RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Jake79 wrote:Great stuff 43rd. I never knew of or thought of mini razor saws, one of those will come in very handy. Thanks for tip

You're very welcome, Jake. Virtually all I know about RC modelling comes from this Forum, and from being able to pick the brains of others (...not that I'm actually a cannibal )

Scots Cannibal...*hmmmmmms* *chuckles* Seriously tho' The tools out there to make this hobby more fun than work boggle the mind. Here is one of my favorites: ( you Fellows across the Pond will naturally have a closer one ) http://www.micromark.com/
regards,
Painless

PainlessWolf wrote:Scots Cannibal...*hmmmmmms* *chuckles* Seriously tho' The tools out there to make this hobby more fun than work boggle the mind. Here is one of my favorites: ( you Fellows across the Pond will naturally have a closer one ) http://www.micromark.com/
regards,
Painless

Wow...Painless, that's like an aladdin's cave to the addicted hobbyist Or, Blackbeard's D-I-Y treasure. That, or a sweet shop window display- to the choco-addict (candy store, to you Yanks.. )

PainlessWolf wrote:Scots Cannibal...*hmmmmmms* *chuckles* Seriously tho' The tools out there to make this hobby more fun than work boggle the mind. Here is one of my favorites: ( you Fellows across the Pond will naturally have a closer one ) http://www.micromark.com/
regards,
Painless

That looks like daddy's paradise
But the razor saw is fantastic advice, unfortunately to not pay the shipping I would need to order another set of tools or a model kit and funds for this month are already expended. Well, to be honest, for next month already too

Soeren wrote:

PainlessWolf wrote:Scots Cannibal...*hmmmmmms* *chuckles* Seriously tho' The tools out there to make this hobby more fun than work boggle the mind. Here is one of my favorites: ( you Fellows across the Pond will naturally have a closer one ) http://www.micromark.com/
regards,
Painless

That looks like daddy's paradise
But the razor saw is fantastic advice, unfortunately to not pay the shipping I would need to order another set of tools or a model kit and funds for this month are already expended. Well, to be honest, for next month already too

Thanks, and at times (not currently though, thankfully...in fact, not for many years) I've had periods of hobby frustrating enforced austerity; so you have my sympathy. Well, at least you have things to look forward to when the cash flows again

The external bits of the Cromwell are now fairly complete, apart from a few hinges, grab handles, and other minor details. Recent days have disabused of the idea that scratch building is straightforward. This simplistic take:- ....Plans; styrene; cutting implements and glue- what could be simpler, for a lazy afternoon's diversion, eh? ...Hmmmph.
For starters, if you've been assembling tanks with parts from HL, Taigen, Mato, and Tamiya much of the work is done for you. You have moulded plastic standoffs, for example, and they help you assemble components in the right place, at the right height. Not so with flatpack styrene tanks. Standoffs for the rotation motor, 8-pin connector etc all have to be fabricated....and, it's not as easy as you might think. Component locations are critical, as are factors like height, clearance and more. In short; you have to start measuring things, and making calculations That's right: it's back to school for scratch building apprentices!

Problems to tackle, just to install the turret ring and motor.
1. The gap between a standard HL/Taigen turret ring and the Cromwell's turret aperture is too big; so that the turret can slide around, and collide around..
2. All HL Taigen tanks have a 5mm (or so depending on model) moulded plastic flange/spacer between the upper hull deck and the turret ring. This means the top surface of the ring is 10mm above the deck.
Sitting in the same position, the Cromwell only offers 5mm height, as there is no moulded flange, just flat styrene I need an extra 5mm minimum from somewhere..
3. Standard HL/Taigen 10cm ring won't fit easily in the Cromwell's confined front upper hull section. The tab to prevent 360 deg rotation actually prevents the turret from turning, and had to GO..
4. Nothing to attach turret motor to. Normally it sits on moulded plastic standoffs giving it a clearance of some 5mm (for cables, resistor etc..). The Cromwell kit has no standoffs. Not one.

First, I had to cut out a section from the central bulkhead in the upper hull to accommodate the driven wheel of the turret motor. The motor wouldn't fit anywhere else. Then it needed 5mm standoffs, which I then made.
This gave it the required height of 2cm above the deck. I tried it the other way up, and other orientations, but this was the only solution I could find. Don't know how the (Ist) builder of Tom's tank did it..
Then I had to convert the (black) turret ring for 360 rotation, by cutting two new teeth. (haven't cut teeth for many, many decades ). Then I had to cut the ring off the other turret ring, and trim 2mm of the ring flange to. By careful measurement, I found that if I bonded the doctored amber ring to the black one, I'd have the height I needed to make the turret ring and turret motor gears mesh properly. With not alteration, the mesh
(non-mesh) was 5mm out... To reduce the gap that left the turret sloshing around on the hull, I etched some fine lines in the turret aperture, and created little 'bearings' from 1.5mm styrene. These work well, and create a tighter fit.! Then after careful height measurements, I bonded the two Turret rings into a new taller one. Fingers crossed..this is all unknown territory for me.. Back in a minute..

Now that I've (hopefully) sorted the turret slack fit, I'm hoping my newly created turret ring can be made to mesh satisfactorily with the turret motor. To do that, I had to make two 5mm (approx.) standoffs. these will be bonded to the deck when final positions are settled. As they're screwed to the standoffs, they'll be removable in future, if the need arises. Looks like all the painstaking measurements and calculations have paid off. But this is one exercise, i'll admit, I could have done without!

Top work. That looks like a good solution to a challenging problem and I know from experience how frustrating it can be to get smooth rotation on a project like that. A millimeter or two either way and you end up with sticking points or gears going out of mesh.
Turret rotation is one area that is screaming out for a neat aftermarket option that involves ball bearings and a smaller rotation unit. I know I could have used something like that on a couple of my tanks.

Top job 43rd! That's as fine a piece of scratch building as any and a super job, well done.
Alwyn

That is nitty-gritty stuff Mr 43'rd...............its odd how the stuff we think will try us turns out to be the easy bits........things expected to be straight forward-like rotation- are a Royal Pain in the But-Toxs

Top job Sir