PzKpfw II L35rctank conversion construction

[Barmonkey]

Thanks for sharing the build with us! Things appear to be moving along nicely for you. I assume you will have it finished up tomorrow? LOL

[Raminator]

Following along with interest Bob, the Luchs is a favourite of mine. I just sold one of these kits because I didn't think I'd ever get around to doing it, you might be making me regret my decision!

[lmcq11]

Its great for you to share this more complex build step by step. Looks like you know where you’re going. You are now a bit more under pressure to make it work well… I know the feeling.

I’m curious about the solenoid recoil installation, I’m planning to use one on a future build involving a 20mm automatic cannon. I saw the 35rctank video with one in operation, it seems to work well.

Are you using the plastic kit tracks or did you manage to get a set of Spade Ace metal tracks before they disappeared ?

Regards, Louis

[SoCalBobS]

Recently got back to this build - so many distractions!

I'm using the stock plastic tracks. They work quite well, probably because they are so relatively wide. The vehicle is running fine. My only modification was to secure the idler assembly to the hull with a small screw at the pivot point. Without that, the wheel would quickly back out and fall off. The road wheels and sprocket didn't require any work. I haven't glued the torsion rods in, because once that's done they can't be disassembled for repair.

I really like the turret rotation system. There is an inward facing ring gear, and a small motor in the turret meshing with it. Very compact, very quiet.

The cannon recoil system works without a hitch, the critical word being "hitch". I took care to ensure there was no binding of the barrel in the mantlet. The mod parts fit well into the kit. very pleased. One gripe: instructions call for drilling out the mg and cannon tips to put in the lucite rod and brass barrel respectively. Pretty much impossible, drilling the required holes leaves nearly no plastic. Merely holding them while hand drilling distorts them so much as to be unusable, at least for my skills.

I have it all apart again for repainting. Instead of the dunkelgelb camo, mine will be panzer gray. Apparently they were operational for a few months before the directive to change to dark yellow, and almost all my other German tanks are already yellow!

In sum, the three major milestones - tracks, turret and guns - have all been accomplished successfully.

[SoCalBobS]

?Milestone achieved, and some observations....

It's actually working! Now for the cosmetics; more details, weathering, etc.

The conversion kit from 35rctank is a quality product. Everything works, the gearboxes are robust, the main board works without a hitch, the turret revolution is smooth and a suitable speed, and the recoil of the auto cannon is cool. His product interacts with the tank kit well.

All that said, it's been a struggle that I wasn't sure would succeed. Primarily it's because of the suspension. Modifying the torsion bars to work required modification that weakened the arms severely. A couple broke and had to be reinforced. Although the road wheels are meant to turn, The axle design  won't stand up to r/c use. And because of the nature of the overlapping road wheels, removing one means removing them all for access. Although the conversion manual wants the torsion bars glued in early, I fortunately never did because I had to remove them a number of times for adjustments. I can't fault 35rctank's conversion, he did the best with what he had to work with.

Building this tank from two sets of instructions presented it's own challenges. The tank has hundreds of detail parts for the interior and exterior. For instance, one headlight assembly has seven parts. Three parts including PE for a strap buckle! One must follow their manual in strict order for everything to fit. However in this case the sequence has to be altered to accommodate the r/c conversion. It's necessary to make the lower and upper hulls separate   Selecting which should be included or left off and when to add them led to some frustration.  

Notwithstanding the above, it runs. You'll see I chose a Panzer gray scheme. For one, I could never equal a buddy's job, but in actuality, I have too many "dunkelgelb" tanks! the Luchs was apparently operational for a number of months before the three color camo directive was issued.  You'll notice the bottom half has some weathering while the top is still clean. That's a consequence of the issue I mentioned above. The bottom had to be dirtied up as the wheels were added, and the top had to be taken off so many times for construction access, I couldn't add on all the tiny detail parts and therefore couldn't paint until I was satisfied it would run reliably. I still haven't added the four piece clear periscope lenses on the turret!

Would I do this again? No, not really. But I learned a whole lot from the process, so it was a positive though frustrating experience.  ?

[Herr Dr. Professor]

It's great to see your triumph with the Luchs in Dunkelgrau. I can only imagine the early Pzkw. II in Dunkelgrau because they were largely outdated by 1940. Somewhere I have the date of the changeover to Dunkelgelb, but where? Oh, so many books, so little memory. Now you have an unique RC model of your own clever and skillful doing!

[SoCalBobS]

Here it is done, painted and dustied. I'm having some trouble with the drive train: the gearboxes have a lot of torque and can break the glue joint with the sprocket wheel. I'm working on it. I like to run my tanks, and consequently some of the superfine details are suffering "hangar rash" - little pieces falling off or breaking.

phpBB [video]

[EAO]

SCBS,

I've always loved the look of the little Lynx. Reminds me of a Tiger 1 all shrunk down and made to look cute! The 20mm auto cannon is awesome! Very nicely done!

Cheers,
Eric.

[Morebread]

the cannon recoil is great! can you provide more detail about that?

[Kaczor]

the cannon recoil is great! can you provide more detail about that?

It's solenoid recoil inlkuded in the kit.