Tamiya M4 105 Sherman

[Burger_Patrol1]

Cool race cars and Awesome bday present Dayle!!!
I love that smell when you open up a brand new RC tank. Kind of like the new car smell...
I'm going to show my wife this post and maybe she will get the hint for my Bday in April

[Dayle Frame]

One of our Aussie legends, Allan Moffat, started his career in the SCCA CENDIV and attended a reunion at Waterford recently. He won a Trans Am round outright in '66, which was a rare feat in a four cylinder car.

Sorry for side tracking your thread

I forgot to mention that my wife and I have been to Oz....not once but twice. And we loved every minute of it. Way back in 2000 we spent three weeks down there before the Olympics (Sydney, Coffs Harbor, Gold Coast, Cairns). In 2014, we spent a week in the Blue Mohntains and a few days in Sydney (madam attended a microscopy conference). We did two laps at Bathurst. What a blast. I can’t say enough nice things about all the folks we ran into along the way. Whether it was a life guard at Manly Beach or a B&B owner in Cairns, all the Aussies we’ve ever met have been top shelf. We’ll be back!

Dayle

[Met5]

the old sherman ..... if you take it at the end you fall in love and do not give up anymore

[Dayle Frame]

i disassembled what I’d done for the dry build. I wanted to use black, allan bolts instead of the chromed screws that came with the kit. After getting the bolts I reassembled the suspension......this time using loktite. I continued the assembly by installing the motors. With advice gained from this forum, I bought a hull brace plate from ETO. I added the tracks, completed the rear panel and installed the front cover.

Next, it’s the electronics.......

[43rdRecceReg]

Well, you have jumped straight in at the deep end, Dayle. I expect all those years tinkering with the Sprite have given you the urge to dismantle stuff, and rebuild it in an improved format. I spent many years building, and rebuilding
examples of the Mini Cooper 'S' (1275cc, and early 1071cc models). It had essentially the same 'A' series engine as the Sprite, but was race-tuned for rallying and, of course, 'The Italian Job" movie the BMW version is not the same beast, but still looks good...I suppose..
I shall look forward to the rest of your Sherman tune-up. The ETO gears certainly generate those 'must have those!' type feelings
Roy.

[Burger_Patrol1]

Hey Dayle,
That Sherman is coming along good!! I'm thinking this might be my next build, if I ever get my Tiger finished
Inspirational...following...
Dano

[Dayle Frame]

After wrestling with the electronics for several days, I was able to get back to actually assembling this critter. I was able to attach all the items that needed to be OD green to the turret and upper hull and then spray paint them.

I flipped the hull and assembled the glass fiber lighting system. As I’ve never worked with this material before, I was leery of jumping it......but cutting with with an X-acto knife was easy, cheesy.

Next I inserted the gear into the turret and attached the turret base. As it was all assembled, I tested the gun elevation system. The motor proved to be too strong and it split the mantlet from the turret. Geez....now what? I’ve got to re-glue the mantlet to the gun mount. So I had remove the turret hardware (motor, motor mount, turret ring) to create enough room to have access to the glue the affected pieces. I was forced to ask my wife to lend a hand and support the turret while I played surgeon......but we got it done and it works fine.

I figured out how to stuff the guts into the hull.......(insert joke about a Chinese puzzle here).....throw in a few zip ties to keep the wiring arranged and it’s a tightly packed compartment.

Next there’s some disassembly to paint a few things. Once all that’s done, it’s on to final assembly (add painted upper hull items, decals, build and paint the figure, etc.).

Dayle

[Dayle Frame]

After six weeks of flogging, this project is finally over. I need to come up with a cool name for her but the build is complete. It was a lot of fun. When I showed it to my wife, she asked "so, which one is next?"........we’ll see.

I didn’t want to fool around with weathering.....I’m not good enough at that.....maybe next time.

I need to figure out what’s what withthe machine gun. She makes the noise but doesn’t light up. But that’s for another thread. All the other electronics work just fine.

Many thanks to folks for the help along the way.

Dayle

[Rad_Schuhart]

Congrats for your first model.

If the machine gun sounds but there is no light, I could have some ideas:
FIrst of all, did you plug it in the correct slot?
Did you put the optic fbre inside the barrel?
Are you sure you did not put paint inside the barrel blocking the led or the optic fiber?
And last: Does the led work?

[Dayle Frame]

Congrats for your first model.

If the machine gun sounds but there is no light, I could have some ideas:

FIrst of all, did you plug it in the correct slot?

I think so.....this model has the fancier electronics so this plugged into the "extension unit". That lead is plugged into CN3 on the DMD T-05.

Did you put the optic fibre inside the barrel?

Yes....and I scuffed the GF with 800 grit emory cloth too.

Are you sure you did not put paint inside the barrel blocking the led or the optic fiber?

I did not paint the inside of the barrel, just the outside.

And last: Does the led work?

As far as I can tell, no. But its all glued together and without disassembling it (and potentially causing damage) I can't be sure.

I should have tested the assembly before attaching everything to the hull. My bad and lesson learned. I'll try to carefully disassemble the LED from its housing and see if the light works.