RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Thanks Will - it's been interesting as I was only going to take a look at the inside - sheesh - but it's been a fun project so far. And my electrical parts arrived today as well as the JSC pliers so tomorrow or Thursday I will get the turret finished electrically and then do the Zimmerit on it. The toughest part, I think, will be matching the original camouflage colors on this tank. The decals I received came with a color picture of the tank and I liked it so will do my best to match it.

One thing I learned - patience is a true virtue here. Especially when you are a bit on the elder side of life and little parts can escape.

Be well,
Steve

Steve Hi,
When I first started on this hobby I worried about making irreparable mistakes until a wise member of the Forum told me that absolutely any mistake can be fixed on a 1/16 Tank and its true,
Anything you put on the Tank can be removed, any hole drilled in the wrong place can with the judicious use of filler be made to disappear,
Any cock up in the painting can be removed and done again.
And most important of all ITS YOUR TANK you do it your way, and that is the primary reason I will not submit photographs,
I do not build tanks to order or for the comments of others,
They are my way of freeing my mind of the travails of a demanding life. My lady laughs at my hobby but comments that it is the only time I appear to be at rest.
Shaun.

Hi Shaun,

I agree on the building to suit oneself. I post the pictures as it appears to me that I have learned a bunch from other's pictures and maybe what I do can help someone else. One of the things I have observed here is that folks do build to suit themselves even if it's an out of the box fun toy. I've been building hot rods since I was a kid and do understand that anything done can be undone, but it's always nice to be patient and not have to do it more than 3-4 times.

My wife says I am the most patient man she has ever seen so I guess I do have patience. But sometimes it's like, drats!!! I do not want to do this again!!! I fitted a set of 54 Oldsmobile tail lights to my 53 Ford. It looked like a direct fit when I first thought up the idea. I have well over 260 hours in that little project. But no other car I have seen has that change.

You all on this forum have been exquisitely helpful and saved me from some really foolish things that on a full sized unit would be no biggy, but on a tiny object, with my big fingers, it could be an "order more parts" cause that one is broken beyond repair!

Be well,
Steve

Well I got the wiring done. What a pain in the patoot are those little JSC thingies. I finally soldered them together as there wasn't any way they would work well on the tiny wires that came with the turret 360 unit. And I started the Zimmerit - not really bad yet. I am using the watery liquid glue that seems to work OK. Put a lot of glue on, lay a little bit of the Zim, more glue, more Zim - fun stuff - - -

Zimmerit day, well I didn't get it all done but a significant portion. The little machinegun port was the most challenging. It was coat with glue, hold in place, add some super glue, hold in place, more glue, hold in place, then more super glue to get it all meshed together. I used the super glue as a bit of a filler and tightened up the Zim lines with it. If it is still on there tomorrow I will use a warm screwdriver to make a few adjustments in the lineup of the thing. But so far so good. Even got a coaxial machinegun in place. It came with one of the little troops I bought off ebay for a buck. 1/18 scale is not so far off from 1/16 if placed judiciously it appears.

Even has a german helmet on him. And with an MP-40 he'll look just fine I think -

I like the 1/18 scale figures like that, but I've always thought they'd look so much better if you decide on a final position, then use some milliput or something to smooth out those shoulder knee and elbow joints! Have you thought about that for your rider?

I have Max - I found 2 of these little guys for a buck just to see how they'd work. They will be final figure riders I think. They were cheap enough to experiment with! Also figure out just how to paint the body's so they are respectable grunts. I'm thinking there are a number of things that can be done. I fund some 1/18 MP-40s to play with also. I used this guys machine gun as a coaxial one on the tank.

Too fun -

Be well,
Steve

Zimmerit is done - YAY! And the track hangers are installed. Getting seriously close to painting.

Tank camo os finally done. I really like using the airbrush but discovered it needs cleaned before you do anything else. Anyway - here's my idea of camo and a beginning of using the 1/18 troops.