RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Absolutely brilliant work Dr Phibes

Doc Phibes,
I knew you would have a plan and it would be brilliant. The only question I have is about the 360 wiring locus. It drops down pretty far into the lower hull on mine but I have everything attached with Velcro tabs up and out of the way. Will you shorten yours so as to use the deck or dispense with it altogether? ( or alter the second plate configuration of the deck so it drops past it ?)
regards,
Painless

Thanks for the praise guys, coming from builders with your skills means a lot.
Painless, yes, you are right about the positioning of the 360 wiring unit, and the Mato one is quite large. It was a case of trade-off really - whether or not I can keep the 360 depends on final position of the TK24 and to what extent I can move the mount for the 360 unit forward. Frankly I'm not too bothered about having the 360 turret, good if you can but for me no great loss if it has to go (excepting the re-wiring job it will involve). Then there's the turret/basket thing we spoke of before I think - installing an upper deck in the lower hull makes it tighter below the turret so I am 'winging it' a bit at this stage and kinda hoping I can make it all work

Apologies but I have missed some previous information, I went back but didn't find where you have what gearboxes you are using. I'm having fitment issues with my Firefly build and these look like they would fit into the narrow H/L lower hull.

Hi jackalope, the gearboxes are the stock Mato ones that come with their all metal version of the M36B1 as well, I'm guessing, their M4A3 Sherman. They are very good gearboxes with all steel gears and ball races throughout. I did, as can be seen, have to do a little minor tweaking but would still thoroughly recommend them.
If it helps the Mato hull interior/bucket is 100mm wide and around 45mm deep.
I don't know for sure who can supply the Mato gearboxes but I think Forgebear might be worth trying as he does a lot of Mato parts.

Thank you very much good Dr. and for the measurements as well! I'm having a difficult time finding better gearboxes for my base H/L Sherman lower and I just refuse to use the plastic ones that came with the tank! Not when I've got the Mato T74 duckbill tracks and all upgraded metal bits for the suspension system for Mr.Deans fine Firefly kit! I'm SURE your understand.

I'll take some measurements and if they match up with yours these will save my build! I'm at the point of frustration with these gearboxes!

Thank you again sir!

You'll know better than me jackalope but I wouldn't think the plastic gearboxes would be up to the job of driving those heavy metal Mato T74 duckbills. With the quality components you have already put into your Sherman I would definitely only consider metal gears myself as well. Whatever you decide I hope it works out

I'm watching on Dr................in quiet amazement

Stunning work here Dr, taking something that is admittedly rough round the edges to a degree decided by which side of the bed the mayo operative got up, and turning it into a real diamond! Following with great intrest.

Just a little update: The lower hull now has the TK24 conversion installed (a super audio upgrade over the TK22 btw) and I have been able fit everything in as intended. Apart from the Clark board a better 10k pot for audio volume control has been added and, next to the main/smoker switch mount, can be seem a small step-down voltage regulator. This was needed because, frankly, running the Tarr smoker straight off the battery was producing too much smoke for realism.
That's all for now folks, as I say a pretty small update. Now though I am looking forward to moving from the internals and on to the scale modelling bit that Painless keeps raising the bar on!