later. The roof periscope was taken from a Tamiya Sherman turret from the Junk yard, leftover from a Nick Aguilar Sherman 76mm turret conversion build.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

On late M24, the mount for the smoke mortar at the front right of the turret was welded shut, and sometimes used as a base for an additional radio antenna, as seen here.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Capture21.JPG (89.01 KiB) Viewed 1391 times

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The model as it stands today. The next step are the tracks and fenders. But as i am still waiting for the tracks and the tracking tells me it will make it next week, i will use the next few days to finish the M113 Lynx build.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Happy holidays everyone !

Regards, Louis

[c.rainford73]

Astonishing work Louis! Details are outstanding Have a great Holiday

[lmcq11]

Astonishing work Louis! Details are outstanding Have a great Holiday

Hi Carl ! I am glad to hear from you. Happy holidays to you as well !
Louis

[lmcq11]

Hi,

The following two posts are for the tracks.

From pictures taken in Dien Bien Phu, it seems that Conti was the only tank equipped with T85E1 tracks with rubber shoes, the other 9 tanks had the early T72E1 all metal tracks. The decision as to which tank to reproduce was therefore simple. Notice the extra ammunition carried externally on the chassis. Storage space inside the vehicle was limited, it was customary to load the tanks with as much ammo as possible. This seems real dangerous because tanks often had to mutually machine gun each other in order to clear enemy sappers that were climbing on them with satchel charges, not mentioning mortar artillery that was constantly making direct hits on the tanks, with limited damage.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

From the outside, the Chaffee T85E1 tracks and sprockets are similar to the Sherman T48 tracks with rubber chevron with the exception that it has a single tooth in the middle instead of two teeth located on the side connectors. Important here to note is the width of the roadwheels within the tracks. The wheels do not extend over the connectors, which explain why i had to reduce them in width earlier on the build.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

View of the return rollers and the single tooth on the track.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

After further analysis, i determined that the Mato metal and plastic tracks that i had planned to use were too thick, not enough flexible and too complex to modify. I therefore analysed further and purchase a set of all metal Heng Long Sherman T-48 (look alike) tracks with double pins. They are quite expensive. The double pins are a real improvement compared to the models that has one of the pins molded in with the tracks, and therefore much less flexible. The teeth are surprisingly still molded directly on the pads instead of being attached to the connectors. This is so unrealistic. That was actually a bonus for me here as it made the modification a lot more simple.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Close up on the new Heng Long T48 metal tracks with double pins.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The teeth are snapped off the pads using pliers. Most of them were completely removed with one side pull.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

But then, the Dremel was required for heavy clean up of the residual material with a regular sanding drum. The prototype is shown here compared to the original.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

It took about 1 hour of work to clean the tracks, and done outside with protection equipment.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Both tracks are prepared. As the Chaffee is smaller than the Sherman, i have a few spares available, if required.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Then the central teeth needed to be done.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Continuing on following post

[lmcq11]

The central teeth are roughly made with 2mm thick plasticard

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

I thought of getting rid of the hole on the pad with more sanding but then i decided to make use of it. In order to give more strength to the teeth, a few deep scratches are done in the metal, this will give a better anchor for the superglue. The hole is then filled with superglue and a tooth is placed over each, extending to the front and back. The hole center serving as a location point, ensuring the teeth is centrally positioned.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The teeth are let to dry in place for 12 hours, then they are finetuned with sanding sticks and scalpel.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

All edges are rounded smooth. As these are not too visible, i did not bother trying to make them perfect. There are quite solidly in place. In any cases, there is not a lot of pressure that goes on them. The tracks are numerous, narrow and the spacing between roadwheels is quite tight, the teeth therefore only need to sustain limited lateral force. Each track link was tested for solidity, i only had to redo two of them. The process worked.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The tracks are mounted on the tank, finally...

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Here we have a set of quite realistic M24 Chaffee T85E1 tracks. Perfect spacing of the road wheels running on the tracks, no overlap on the connectors, this is good. This is the look i wanted to achieve. The hard work done earlier on the road wheels paid off. The is No Way i was going to make my M24 run on Panzer III tracks and sprockets...

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

To fit the tracks on the metal sprockets, I had to reduce the width of the sprockets by removing about 2mm on the central connection between the two halves, perfect fit now. I also sanded the chevrons a bit to remove the strait edge. I am pretty much fed up with metal sanding, but now its done.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The other tracks before mounting. Notice the use of Shapeways 3D printed M41A3 Walker Bulldog 4 pin hub caps instead of M-26 Pershing 6 pin hub caps coming with the Heng Long road wheels.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

The running train and tracks were tested for about 10 minutes, everything is running very smooth. Not one single issue was encountered with the tracks during motorization tests, although i need to rework one of the return roller not correctly positioned. Overall, i am happy with the results, this is a load off.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Next step; as can be expected, i can't wait to put on fenders on the tank.

RC 1/16 M-24 Chaffee light tank- Dien Bien Phu 1954 - Build

Regards, Louis

[Manu-Military]

This must be one of the most oustanding scratch built model I've ever seen in this scale for quite a while.

[Ad Lav]

Louis, amazing work.

Astounded by not only your scratch building, your write ups are enjoyable and informative. Keep it up

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Louis, I am amazed that the cyanoacrylate can hold up to any kind of side pressure. Cyanoacrylate is weak when it comes to side forces. However, there have been many improvements over the years. What brand did you use. If it works this well, I want to get some!

[lmcq11]

Louis, I am amazed that the cyanoacrylate can hold up to any kind of side pressure. Cyanoacrylate is weak when it comes to side forces. However, there have been many improvements over the years. What brand did you use. If it works this well, I want to get some!

Hi Herr Dr. Professor. If enough force is applied sideways to the tip of the track tooth, it will break. But these teeth are to align the tracks on the road wheels, They are kept trait and the pressure of the road wheels is mostly applied to the root. Looks like it is holding and will be ok. I ran the vehicle for 10 minutes on the house floor, did not loose a single tooth. The real trial will be to turn the vehicle outside over hard surface like usually do, i'll see in the spring.

Plan B is to drill a hole 2mm wide by 2mm deep in the center of every track link, design and 3D print teeth with the 2mm anchor that will slide into the hole, and do it 146 times. I am really trying to avoid that.

For the past decade, all my builds were done with cheap superglue packs purchased by the dozen every 3 months or so at the dollar store. I like these little tubes. Individual tube dispensers do not clog by the time they are empty. Small tubes limit vapors and smell, and allow for more precision. I found that this brand to work better for me than others. I has a "shock effect" that stick items in place on first contact, then it dries fast. It makes excellent filler too. It can be sanded in minutes after application. I especially value sanding superglue while it is still wet, it creates filler mixed with plasticard dust that is extremely solid. Superglue does not alter parts by melting them. It does not get me high after indoor use. When errors are made, parts can be easily snapped off before the glue is fully dry, and repositioned. Where extra strength is required, the trick is to provide the glue with rugged surfaces to adhere to, i always avoid glossy surfaces anyway. I know a lot of guys dislike superglue for many reasons. We all have our methods. This works for me.

Superglue