RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

This is one h... of a build tread. Clear good photos. and alot of them looking FW to se the paint going on this . And now I know what to buy as my 3'd tank :- ) (after finishing the KT ,and getting the JP)

MEK is readily available from Slaters Plastikard Ltd, Matlock, Derbyshire DE4 3PG. www.slatersplastikard.com. Harmfull if inhaled, drunk or in contact with skin or eyes. But most of the solvents that are really usefull have the same inherent problems.

hi
i am a new joineee. and new to rc tank. ur article ia very inspiring love to see final pic of Hl tank.
thanx

just WOW jeff your detail work is somthing else mate ,think im going to try that mottling effect you did on that commander cupolar

Updates 6/13

Hi guys I'm back again and this time I want to share my trials and travails replacing the HL stock suspension springs with the stronger ones I ordered from welshdragon. I actually also installed the rear track hangers but would share that at a later time.



first I needed to remove the tracks. I started on the left side first. To do this I have to remove the front sprocket by loosening the allen screw.



With the sprocket removed, the tracks are now loose enough to take off.



To replace the springs the wheels have to be removed. Right away you will encounter a problem as the screws for the wheels are hidden behind a cap. To remove the cap I thought I'd use this tool (a dental pick) to pry the cap loose.



Insert the pick to the little notch at the edge of the cap. Lift it just enough so you can insert a flat head screw driver. Don't use the pick to lift the cap all the way as you'll liable to tear the notch and damage the cap.



With the cap lifted a little, you can then use the flat head screw driver to pry the cap all the way. You can now unscrew the wheels from the swing arm.


The swing arm is attached to the tank by allen screws. You have to unscrew this as well before you can expose the suspension spring.



The stronger spring set from welshdragon comes in 16 pcs, 8 for each side of the tank.


Comparing the new springs with the stock spring I just remove from the tank, you'll notice that the new spring uses thicker wire and has 6 loops vs the 7 loops on the stock HL.

I tested the new spring on one swing arm and immediately noticed that the spring was way too stiff. My tank is not that heavy since I'm not using any metal geared transmission. I was afraid that If I replaced all the springs on the tank, the suspension wouldn't even flex when running over bumps and obstacles. (Which It currently does now).

My only real purpose for replacing the springs in the first place was that the stock springs were too soft in that it wouldn't come back right up if you pressed the tank down. I then decided I would just replace a few weight bearing wheels with the new springs. For this solution I decided to just replace the springs on the 2nd road wheel (not counting the sprocket) from the front and the last wheel from the rear. (not counting the rear idler, for a total of 4 wheels on 2 sides).

Well that was easier said than done. I soon found out the maintenance nightmare german tank mechanics must have experienced when replacing parts of the interleaved wheel assembly of german tanks.


Here is what I'm talking about. To remove the inner wheel (green arrow), the two outer wheels (red arrow) also needs to be removed. Basically If I wanted to remove the rear and front wheels of the tank, I would need to remove all of the wheels.

to be cont'd

updates cont'd

In continuing to remove the wheels, I encountered another problem. The rear idler wheel overlaps the last road wheel and you cannot slide the road wheel out since the idler is blocking it. I don't know how to remove the rear idler wheel without destroying it completely and Since I am still waiting for the metal tracks/sprocket/idler set to arrive, I had to find a way of removing the last road wheel with the idler wheel in place.


Here you can see the problematic idler wheel and how it abuts the last road wheel. If somebody knows how to remove the idler without destroying it I would be glad to hear about it.


Anyway here is the solution I came up with. I found I can wiggle in an allen wrench just enough to unscrew the swing arm from the last road wheel and with it remove the entire wheel assembly off. This is I did for the last road wheel on the right side.


The left side was even more problematic since the swing arms faces forwards and this time the idler obstructs access to the screw. However with a bit of effort and using the short end of the allen wrench, there is enough space to unscrew it.


I removed all the wheels on the right side with relative ease but the left side gave me all sorts of problems. Besides the fact that the last road wheel was more difficult to remove on the left side, I could not remove the wheel cap for the last road wheel. After much effort I had completely ruined the cap before it got removed. Oh well I guess I see an an order for HL replacement caps in my future.


Finally after removing all the wheels I can go about replacing the springs. Here is the scheme I came up with for the right side, I attached the stronger springs on the second and last (8th) stations, the rest are stock.

For the left, since the swing arms faces the opposite direction, I replaced the springs on the second and seventh stations. I made sure that the springs I replaced are the corner wheels and thus weight bearing.

After that bit of work, I reassembled the wheels back and test drove the tank awhile to see how the suspension held up. I was quite satisfied with the results. If I ever replace the stock transmission with a heavier one, I may change all the springs but for now this will do quite nicely.


One last note, on HL tanks the outer wheels have this peculiar double ridge feature. (see arrows) This detail is absent on the real panthers. It should just be one smooth transition to where the steel wheels meets the tires. I am trying to find a way of shaving this off. For now I did not re-attach the outer road wheels on the tank until I can come up with a solution. Anyway the tank rides fine indoors without it.

The rear idler is held on by a phillips or cross point (depending how you refer to them) screw, it took me a while trying to remove them with various sizes of allen key to realise it was a damn screw!!! Just unscrew & it comes off fine

i was considering a spring upgrade as mine will stay pretty much flat to the ground if you push down on it, but it doesnt seem to make any difference when its running.

There is always the '9 O'clock fix' which is posted somewhere on this forum. This was one of the first things I did with my Jagdpanther to cure the ineffective rebound on the suspension. The tutorial is on here someplace and is well worth doing.

Thanks, ill have a search for that

Just looked on the forum and cant find the '9 O'clock Spring Fix' althought there are some brilliant things on there that I haven't seen and are well worth looking at. Basically it goes something like this:- after taking the road wheels off and the swinging arms you pul the spring out and reposition it (with a bit of a struggle) at 9 O'clock, this increases the tension on the swinging arm and makes the suspension a lot less sloppy. Hope this helps.