My first build - Tamiya Jagdpanther

[Geoffjag]

Electronics are in and tested - temporary battery.

DX6i setup was relatively stright forward. Using a mode 2 transmitter I have: -
Left Stick up/down - (Throttle) - Forward / reverse
Left stick left / right (Rudder)- Gun traverse

Right stick up/down (Elevator) - Gun Elevation / fire
Right stick left/right (Aileron) - Steering (had to be setup as reversed)

Once connected up and the reciever bound I followed the Tamiya setup instructions. At this point Travel / Adj was setup to 100% on all channels... As these are digital trims I needed to setup the transmitter to exceed 100% travel AFTER the initial setup / calibration to allow the guns to fire (effectively simulating the trim movements on the analogue radios) so once all was set up OK I went into the Travel Adj menu and for the Elevator I set travel to 125% so a quick push to the top on the right stick fires the main gun and to the bottom fires the machine gun. With the DX6i you need to ensure that you adjust the channel to 125% BOTH ways. When you get to the menu one arrow will show (probably up)
Note the up arrow to the right of the word ELEV (shown here adjusted to 125%): -

Once that adjustment is done, move the stick down and it will show the arrow in the opposite direction (you may need to hold it down, I did). Adjust Elev to 125% and you can fire the both guns from that stick...

I chose 125% as this was something I am sure I saw somewhere else (lost the reference but the number stuck in my mind). I may well be adjusting that later as part of the fine tuning.

This now means that I have two channels left. One I will use for lighting, not sure on what to do with the other one yet (open to suggestions )..

[Geoffjag]

Think that the Transmission covers are pretty hidden with the wheels on but would be interested if produced..

Anyway, update to where I have progressed to so far. Some decent progress despite a family ridden with colds, usual for this time of year .

Wheels and tracks are on and electronics for the lower hull are finished.

Proper battery arrived. 6000 Mah hard cased Lipo. Charged up and balanced fine on my charger...

Installed this battery along with a Lipo saver. This connects to the balance cable on the battery and sits between the throttle output from the reciever and the DMD Throttle input. This device shows the current state of the battery and also cuts the throttle when the battery gets to 6.2 Volts (adjustable).

Also built a circuit board (well, used strip board!) for the Pico switch I will use to contol the lights. Have a take off from the battery to the board, rear light with resistor soldered to the board and a take off which will have a Tamiya mini connector to the front light. Installed to the side hull with velcro. This runs off of the gear channel (left sholder switch on the DX6i).

All installed

Shot of lower hull with the wheels / tracks on and the electronics in place..

I used a rare earth magnet (6mm diameter, 3mm deep) epoxied into the hub cover for the drive wheels. This holds the part well on the hub but removing it is not so tricky..

Have been running it around for a while on the carpet this afternoon. All seems to work ok so far...

[maxmekker]

Nice build and great info on setting up the dx6.

[maintcoder]

Nice work on the paint job and I like that rare earth magnet mod for the hub. I did the same mod for my Sherman hubs and it works fabulously.

[Geoffjag]

Thanks for the comments, I am really enjoying this build... Things will probably slow down on the upper hull as I think this is more complex than the lower hull...

[NickDonitz]

Really neat, any chance of a pic of the famous stickers that Tamiya supply just to see what the problem is

[Geoffjag]

Here you go, some piccies of the stickers.

1. Overal picture. The larger bottom sticker goes on the front lower hull / glacis plate. The top sticker shows the two stickers that fit on the rear panel assembly if not using the exhausts with flash suppressor (I decided to fill with sprue / sand back - see above)... They are fairly thick but I am not a fan.

2. Couple more pics

3. Picture of where Tamiya expect you to place these on the rear panel...

Note. This is a picture of the Tamiya instructions which are of course copyright to Tamiya. As I am reproducing a small part of these to illustrate a point this should adhere to "fair use" - Mods, let me know if I need to delete

You could possibly get away with the front glacis plate one but the stickers for the rear panel are a definate bodge job IMHO..

[Geoffjag]

So... Been away from the build for a while (for several reasons!) but back into it again. Have sorted out the front light with an LED and replaced the downtube with some brass tubing to hold the wires.

DSCN5457.jpg (62.73 KiB) Viewed 2527 times

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Forming the small wire rope (string) over a suitably sized socket covered in cling film. The rope is covered in fine superglue to hold it all in place and left to set off. Sorry this is a little out of focus!

DSCN5488.jpg (46.82 KiB) Viewed 2527 times

This shows positioning on the hull (holes to be filled and sanded later)..

DSCN5490.jpg (54.53 KiB) Viewed 2527 times

[maxmekker]

Great stuff man. Keep those pic's comming.

[King Tigerman]

Like your JP build. I am doing a JP build myself and was curious about your headlight.

Where did you run the wiring from the light to get power?

I would be grateful for any help. I have posted my JP on this forum as well.