Matorro King Tiger w/ Tamiya-HL upgrade

[BREL]

wow that is a great looking tank with great attention to the fine detail on the tank

[xrad]

New Pics:

[xrad]

Some more pics:

[Saxondog]

Man Xrad,that's a monster,It is really coming together.The track guards look great.The wheels are Asiatam,do they come with the button head axles with the flat edge so the control arm set screw retains the axle? I asked because when I purchased the Asiatam lower hull their were no axles for the Stock wheels,I tapped the control arms and used shoulder bolts,they have never given me any problem.Much stronger than the set screw arrangement.But the Tamiya control arms are tapped,or set screw retainers? Because with all that weight you need the road wheels to run smooth and straight.The wheels on your Jagdpanther had which type of axles? Blake

[xrad]

Thanks Sax: Yes. wheels come with brass button head axle held in place with 3mm grub screw on an already tapped Tammy swing arm. Touch of threadlock and file a locking flat spot on the brass axle and they never move.

JP has Asiatam cast metal road wheels with brass axles and tammy hull with set screw swing arms. Works great. The JP road wheels are VERY smooth runners. I think I would build another JP or stug before anything else!

[Saxondog]

The Asiatam control arms have the 3mm grub screw which I kept,I removed them threaded the arms 6/32 then after the axles were screwed in I ground off the extra thread and reinstalled the grub screw. I just did not know how the Tamiya arms were made.I can see in the earlier photo how the gearbox housings seem a little out of square on the radio operators side.But you were able to achieve shaft alignment.For the cost of those units they should be perfect,and you had flashing on the gears as well.Well Fred keep up the good work,always enjoy your builds.I'm very serious about that,I really like the way you think about the projects from an engineers point of view.By the way I posted the information on Steel Dragons,great tanks you should check it out.The F.O.A.Tanks have come a long way. Blake

[xrad]

I think my tracks are on the wrong side...

[Saxondog]

No their just backwards.

[raven]

hi xrad you have done one hell of a job on your KT very very nice i wont be doing anywhere near what your doing

chris

[xrad]

Impact gearboxes smoothed with NAPA valve grinding compound (they only had one type) 10 minutes each direction with a few re-applications.

then all taken apart (BE SURE to take pics before taking apart! OR, do one at a time so the other is your visual assembly manual)

Really is pretty easy. all E clips are the saem size except on main output shaft. That one is a little bigger. You might have to compress the housing a little to allow easy removal/insertion of the E clips.

BE sure to get the tube spacers in the right spot. they are different lengths. Also, be sure to get the gears facing the correct way as some have machined spacer on one side only.

BE sure to clean ALL the grinding compound out of everywhere (I used mineral spirits. Worked great. just soak and swish and blow dry)

Then I greased all the inside and outside faces and tubes and axles with good sticky grease.

Overall, they run MUCH more smoothly and are about 1/2 as noisey. The gear faces are visually smoother. Takes about 1.5 hours for the whole project but I think it is worth the time.

As mentioned in above posts, these could have been machined MUCH better for the money you pay. For example, the axles are chrome plated , but it is worn off in places due to poor central gear drill bores.

see sound/vid:

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