It’s a Sparmax Max 4 dual action along with a Timbertech ABPST08 compressor. Fairly straightforward but its my first ever airbrush. I’ve gotten the hang of using it for single colour base coating fairly quickly, but camouflage patterns are surprisingly challenging. The compressor was a good choice though, its max volume is a relatively quiet 50 decibels, plus it has a 3 litre tank so it only fires up when it needs to.
The next bits have arrived; the slip ring and the barrel flash and smoke kit. The latter is an Open Fire branded rather than Heng Long but functions the same way with a few minor differences. The most notable is that this doesn’t make use of the trigger switch in the recoil system, so I was able to remove that and reduce the turret wiring.
What followed has been a mix of positive and negative elements. The first positive is the Heng Long slip ring is compatible with the Taigen turret ring – so anyone else who has stuffed HL electronics into a Taigen tank should get themselves a HL slip ring if they haven’t already. Unfortunately there is no servo provision on the slip ring which means any servo connections, like the recoil system in mine, will need their own wire going straight into the MFU. Unsurprisingly it doesn’t support the barrel smoker either so that’s an additional cable going direct into the MFU. Despite this it greatly simplifies the wiring and is a welcome addition.
Installing the IR emitter was a simple enough task along with adding magnets to keep the IR receiver in position on top of the turret. I need to sort out some extra plugs/wiring for the receiver so that remains unusable for the time being.
The smoker presented some obstacles which I was luckily able to overcome. I found it impossible to get the flash LED wire and the supplied smoke tube down the barrel at the same time. I don’t know if the interior diameter of Taigen barrels is slightly smaller than HL, but after a great deal of time spent trying it was a no go. I was able to resolve this by using a slightly smaller tube so they would both fit, but that meant when firing some smoke would come out the barrel entrance and into the turret. I ended up putting a stop to it by sealing up the barrel with hot glue – not the tidiest solution but it resolved the issue.
Mounting the smoker was the next challenge. As planned I drilled a hole in the BB tray to make way for the refill port, but being designed for Heng Long tanks none of the holes lined up, and it wasn’t possible to use my original plan of drilling mounting screws into the BB tray as that would render the in/out smoke ports unusable, or the positioning would make routing the tubes without kinking them impossible. I decided instead to try simply using hot glue to hold the smoker in position, which looked to be successful.
Following I installed the smoker motor using double sided foam tape to secure it, and conscious of the weight of the gun and recoil system I’ve tried to balance the weight of the turret as much as possible. The smoker system has a screw on the PCB that is used to control how much long the motor runs and I wanted to keep this accessible, so I mounted the board using double sided foam tape and a couple of Warhammer bases as spacers.
Initially, success! Except I discovered a problem the following morning. It turns out the smoker gets hot enough to soften the glue – not hot enough to melt it but enough that the smoker shifts position. Luckily the connection to the motor and the PCB stop it from moving too much, but I wanted to resolve this in case it became an issue later.
I was unable to come up with a solution to secure it to the turret roof, so decided the best way forward was to support it from underneath. The glue will soften when in use, but if it can’t move then its not a problem, and once turned off it hardens again and goes back to normal. I added some plasticard supported by green stuff to the turret floor with a couple more Warhammer bases glued together at an angle to account for the slight tilt of the smoker. When assembled the structure is further supported by magnets.
Not a pretty solution but it’s been several days now and it looks to have resolved the issue.
I’ve installed the slip ring and now the turret interior is quite a bit more crowded than it used to be.
The slip ring makes things much tidier.
The refill port is accessible from the commander’s cupola and does not interfere with the figurine.
Installation has been successful and so far has been quite a crowd pleaser. I also like how there are lingering whisps of smoke that persist after firing.
Aside from the extra wiring for the IR receiver, the only remaining interior electrical component to be added is the exhaust smoker, once they’re back in stock. Now I’ve got an airbrush and can just mask everything else off I might look at painting the inside of the hatches white. I’ve noticed Forgebear is now selling a British driver figure so that might be something to add for diorama purposes.
