RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Thank you Pathfinder

B_man, that 37mm WW1 round is interesting and a nice souvenir. My father purchased a real 88mm King tiger shell 20 years ago, it was huge. But when my father passed away 2 years ago, my mother could not wait to get rid of his stuff in the garage and gave it to the 1-800-Got-Junk guys before I knew it... No hard feelings, I should have known better and been proactive.

This post is for the electronics and has a test Video at the end.

Sadly, no room for gun elevation, the micro servo I have is just not small enough to fit in the small turret. The limited elevation that the gun allows and the size of the gun would not have provided much excitement anyway. I could have tried harder but saw no other benefit than my ego. A custom gun recoil mechanism is made and linked to a Emax recoil servo.
The model features;
- 35RCTANK Control board
- twin gearbox
- Turret rotation (80 degrees total)
- Gun recoil
- Gun flash
- Engine and gun sound

The electronics are laid out and tested.
Turret rotation is provided by a medium size servo connected under the turret and it slides between two plasticard pieces when closing the top lid on the hull. Its quite simple and provides about 40 degrees turret rotation to both sides, enough to have some good action.
The electronics are installed in the hull. As I want to reuse this control board on future small builds, its only temporarily laid out inside the hull. There is not much room anyway for the guys who like them cleanly laid out and fixed.
Its a load off, it all fits in the hull.
Here is a YOUTUBE video of the testing of the electronics in action. I am hoping the 3.7V battery on order will provide more control over the gearbox and slow down the vehicle.

https://youtu.be/ZWx09TPGHng
The next step is to finish the construction, just a few parts remaining mainly on the turret and the tools, and then the painting phase.

Regards,

Louis

Another great build in the making Louis what sound set did you get with the 35rctank.com Acu unit ?

Cheers, Lee.

Model Builder 4 wrote:what sound set did you get with the 35rctank.com Acu unit ?

Thank you, I had asked for the M113 sound.

Here, the construction is finished. Tools and chains will be put on after painting. Here are a few last pictures before painting.
Regards, Louis

Hi,
This post is for the painting and weathering phase, a 6 hour task.

The model is painted with MIG acrylic Olive green, tracks will be painted black.
As the camo on WW1 FT tanks was obviously hand painted with a brush (no air pressure paint gun), clean lines need to be made to replicate the style seen on reference pictures. Masking tape is used to prepare the model for the camo scheme application, vaguely inspired by the better looking models I have seen on the web. The very colourful paint schemes provided with the Takom instructions and some restored models are not specifically appealing to me, even if authentic. I preferred something more subdued.
A desert sand color for camo is applied and Takom decals are selected and installed without trying to replicate a specific real model.
Then as usual, my weathering style is composed of a dry application of black pigments in every corners and low areas, then everything is dry brushed with Dark Steel pigments, including the tracks. Then pigment fixer is sprayed on the model using the paint brush. With my somewhat limited painting skills, its quick and provide good results. sadly, I never mastered the "wash" technique, and I am not patient enough to spend 2 weeks painting a model. Lets stick to what works for each of us...
Superb model quality, Bravo Takom and thank you. For the 50$ I paid for this model kit and the 100$ I spent on equipping it for RC, it is a real bargain and a pleasure to build. Making it RC capable was a good challenge. It's also small and this solves the storage space issue that is becoming dramatic.
Showing the interior electronics. The Takom plastic model comes with a full detailed interior. This model is begging me for another static one with interior.
I brought the model for an outside photoshoot. See following post.

Exterior Photoshoot

I'm in awe of your modeling skills Louis simply outstanding and your speed of completion is unbelievable

A few more pics and close ups.

Best regards, Louis
This is it, the build is over, hope you liked it.

Fantastic result.

Really like the subtle colors and weathering

Great build Louis look forward to seeing the video of it with all it's functions working now that it's complete

Cheers, Lee