RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Where do I place my order

Amazing work, best of all is that you would not know it has be converted to RC. All the work is hiding under the skin.

Thanks everyone for your encouragements. It seems i am on the right track. But honestly, i have never seen an easy build like this. I put on the tracks, connect the board and press on the gas. The gearbox, sprocket, tracks, suspension, rollers, everything runs flawlessly without a single issue or adjustment needed. Even the individual track connector teeth that i was concerned would be ripped off after a couple of turns, well, they hold. I ran the tank for 10 minutes, i did not lose a single one. Of course, i would not send the model in a gravel pit or the bush because the tracks would break at the first rock or piece of wood that gets in it, but that's probably true for any plastic tracks with metal connector pins or not.

Moving on to the hull. Need to put on the upper hull in a way that is easily removable but solid.

The glacis comes in 2 parts. After some analysis, i glued the lower glacis part to the hull as the anchor for the upper part.
The underside of the upper glacis is reinforced on the side so that it can slide better between the side armor. Notice the grinding on the glacis interior to clear the top gear on the left gearbox. Every millimeter counts on such gearbox installation.
The removable upper hull will connect to the hull at the front using the highlighted molded-in interlocking sections that will slide under, as if this tank was designed to help me convert it.
The upper hull slides right into the lower hull and rests on the all around side armor for a perfect and solid fit. Not sure it will even need magnets at the back.
Looking at the interior, i am starting the planning for the turret installation. A Vex Robotics (always grateful to Carl for the tip) will serve as rotation wheel with a simple Heng Long rotation unit. I need to brainstorm the connection between the turret and the hull.
Looking at the hull, space is restricted but there is enough room for everything with some esthetic compromises. The nice bulkhead, radiators and engine fan will sadly not be installed, i need the room. It would be worth building this model again as a static just for the nice interior details, specially the turret. Pretty sure this one won't be the last.
Regards, Louis

Just noticed that Classy Hobby is coming out with the M5A1 Early version, with T16 tracks. They have nice box art.

Ad Lav wrote:Where do I place my order

https://www.axels-modellbau-shop.de/kat ... -1-16.html

It seems there's no obstacle in model making you can't overcome, Louis. Problems that would be impossible for many of us to solve, in years of trying, seemingly take you but a few days. Simply amazing.
I'm Flabbergasted, as usual.

43rdRecceReg wrote:It seems there's no obstacle in model making you can't overcome, Louis. Problems that would be impossible for many of us to solve, in years of trying, seemingly take you but a few days. Simply amazing

Hi, thank you. I am trying to make it simple. I must advise though that having a good selection of polystyrene plates (0.5mm, 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 3mm) and a well stocked reserve of overlapping metal tubes at home ranging from 2mm to 10mm, brass and aluminum really help in finding quick solutions to many modelling problems. These can be purchased cheaply on ebay from China. I have a simple tube cutter and basic tools. Not everything can or should be 3D printed.

Presenting the turret electronics and a short Youtube video of the turret in action at the end of today's last post.

A base for the turret internal ring to rest on (and a floor for the electronics) is prepared. The ring must be the size of the hull ring, not the turret hole. A simple school geometry kit is helpful to draw a perfect cycle of the right size into a plasticard plate of the right thickness, and carved out with the Dremel and nail file. The thickness of the plasticard is important as this determines the space between the turret base and the turret rotation wheel. It should be just enough to leave a little room for the turret to rotate freely with the upper hull in between. I don't remember what i used but its either 1.5mm or 2mm thick.
It is made to fit the hull interior ring. The bottom of the turret base is glued on top like if it was a seamless extension into the hull, to which the rotation wheel will be attached to.
A hollowed large size VEX gear is screwed to in the inside. The VEX wheel is turning against the upper hull bolt heads under it, with strength but little resistance. The turret is small and light so no need for fancy gears or complicated ball bearings, really. Before drilling holes and screwing it, the center for the wheel has been properly located using a few drops of superglue to test the integration first to ensure the gears are all aligned in 360 degrees rotation with the Heng Long rotation unit gear installed at the back right side. It took a couple of attempts to find the perfect center point. The slightest wobble in the turret rotation wheel will create havoc in its operation. This provides a very easy and efficient turret rotation. The VEX robotics basic gear kit seems to have become more rare and expensive lately. I purchased a small reserve of these gear kits for future use. Its the kind of part that an out of the box builder need to always have on inventory anyway. The teeth match the Heng Long type of rotation units, and the various wheel sizes available can really be useful for builds like this, an earlier tip from Carl. I can create turret rotation solutions in minutes.
A dent is made inside the hull on the right so that the rotation unit can be positioned there, clearing the other side for the Control board.
Here we go, turret rotation is done.
The front plate for the gun mount is put on. It is detailed for static model. Its emptiness will leave RC modellers to ponder their options.
The kit comes with a nicely detailed plastic gun. However, it is not hollow and the fragile mount that fits inside the gun hole in the turret and holds by 2 little pins would not support any RC operations. It would be ripped off at the first recoil swing. Something new to support a sudden servo activated gun recoil is required. However, the kit plastic gun and other associated parts are very nice and are kept for future use, maybe to mount on a half track where the detailed and exposed breech would have much more value than being broken apart for RC operation inside the turret.
A new stronger and hollow barrel is made of overlapping brass tubes matching the plastic gun size. The brass tubes are cut to the proper length, glued together, and then sanded with a strong nail file to give it the shape of the gun barrel, decreasing in size towards the muzzle. It looked acceptable on my second attempt. It takes about an hour of filing while slowly rotating the barrel in one hand and sanding on the other hand. Sanding brass may sound crazy but it works well and skills improve with practice. The key area that need special attention are the joints. Of course, it would be great to use a lathe to create a turned barrel in aluminum... but i would need a lathe...one day. For now, this is acceptable.
Forget about installing these 3D printed gun recoil units sold for larger kits. A home made custom RC gun mount and recoil unit are created for the Stuart. An aluminum tube is used as a sleeve for the recoil. A slot for the recoil is made using the Dremel and manually fine tuned. The overlapping tubes need to be loose and greased.

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The home made Stuart tank recoil unit is ready
The recoil unit sleeve is carefully position on the gun mount so that the exterior gun section has the proper length. Everything needs to be pre-planned of courre. The mount is first positioned with a couple of drops of superglue to determine the right height. If not right, then the mount is snapped off and repositioned for another attempt. It took me quite a few attempts. The 2 brass elevation pins (a separate one each side) are loose inside the gun mount plasticard part itself.
Once the right location is determined, the mount is reinforced in place with plasticard strips with a groove in them.
The mantlet is quite small. It is held to the gun mount with a plasticard bracket glued on the interior bottom and that is long enough to reach the gun mount. A study of the kit gun mount that matches the real tank is required to determine the best solution to fix the mantlet. Can't go wrong by trying to do something similar to the real thing...
The mantlet bracket is glued to the gun mount underneath it, like the real tank.
Good quality Micro servos with metal gears are used for recoil and gun elevation. They are operating using adjustable pull rods that can be purchased cheaply on eBay. These are quite desirable and save a lot of time and effort.
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A wizard for sure! Conjuring modeling solutions at will. And making it look easy.

Views of the finalized RC interior turret. Notice the brass tube holding and protecting the LED wire on the right for the Browning Machine gun flash. The LED itself is under the black tape so that it does not illuminate the interior of the turret. Wires are also coming out of the back of the recoil unit for main gun flash 3mm LED at the tip of the barrel.
The elevation servo is positioned under the turret floor for better alignment with the gun barrel. Nothing fancy here, space is limited, it is simply stripped of all features and glued in place at the right height using plasticard spacers.
The nice kit M1919 Browning machine guns are saved for future use and replaced by Aber brass models that will have a LED installed on them.
These .30 caliber MG are small so in order for them to have a flash LED, i purchase a thin 0.75mm fibre optic cable on Amazon for a few bucks.
The barrel itself is replaced by a brass tube that can accept the fibre optic cable.
The exterior tip of the Aber machine gun is salvaged and drilled for the fibre optic.
The fibre optic is inserted into the brass tube, then inserted through the MG sleeve and tip. Another section of brass tube is used to protect the fibre up to the LED inside the turret.
The electronics are positioned inside the hull. Very simple. Facing the front, there is a Clark TK-60 on the right, receiver on the left, battery in the middle, speaker at the back.
With the installation of the turret and main electronics, the build can now proceed with the simple detailing of the model using the kit plastic parts. The most challenging aspect of the build are now done. Of course, the model will have working headlights and tail lights, and secondary LED operated Browning MG on the glacis.
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