RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Having the on/of switch mounted under the front drivers hatches is a good idea - but it makes access difficult (depending on the turret position) and the small hinges on the covers are in danger of being broken when reaching under the barrel to find the switch.

I am considering removing the BB tray (I have no use for it) and fitting the on/off switch in the turret under the twin hatches that would usually be used for loading the BB's.

This would make life much easier when switching the tank on or off and would not be dependant on the turret position.

Son of a gun-ner wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2024 2:41 pm

tankme wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2024 8:47 pm You can even just use a heat gun to melt it.

Are you paid by the hour or day?

I have one of those heat gun stations...it has a host of different sized nozzles that will heat up to over 500 degrees...takes no time at all... I usually put a piece of old wall paneling over my desk when using it and it leave scorch marks on it. The nice part about the heat gun is it will heat a large area evenly unlike a soldering iron which can produce a lot of heat in a small area.

I noticed when building my HAYA Centurion KIT that the barrel was a little "wobbly" - so I compared it with my RTR Centurion and found that it was exactly the same.

Until the mantlet was fitted, the barrel was even more wobbly as the barrel relies on the mantlet to help support it!

Building the Kit Centurion allowed me see that the trunnion bearing shaft used is an additional "kermit green" moulded shaft that fits in front of the more substantial bearing shaft that is used on the Heng Long gun assembly for their other models.

The additional moulded "kermit green" pivot shaft looks a littler thinner than the regular Heng Long pivot shaft (that remains positioned behind it on the barrel assembly), and it is quite a loose fit in the two moulded trunnion support brackets.

I have compared this with my other Heng Long models (and my HAYA Chieftain) and none of them have such a wobbly barrel as my two HAYA Centurions.

At some stage I will look to see what I can do to improve the bearing areas to give the barrel pivot some extra support. Maybe the "Kermit green" pivot shaft could be "sleeved" to increase its diameter to make it a little more rigid and the sockets in the trunnions (support brackets) could be enlarged to fit it?

Alternatively a close fitting bearing could be fitted onto the "Kermit green" pivot shaft and the trunnion (support brackets) could be made to fit, but either method would be used with the sole aim of improving the barrel support to reduce the free-play that allows it to wobble so freely.

Are the trunnions thick enough, i.e. wide enough transversely? Is there room to laminated each of them with a matching plastic reenforcer (in whatever Muppet colour)? Or even a beefed up trunnion with a bearing on the pivot...?

Herr Dr. Professor wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2024 9:52 pm Are the trunnions thick enough, i.e. wide enough transversely? Is there room to laminated each of them with a matching plastic reenforcer (in whatever Muppet colour)? Or even a beefed up trunnion with a bearing on the pivot...?

That's what I am checking now Prof.

If you have a HAYA Centurion and just unscrew the two screws that hold the mantlet on you can slide it up the barrel and take a look inside to see the small Kermit Green moulding that has these pivot posts moulded into it.

Once the mantlet is released the true extent of the barrel wobble can be felt and seen as the mantlet gives it a lot more support than you might think.

I finally got fed-up with fitting the two floppy exhaust pipes to the smoke unit every time I re-fit the top deck after changing the battery - so I have removed the smoke unit from its brass mounting post, un-plugged it from the board, and removed it from the tank.

The exhaust smoke - I can live without it, and I certainly won't miss fiddling about in the small gap between the top deck and the hull trying to connect the two floppy silicone pipes onto the smoke generating unit before I can run the tank.

.......but when I have finished my HAYA KIT build (also being completed WITHOUT the exhaust smoke feature) I will take a look inside the Tonge Centurion to find out how they fit the smoke unit to the underside of the top deck to save the tedious exhaust pipe connecting ordeal that the HAYA Centurion demands!