RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Need to show some ammos in the ammo box and feeder. I was disappointed with past experiences with resin ammo, expensive and in the end, not that great. This time, i am going with the Aber 16-130 kit which provide 30 brass rounds and links to assemble a flexible belt for a realistic display, at about the same cost.
At first, it is scary, but there is no complexity in it, really. Just need a cool head, good eye glasses, some prayers and hope.
View of the Aber ammo in 1/16 scale, really nice. And other than the tip, i won't have to paint it either.
The kit is having us create a jig for the assembly. It seemed very weak when i assembled it and did not have much hope it would work. It didn't. I had to drill the hole bigger to make the ammo enter the jig. Then the whole thing just collapsed at the first round when trying to shape the links.
I have found that it is much better to use two 1.2mm brass rods and shape the links with them. They are shaped in a size smaller than the ammo itself, which make them hold the ammo better when you slide the ammo inside the overlapping links. Be aware that these are really small as i am at maximum zoom on my Iphone 12 Pro.
In less time than it took to assemble the jig, i already had 8 ammo fully linked. Now, you can finetune these a lot but at one point, it has to do.
Overview of the Aber ammo belt, it feeds into the Tamiya browning perfectly. Not too small, not too big, just perfect. Now i have found what i was looking for.
That's it for now. Next step is to install the FLW-200 on the Boxer, and do some shooting.

Regards, Louis

Amazing brass work with the M2 and ammo, Louis. I really admire how neatly you've combined the Aber and Tamiya parts with functional electronics, you're obviously well practised by now!

Will you be painting or burnishing the disintegrating belt sections? The idea of brush-painting those tiny bits is making my hands shake just thinking about it!

Raminator wrote:Will you be painting or burnishing the disintegrating belt sections?

Thanks, yeah, there is probably a way to drop them in some acidic liquid like vinegar to burnish them a bit. I will check it out.

Continuing with the installation of the FLW-200 remote weapon station in the GTK Boxer.

As this is a Boxer A1 version, the FLW-200 is shown mounted on its raised extension in order to cover some dead angles compared to the A0 version.
Overall, installation is the same method as used on the TPZ-1 Fuchs build. It worked very well. A VEX medium size gear is used for rotation and is glued to the brass tube connecting to the gun platform above.
A push rod is connected to the gun platform hook previously installed. This is actually created from a Heng Long antenna, which makes the best push/pull rods...firm and flexible.
A micro servo is unceremoniously glued to the rotation wheel after having been stripped of all features sticking out. It is connected directly to the receiver and assigned to the VRA knob.
A Fitec FS5103R which is a 360 bi-directional continuous rotation servo is used for rotation, and connected directly to the receiver and assigned one of the horizontal stick.
This is a custom servo mount designed in minutes. I needed the rotation servo to clear the elevation servo on the rotation wheel. I had to trim the servo mount and find a unorthodox method to install it. The weapon station is extremely light, there is no issues and it works well.
Although the GTK interior is huge with lots of room for electronics, the central area is prime real estate shared by the main gearbox, 4 servos, gears and pushrods. Some compromise on the interior look and feel was required to make everything coexist and operate without bumping on each other.
The Aber ammo set provided a belt of 31 12.7mm rounds for the Browning and ammo box. The method to create the links was improved at one point, just needing one 1.2mm rod and shaping each link one half at a time, then inserting the female half into the male half of the previous link, then putting in the ammo. One by one. It gets easier after the 10th round, taking about 45 minutes in all.
I temporarily dropped the ammo belt into the box for testing purposes, and take some pictures. I will have to find a way to glue it later at the painting phase.
Empty 12.7mm cartridges from Masters are on order for the cartridge bin at the rear of the station.
Continuing on following post.

Overview of the GTK Boxer with the mounted FLW-200 weapon station.
Firing the M2 Browning.
Short video of the weapon station during testing, Terminator style.



Regards, Louis

"This is a custom servo mount designed in minutes." Dang! No wonder I couldn't finish that toy building out of blocks!

that weapons station & ammo is a thing of exquisite beauty..........love the servo mounts idea!

Thank you. Let’s say that the interior design is not the showcase of this build... With the huge central gearbox, the four suspension towers and all the gears and push rods, I figured that using Lego blocks to speed up the creation of a problematic servo mount would not be a big deal. What’s important is the result.

I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but it is great inspiration for any AFV build. Congratulations Louis!

Has anyone seen this?



Similar to Finnish Sisu, some kind of Serbian AFV perhaps? Some detailed mirrors, wipers and wheels, then all you need is a paint job. Cheap as chips!

https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-EAT07- ... 34935.html

Estnische wrote:Has anyone seen this?

Hi, yes saw it when i was doing the investigations trying to find any usable mechanical components on the market for the Boxer build. This small vehicle lacks any type of suspension and steering and its definitely not 1/16. The drive train is like a small rc tank toy by design, they replaced the tracks by 3 plastic wheels that slides. When it turns, its not realistic. It does not to my knowledge represent any real vehicle. But its cute.

Hi, continuing with the build.

The four roof hatches for the infantry section are complicated, ring, extra armour attachment points, hinges. Nothing strait. Other than a flat plate and some core part for the hinge, nothing is provided in the Ludwig kit and everything need to be scratch built for an accurate model. I also notice different hatch arrangements with rear hatch oriented differently depending on the reference picture being looked at. I also question is whether the legends of pictures indicating A0, A1, A2 or A3 versions are accurate. Likely, as older models gets updated to latest version, there can be a mixture of every version into one vehicle.
Starting with the design of the hatch rings.
Four core rings and hatches on the right thickness are made in 30 minutes.
They have intricate details to finetune.
The hatches coming with the kit are just good enough to plug the holes they were meant to fill. They are glued in place.
Rings are positioned. The hatches have not been made operable. Best of luck if you are planning to.
The core hatches are in place, minus some minor details and the armor attachment points that will be added later with the others for the hull.
The tool side bins... The Germans are not able to make anything simple and strait. It always had to have many angles, custom shaped, complicated, creating work for the modellers. Here, the frontal plates of the bins are made aerodynamic...

And there are 2 production versions of the side tool bins. This is the version that i reproduced.
The Ludwig parts provided for the bins are vaguely inspired by this version. However, all the parts provided are simplified, wrong dimension, shape and useless. Everything needs to be scratch built again for an accurate model. Notice what I think are lozenge shaped embossed stiffeners on the top section.
Continuing on following post