RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

cannedheat wrote:alpha, mato turrets are a little tall they have few extra thou on them that makes em look to tall so if you like you slice the bottom the turret off [the fixing ring ] then take about 2/8th of the bottom half sand smooth and flat, sand your fixing mount flat and smooth then epoxy together again ,don't forget your mounting stubs will need reducing same, not to much so you don't have any thing for your screws to get hold of ,now it sit lower to the hull......if you havn,t done already that is .....wot wot ......

Thanks Canned... I was told the same thing by Sassgrunt... it was the first thing I did...pretty easy... cut the base off with an exacto saw... trimmed the excess that wasn't needed... put the forward screws in the upper ( for alignment) sanded both areas that I cut... and glued them back together... easy as pie ...kept the two mounting points on the back... did a quick mod to the two in the front..cutting right below the screw cap.. then the post ...sanding them and gluing the caps back on the post ..the entire procedure took less than two hours

I'll try to post some pics of the finished turret later

Carpe Diem Canned.. thanks for the input

ALPHA

fynsdad wrote:

PS. Is that Battler Metal? It shines like it is lol

LOL nope it's just a WIP pic...here she is finished

Doggonit! ... You sure know how to make me drool fynsdad

That sure is one prime example of a beauty .. You wanna trade? ... I'll send you the one I'm working on ..I'll even do the skirt work .............. ...as soon as I figure them out that is lol

Thanks again for the 411 and the additional inspiration

Carpe Diem fynsdad

ALPHA

No Use it or Loose it this time...In this case.... it was use it or buy a new turret ...or forget about it and throw the upper hull in the junk box
anyway...I'm going to use it

MANTLET





Lowered the turret...keep in mind... though the mato turret needs to be lowered... the toy was made like that on purpose...just as the mantlet was....it is done so the driver and gunner hatches can open when the gun is pointing forward...so performing these mods will nullify the use of the two forward hatches .... made a new gun using an airsoft barrel from a really cheap and broken Mp5....it has a 6.8 inner diameter making the outer close to nine... so there was plenty of meat that could be taken off to tapering to the front which is now 7.72

Mantlet... was custom fit over the stock... and refitted to accommodate the new barrel

ALPHA

Good Evening,
Alpha, Amazing work once again with hammering out a metal mantlet. ;o) Hard work but it really defines the turret along with the lowering job. ;o)
regards,
Painless

No kidding - REALLY impressive work, considering that the rest of us mere mortals only work in plastic! It looks like another great build!

nice work old chap ,as usual ,wot wot ......

PainlessWolf wrote:Good Evening,
Alpha, Amazing work once again with hammering out a metal mantlet. ;o) Hard work but it really defines the turret along with the lowering job. ;o)
regards,
Painless

Hello Painless.... the final product is after four tries lol...it's the one thing good about doing it in metal...if it doesn't fit the first time ... hammer it out and do it again lol
first time was actually really good...thing was it looked more like a Jumbo without the triangles cut out on the bottom corners... It made me think... Mike lent me a few books so I could check how the skirts were mounted ...so I referenced that...judging by the photo's it looks like the Mato's mantlet is a little over sized... so I had to trim about a quarter of an inch off the bottom... thus the second re hammering ...got it closer.. and it looked much better but still a little to square... thus the third re hammering... rounded the bottom... squared an edge to cover the exposed turret inners...after mounting and forming the eyes... the gun guard etc... mounted it again... then came here...looked at fynsdad's ....and was totally dissatisfied with mine... thus the fourth re hammering ..with all the details still on it... I have to say it was tricky... but it worked out better

With that said ... It's the first time I regret following the GIRLS UND PANZER ideal...as the little details fynsdad has on his mantlet really adds definition to the assembly...unfortunately they are not on the anime tank... but it's all good.. pretty happy with how it turned out even if I had to make some sacrifices

Thanks for the kind words Painless

ALPHA

sassgrunt wrote:No kidding - REALLY impressive work, considering that the rest of us mere mortals only work in plastic! It looks like another great build!

Hey Mike... Nothing wrong with plastic... it's an easier medium to work with... and there are some amazing builds going on right now by masters of the craft... so doing my thing in metal is almost nothing in comparison
I am enjoying doing it like this though.. as you well know copper and aluminum is more available than plasticard here...I'm just glad I have the tools and some experience in fabricating stuff with metal to perform the tasks
I actually flared out a proper gun guard ...but the gauge of metal I had on hand was too thin to make it credible... so I used the base of the stock Mato plastic barrel ...notched it... then fit it into the mantlet where I had intended to solder the metal piece to... it might have been nicer...but for some reason I didn't feel as "pushed" as I did with the last Sherman... It's like that theory on playing chess.... the better the pieces the better you play... this Mato hull is really like a standard playing piece...where the FoV hull was like a special edition ...also the reason initially I wasn't going to document this build

This one might also not have a figure... wasn't too impressed with the "cheater" girl

Anyway onward and upward ...Thanks Sassgrunt

ALPHA

cannedheat wrote:nice work old chap ,as usual ,wot wot ......

What can I say Canned... I bow in your presence and gratefully accept your praise...When it comes to Shermans...I'm not sure there is anyone who can match your expertise and knowledge

I only hope my work will measure up to what you have already accomplished

Thanks muchly Canned or should I say SIR HEAT

ALPHA

Did a little more work yesterday... nothing to be excited about or photo worthy...just a little filling of the pukas left from removing the odds and ends that were glued to the hull... hopefully by Sunday.. the skirts will be mounted ... hopefully

Carpe Diem Gentlemen

ALPHA