Amateur Build. HAYA Centurion KIT

[zooma]

The hull mounting for the HAYA Centurion is a moulded tongue, so I would not be able to bend it downwards, but I am hoping to be able to file some material off of its length to allow the glacis plate to sit down onto the hull better.

I did a 3d printed option that is of a slightly tigher fit with the intent to enforce the side as well. See https://cults3d.com/:2317126

Your paint work is really good. I simply love all the weathering effects and details.

Thanks ongbenghui,

Does your 3D printed modified body mounting "tongue" pull the deck down tighter into the hull to remove the gap between the bottom of the glacis plate and the front of the hull?

If it does, I will ask someone to print a copy for me to try.

Bob.

[jarndice]

Better yet as this seems to be a relatively common problem shouldn't Haya be addressing a fix if indeed they can identify a problem.
Perhaps a free fix for the price of the postage.

[zooma]

I am getting a 3D printed hull mounted body mount (tongue) made to the design by ongbenghui to see if it will pull the deck down tighter onto the hull to remove the gap at the bottom of the glacis plate.

Spray masks from Rad are also on the way to me, so my HAYA Centurion KIT will be getting some more attention over the next couple of weeks or so....

If all goes well, I will get another 3D printed mount made for my RTR HAYA Centurion as it has exactly the same gap as my KIT Centurion, so I would like to fix them both .

[jarndice]

ONGBENGHUI is going to become very popular in the near future if the mod works.

[ongbenghui]

Does your 3D printed modified body mounting "tongue" pull the deck down tighter into the hull to remove the gap between the bottom of the glacis plate and the front of the hull?

If it does, I will ask someone to print a copy for me to try.

It closed up a fair bit for me but there is still a line. This is the effect.

IMG20250104115213 (1).jpg (46.18 KiB) Viewed 715 times

[zooma]

Does your 3D printed modified body mounting "tongue" pull the deck down tighter into the hull to remove the gap between the bottom of the glacis plate and the front of the hull?

If it does, I will ask someone to print a copy for me to try.

It closed up a fair bit for me but there is still a line. This is the effect.

IMG20250104115213 (1).jpg

That is a big improvement ongbenhui

[Meter rat]

I am getting a 3D printed hull mounted body mount (tongue) made to the design by ongbenghui to see if it will pull the deck down tighter onto the hull to remove the gap at the bottom of the glacis plate.

Being a simple lazy soul that I am. Could you not just fill the gap with some plastic, and paint?

[jarndice]

With the exception of Tamiyas sandwich hull I have bought all the metal hulls of the PZ4 in 1/16 available, None of them were free of problems and I would not recommend any of them,
One of them was too long which forced me to extend the glacis with a section of 4mm Plasticard, it looks fine on the shelf but I would not be happy running the tank on a rough surface just trusting to a line of SupaGlue, I would have the same doubt with a tank as big and heavy as the Haya Centurion.

[tankme]

Being that the 3D printed mount is 3D printed, what would be the harm in shaving a little plastic off the bottom of it? That would make it mount lower and therefore close the gap. If you screw up and take too much off...you can always print another or put a few washers under it to raise it back up. Just a thought.

[zooma]

Being that the 3D printed mount is 3D printed, what would be the harm in shaving a little plastic off the bottom of it? That would make it mount lower and therefore close the gap. If you screw up and take too much off...you can always print another or put a few washers under it to raise it back up. Just a thought.

I noticed that when I push the glacis plate down it wants to spring back up again - suggesting that it is being pushed upwards by the lower mounting plate so I started to make some small adjustments to try to lower the angle of the lower mounting plate.

Shaving some plastic off of the underside of the kit "lower mounting plate" to make the angle a little shallower worked to some degree, and the gap is now slightly smaller.

The above did not completely solve the problem so I took a look at the top pair of mounting points and shaved a little off of their individual mounting bases to make them pull a little harder against the lower mounting plate. This also helped a little - but not much.

Maybe the length of the lower mounting plate "tongue" is pushing against the underside of the glacis plate? I will try to shorten it a little and see if they helps too. ****** I didn't try this in the end.......see more recent notes......*****

Although I have a 3D printed lower mounting plate on its way to me, I want to see if I can resolve the problem by using the original parts.

As a matter of interest, when I unscrewed the lower mounting plate I noticed that it was under some pressure to pull the sides of the hull together and when the two front mounting screws were removed the holes in the mounting plate were too close together to align with those in the metal return wheel holding castings.

I removed the tracks so I could in turn remove the two cast alloy return wheel mounts and "dressed" them a little so that they would sit further inside the hull until the mounting holes aligned better with those in the lower mounting plate. This allowed the two lower mounting plate screws to stand upright and no longer angled outwards at their tops!

Removing the sideways pressure of the mounting screws on the lower mounting plate may be helpful when the 3D printed version arrives as I am not so sure that it will be anything like as strong as the original HAYA KIT moulded part - and I dont want to break it before I have had a chance to see how well it works on my Centurion.

Meanwhile, I am trying to work out how much I can remove from the length of the lower mounting plate without stopping it working. I think I will start with removing 5mm and see what happens! ***** I decided against this idea, even though the idea (not the amount) was suggested to me by Andrew at HAYA as a possible fix......see later notes.....*****