Matorro King Tiger w/ Tamiya-HL upgrade

xrad · Post by **xrad** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:20 pm

Thanks TM!

Decided to do the guards over in .015 inch brass. It bends just fine and holds the shape and is much more scale! Received my screw bags from Welsh Dragon and ETO armor. Some of the Schumo screw kits are slightly different even with the same kit number. Screw heads are thicker (gues depends when they were made or who the schumo suppier is) I was able to use most of the bolts. They look really nice and are close to scale size (not exact) but I want something that will hold up to a few collisions, too!

Just trace your paper cutouts on the brass (took two sheets) and cut them all out at same time (Need to make 10), Then trim some thin strip for guard guides. Now I looked at 100 KT mud guard pics. They all seem to have the guide flange on the front of two adjacent guards. This does not make sense to me. The tracks, if they rub from inside, will not make any effect since the guide is on the outside. However, if the guid rubs against something on the outsid, it will snag and bend. SO, i placed the guid strip on the rear of any two adjacent guards....Modelers discretion I guess...

ALSO, today was another great day for the mailcarrier and myself! He brought to me a set of AWSOME LATE MODEL KT tracks!! These are the single link style (without the little in between link)The molding is absoultely fantastic from every angle WITH undercutting and all supports and grips as a nearly scale copy of the originals! I got these from Bill at RCCommand on special order. He got them to me VERY fast. Just beautiful work by Impact(I think). And they come with 18 tooth wheels that fit Tammy axles (two flats on drive shaft). also come with spare links. These are definately cast with right and left sides being side dependent. Quite extraordinary! Very happy with them!

Pics:

tankmad · Post by **tankmad** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:26 pm

Nice work on the track guards.

Stevie

xrad · Post by **xrad** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:23 am

Thanks TM! Today, I finished track guards for right side. Much faster when you have a pattern. Cut, bend, solder, drill, mount.

Received rear track guard. cast pot metal. Nice detail on small hinge. I was not impressed at all by the hull mount hinge casting. One came cracked and one just fell apart in my fingers. Both broke at bolt mounting holes, so this may be a weak point. Anyway, I planned ahead and bought the set that fits the matorro plastic hull hinge half (probably fits Tammy..don''t know) so no problem mounting. DIRECT fit! NICE. There is another multi-piece rear hinge (schumo?), but it has a different hinge. Both look good. one is cheaper in price and quality.

Also, received a set of Impact gear sets in stainless. For the price, I was less than impressed.

Bad side:
1)The gear teeth rubbed on spacer shafts enough for me to take both sets apart and re-arrange and mix the gears from one to the other to get them running smoothly.
2) shaft alignment not square
3) low quality machining of gear bores, one slightly off center and all seemed to be drilled with old garbage drillbits
4) low quality machining of teeth, actually, they appear cast with a little filing here and ther to clean them up.
5) stainless housing not exactly square
6) housing put together with cheap metal phillips screws which were glued in place with a nearly unbreakable locktite formula. I had to drill out all of them and remove from backside with pliers. These were all replaced with allen head dubro 3mm screws (after chasing the threads as they were not exactly 3mm (2.9??..some slight undersize from worn tap..)
7) does NOT come with Tammy motor spacers (so you need to have a spare set of 6 )
8. Price with shipping is NOT cheap compared to the well made (although with some nylon gears) Tammy boxes.
9) Need for shimming washers on mounts to get the shafts to align correctly with hull

The GOOD side:
1) drop down removeable gearing! WITH extra ratios available.
2) VERY nicely machined aluminum motor spacer and decent motor mount screws.
3) Stainless everything. VERY strong housing. VERY tough gears. I doubt this will every wear out in my lifetime, even if things don't align exactly!
4) Very close fit to tammy hull mount holes...holes needed slight widening for best alignment (1mm or so). Easy to shim.
5) multiple shaft lengths for almost every Tammy model (these for KT were TU2)
6) very close to cross country scale speed with drop down gear installed (so you really don;t have to buy any more gear sets for KT)
7) Tammy motors/pinions and spacers and gearboxes went together perfectly.
8. Ball bearings on both sides of output shaft. VERY strong output shaft. In fact, I will have to strengthen the tammy hull with bracing as well as add motor supports.
9) Fast shipping with Fed Ex!
10) Good email contact from seller.

I don't think this was a bad purchase by any means. Overall, very tough gearset. But, I think that the manufacturer could do a much better job with quality control for the price. If I had to do it again, I would strongly consider Tammy gearboxes with 3:1 bolt on gearset. Overall, about the same price.

BREL · Post by **BREL** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 8:35 am

Xrad, great work on the KT
I have Impact gear boxes in both my Sherman and Jagdpanther with the reduction gears in place and find them very noisy, Impact could do a better job of quality control, when you have finished the work on your tank and get it running, please post a report on the running and noise levels of the Impact gearboxes

Shi-So · Post by **Shi-So** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:32 pm

Nice work!
I would like ask you about painting withtractor red.
You aplied the colour separetly on parts or paint it as complete (compound)?

xrad · Post by **xrad** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 6:53 pm

Brel: boxes are a little noisey, but not much more than my other boxes. Plan to use some valve grinding compound to smooth up the teeth faces ( run in on table out of tank..before final assembly)

Paint: I just cleaned the hull of residue with alcohol and sprayed tractor red on. It is made for metal and is pretty durable so far. Hull sprayed assembled. Two coats over 48 hours.

raven · Post by **raven** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:01 pm

hi xrad your KT is looking really good havent got very far with mine yet

chris

xrad · Post by **xrad** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:45 pm

Thanks! Busy with work and have not had much time to work on it...maybe this weekend

xrad · Post by **xrad** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:58 am

I was looking for some detail pics for this model. I wanted to check out the weld seems on the deck. Found this great post at another website by one of our members, Hatakashi. THANKS! excellent pics! for anyone building a KT. Apparently ,he had a "Special" pass that allows you to climb all over a museum piecs and take great photos

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... 1%26um%3D1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

xrad · Post by **xrad** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 1:03 am

Pics: Finished the side and rear guards. Fronts almost done but due to fragile quality, I will install later. Thanks to Hatakashi's excellent pics(of which I used one below from website above, Thanks), I found the weld seems to duplicate and upper hull work will soon continue.

Upon close inspecton of many pics of the side skirts, it seems that on one side , the trailing edge of the leading guards has the 'extra' retaining strip down its side. On othe pics, the front edge of the leading guards has the guide strip down its side. Looks side dependent, meaning that you see this on one side and opposite construction on the other.Not that it really matters, but maybe this was to easily identify which side the guards go on??

Anyway, I did it my way with the trailing edge having the extra side guid strip as you can see in the photos.

Cammo will be olive green base (yes, there is some debate over this color) with brown and tan ...should look good.