Jagdpanther HL with Tamiya upgrade

[xrad]

IU'm sure this has been done, but here is another!

Bought an HL metal traCK JP today. Man, it is a nice big tank and very strong runner. HL redisigned the gearboxes so the the motor of right side drive is now better mounted and does not skip teeth.  Anyway, I also bought from 'Jason's store' a tamiya metal hull,Impact torsion bars, tamiya metal swing arms, upgrade drive and idler wheels. The plan is to switchout HL upper hull and build the lower hull, and get them to work together.

Also bought some metal extras like drive wheels guards, vairable smokers...etc... Pics to follow.
Cheers

[fv432]

Nice start xrad cant wait to see some piccies

[xrad]

Jason's Store (JS)of Japan sent out parts REALLY FAST! only ordered last week.

Tamiya hull(one, JS )
suspension arms (bought the 18 pack in case I break one, JS)
torsion bars w/tensioners(one set, JS)
torsion arm mounts (16, JS)
torsion rod mounts (two, JS)
Tamiya Rear bulkhead (does not fit really well, JS)
Metal drive guards (two from ETO)
Tow hooks (real nice brass from ETO, made by Aber)
Metal wheels (16, with rubber and axles all ball bearing, real nice) The axles fit perfectly in the Tamiya torsion arms!!
Metal drive wheel and idlers w/idler BB's.

Need to get grub screws and all mounting screws..local Aerotech hobbies

Well, i guess if you add it all up, it will probably be about 500$ when done, but I don;t have to buy a radio system. And some of the upgrades, I would have done to the tamiya version also.

Still waiting on Impact torsion rods/springs, proportional smoke unit, some other little parts..

Assembly:

Spenty a little time this evening fitting motors and wheels....As someone else already stated, the angle of thelower glacis plate is more acute to horizontal thereby limiting the HL gearbox fitment. I had a spare set of Tamiya motors, but they had a short output shaft. Otherwise, the fit fine. ALSo, Tamiya motors have three screw standoffs elevating them above the torsion arms.

Side note: Three plastic mounting screw motor studs were sheared off on my HL hull, two on one side and one on the other side. There are only six total. Thought things sounded a little noisy when driving around the other day...nice....

Bought a Tamy rear plate and this fit nicely (~10$? from JS) to Tamy hull. I tried the HL rear plate but it did not fit quite as well. Also, Bolt detail better on Tamy, but both have nearly identical details from 6 inches away.  The bolt pattern on the taillight is nicer on the Tamy, but it will be ground off anyway for real lighting....

I will have to fab some towing plates for rear end. I will extend these to include the idler mounts for better support.

Cheers

[Wight]

Nice selection of goodies!
Should be a good runner once finished,and reliable.

Steve.

[BREL]

tha Impact torsion bar suspension is a pain to set up, but once done is well worth it

[xrad]

why difficult? don;t you just fix one and set all the rest up the same way? Going to do one with the rails in the hull, get it clocked right, then remove rails and do all the rest outside hull.

Of course, first switch out will be to allen head screws.

[xrad]

Tamy hull, torsion stays, and upgrade drive wheel guards.

Placed HL top hull in place, almost perfect fit with tammy rear hull panel. Just a little gap in the front.

yep, I know, the lift hooks are backward....

[xrad]

Worked on the rear bulkhead and hull:

1) tammy bulkhead is good fit, made for aluminum hull. Have to add the side tow supports. cut off HL side pieces and reversed them. Then cut off the tow eye and placed them both INBOARD where they should be.
2) made smoker exhausts in semi scale proportions. brass tube through housing. Housings from HL and carefully drilled bulkhead and mounted. Made aluminum supports for exhaust shrouds.
3) allen head screws for all torsion arm mounts. each had to be ground down for arm swing clearance. blue locktite on all. and small nuts on inside for extra work for myself....
4) drive housing off HL, drilled and mounted...again..all allen head. locking nuts on inside.

...upper deck will sit lower inside of rear bulkhead eventually
...easier to grind screws when all in place in the hull

[grim_marmazet]

Its looking sweet xrad! I like seeing these hybrid jobs coming together. DO you plan on adding the Tamiya barrel traverse?
Cheers,
Rik

[xrad]

Don;t know about the traverse yet. Had to straighten out the HL barrel as it was pointed left a few degrees.

Update:

Tried to save money and use the HL gearboxes. No matter what, the bulkhead would have to be cut to get everything to fit. Well, I did not want to undo the nice lines of the Tammy hull. So, I bought a set of Tammy JP gearboxes (longer output shaft). Unfortunately , Not long enough. Once you add the metal HL wheel upgrade (VERY nice, with BB's and great bolt detail), everything ligned up perfectly EXCEPT the drive wheels. Drive shaft about 5 mm too short!!

So, what to do. HL driveshafts too short for tammy gearbox....I read that someone had a friend lathe some new drive shafts. I don;t know anyone with a small lathe so next best thing was to extend Tammy drive shaft.

PART A)    TIP: measure 3 times, and then cut everything long anyway!! Easier to grind down than to start over!
This is done with a short piece of hobby stainless tubing carefully cut to proper length. I then cut the flat part off the tammy driveshaft.  Then 3mm bolt hole drilled through ss coupler and tammy driveshaft making sure that the bolt was free to turn and not hit the hull.

Next, the end of the HL JP driveshaft was cut off and carefully sized to fit the coupler, so that the proper track alignment was maintained.

Finally, the final coupler 3mm bolt hole drilled at 90 degrees to first one so that wobble is minimized.  Put it all together and ran the tracks...WOW...SUPER SMOOTH and quiet operation. Driveshaft with nearly no wobble.

PART B) the front torsion arms take much force and I wanted them to keep the track fairly tight.  So I designed a shock system to assist the torsion arms. One side done as pictured. Other side more difficult and will have arm extend from torsion rod, running the shock rod down between the motors.

PART C) rear idler system upgraded with the addition of two small shock springs. These do not keep tension. That is done by the threaded bolt with a hidden retaining collar (hidden by the springs).

PART D) every tooth on the 'upgrade' drive sprockets had to be filed a little to get the tracks to run smoothly

Next..do the other side. Still waiting for the Impact torsion arms to get here.