I bought my Panzer of Ebay - £49.99 - no sound or smoke
All seemed ok - worked out of the box and I was quite pleased. However, after joining the forum and reading the stuff on the web, I realised that I had not made the best choice as this is the standard model and would need quite a bit of upgrading. Hey ho, you live and learn.
The first thing I decided to upgrade was the suspension which looked a bit fragile to say the least - I went for the Asiatam upgrade from Welsh Dragon - easy to fit - just a matter of removing the plastic ones and replacing with the much stonger metal ones
You have to split the HL wheels by gently prizing apart with a flat blade screw driver they can then be reused.
The next thing I tackled was the engine air intake - removing these to chop the top out was a bit of a struggle as Heng Long seem to have been visited by the glue fairy! - After a good deal of buggering around I managed to get them cut out
I used the photo etch grills - again from Welsh Dragon.
A few weeks went past until I felt the urge to carry on - I experimented with a couple of things in the mean time such as rust - using "real" rust!!
I came across some Mato 3:1 brasss gears on Ebay and decided to upgrade. -
The gears arrived - a couple of poor quality M3 grub screws needed to be replaced - but apart from that they were ok. A quick note on running the gears in - you can use tooth paste - but it will take ages and ages! Stump up £3 or £4 and get some proper grinding paste - much quicker and does a far better job. I used a cordless drill to drive the motors - about an hour in each direction seemed to be good enough to be able to turn the gears by turning the drive shaft by hand. The mounting plate that came with the gears was too small to fit the Panzer III and the Ebay seller was a complete waste of space, so I had to cut the plate in half and secure through the bottom of the tank using M3 nuts and bolts; I took this opportunity to raise the drive sprockets the regulation 3mm.
The gears worked well - though I was very surprised how much extra weight they added to the tank.
I was never happy with the RX-13 controller fitted in the tank - no proportional speed just go and stop - this exposed my dodgy driving on many occasion! I decided to upgrade to the RX-18 controller. I obtained a RX-18 c/w leads, a receiver pcb, crystal set, speaker and a new transmitter. Fitting was easy enough - simply remove the existing RX-13 and unsolder and replace each connection in turn.
I did forget to buy a volume control (on order) so i don't know if the sound works or not yet!!
The difference the RX-18 makes to the overall control of the tank is unbelievable - MUCH more controllable and realistic speeds.
I have a little motor whine at very low speeds but I don't think there is anything i can do about it ?
At the same time I was experiment with an internal aerial - I used 13 1/4 inches of enamel coated wire off an order transformer wrapped round a plastic tube - solder the antenna wire to it and a way you go. The range out doors seems as good as the external antenna but in doors seems a less - but perfectly usable.
I decided to make a stowage rack for the rear of the tank - I used 2 mm x 2.5 mm styrene strips and 3 mm angle - fairly easy to do and looks quite good I think - I used 40 mm height front and rear
The thing I found there is "NO" right way for this type of mod as most were done by the tank crews themselves so no one can say that it is not correct!!
Rusty exhausts!
I sprayed the tank with grey undercoat spray - not German grey yet!
Stowage was made using tea stirrers from McDonalds -this was my first attempt, but hope to get better with a little more practice!
Still got quite a bit to do - metal wheels and tracks next - may have to wait for Father Christmas though!
Still thinking about a pain't scheme - this is not going to be the most historically accurate Panzer in history (what is!!).
I feel that some models you see, though beautifully air brushed and weathered make me feel that they are not too accurate - if early Panzer where all grey and the crew had to paint camouflage on them - they would have used a brush and it wouldn't have been too pretty either! - Here are son - paint that Panzer - crack on or Hier sind Sohn - Farbe, die Panzer - auf Crack!
I have learned lots from this forum and would like to thank all that contribute - I would welcome any comments or further advice
Thanks for sharing 