AHHQ 1/16 M113 ACAV R/C Conversion

[MonsieurTox]

Hey guys,

I had to take a break from my forever lasting M4A1 build. I saw Louis's thread about the AHHQ M113 he converted to RC and I thought it would be a nice cool and quick project (he already did all the hard work !). Having converted several static kits to RC in the past and loving the AHHQ kits, I bought it in a heartbeat even if I'm not a Vietnam era guy. And keep that in mind, I have no klnowledge of the material of that era so there could be several mistakes made all along the way.

The build and RCing is actually mostly finished, I now have to do the last details (motorizing the rear door and painting it). Thus it won't be a detailled thread, Louis already made one with everything you need to know ! My build build is basically a copy/paste of his build with minor changes/improvements (and in several areas, with a lot less details ).

To be a bit original, I'm building the ACAV version (M113 with extra armor) because I like the look better.

So lets cover the minor changes I made.

I put ball bearing on all the running gears.

For the road wheels I used flanged bearings.

I had to enlarge the existing hole and make it a bit deeper so I could insert them.

I havent put the wheels in the correct order but you get the idea : on the right the stock kit parts, on the middle the wheel with the modified hole and on the left the wheel with the bearing.

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Unlike Louis, I chose to make all my torsion bar from 1.2mm stainless steel (he used 1.5mm on the front ones). I use small springs on the front shock absorbers (not on the rear ones).

Since the inner diameter of my bearings are 5mm and the kit suspension arm shafts are 4mm I used a piece of 5mm OD/4mm ID brass tubing. It also helps to prevent the styrene shaft from breaking when using the self taping screw.

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I don't like to have plastic on plastic moving parts (that quickly turns into styrene dust) so I used a small bearing for the sprocket. I made a styrene support for it.

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Same for the idler. I used the same flanged bearing than the ones I used for the roadwheels with, here again, a piece of 5mm brass tubing to enlarge the kitpart shaft.

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I was a bit worried about the strength of the idler assembly but it holds well since there is no tension on the tracks, there's not a lot of stress on it.

The speaker... Once again I did like Louis and put it in the fuel tank.

For the fun, and since it was unseen, I decided to drill the holes by eye without taking any measurements. Pretty useless but sometimes you have to judge your accuracy with no tool !

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I'm using the same Tamiya gearbox, everything is a tight fit in the engine compartment.

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Routing the cables of the headlights :

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Since you all have eagle eyes you noticed some magnets on the back of the engine door. It helps to get the front shield sitting properly, otherwise there's a gap, there's a problem with the design of the kit in this area, like Louis I had to shave some bolts, but it still was not perfect and did not close perfectly so I had to used magnet, it also helps so the shield doesnt fall in the down position while running...

[MonsieurTox]

I have installed small warm white LEDs for the headlights and the inside.

That's where I am today.

It runs like a charm, I'm very pleased. Now I will have to paint and weather it and like I said, I'm not a Vietnam guy so I'm a bit scared about it.

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[Pavel]

It turns out very well!

[HERMAN BIX]

You jokers make this look easy !!

[Herr Dr. Professor]

..while I struggle to update the RTR electronics and make my old, bone stock Challenger 2 look decent.

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[MonsieurTox]

Thanks guys, I'mreally enjoying this build.
Even without all the aftermarket Louis used on his build it's still a very détailles model.

..while I struggle to update the RTR electronics and make my old, bone stock Challenger 2 look decent.old man crying.jpg

Sometimes working on RTR tanks is more work to make them look decent!

[MonsieurTox]

I have started to paint the interior.
I did a very light weathering, not sure if I should go further with that or not... I may just add some vietnam dust and that would be enough.
I still have some details to paint.

Putting the decals on the radio was quite a challenge, lots of them are not even 0.5mm

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Those drove me crazy !

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[MonsieurTox]

Some pictures with the lights on :

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Not a lot can be seen through the driver hatch :

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[tankme]

The detail of the kit and the build looks very good. I already have too many projects...but I would love a nice M113.

[MonsieurTox]

I too have too many projects but this kit was crying to get built!

Some news pics, added more wires, some details on the right wall that were missing, the glacis is now fixed. I've put a small geared motor to operate the rear door. I managed to get the wire under the floor but the motor has some hard time to close the door. I had a better geared motor (with worm gear) but it has too slow RPM, it was taken forever to close or open... I ordered more with higher RPM but I was too in a rush to close the front.

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Putting the floor was quite hard, fit was not good at all I had to do some serious trimming in order to get it where it should be.