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Nothing in the Post today tho' I note that the metal idlers and mounts are on their way from Oz. I'm going to have to order two more metal wheels to replace the first pair of road wheels as well. I cannot see any way short of drilling out the center caps on these old style wheels to salvage them enough to even use as stowage. I wanted to weight down the front of the tank a little so it's not a bad thing. I may even replace all of the road wheels and suspension arms with the metal ones in the future if I go full metal on with tracks and sprockets. I don't see it happening right now but the option of removable rubber tires like the Tamiya will make painting these metal ones a lot easier. Tonight I removed the rest of the plastic radiator cap and mounted Woz's amazin' 3D printed cap and hinges in it's place. I searched for a bit to find appropriate metal pins to keep the cap on once the hinges were glued on and came across a large paper clip that worked out great. After that, I put Tamiya's two piece front tow hooks on the HL mounts and started filing down the HL frogeye LEDs in the headlights to mount Tamiya's ring and lens. I'll have to finish that up tomorrow night. Pics:

PainlessWolf wrote:Nothing in the Post today tho' I note that the metal idlers and mounts are on their way from Oz. I'm going to have to order two more metal wheels to replace the first pair of road wheels as well. I cannot see any way short of drilling out the center caps on these old style wheels to salvage them enough to even use as stowage. I wanted to weight down the front of the tank a little so it's not a bad thing. I may even replace all of the road wheels and suspension arms with the metal ones in the future if I go full metal on with tracks and sprockets. I don't see it happening right now but the option of removable rubber tires like the Tamiya will make painting these metal ones a lot easier. Tonight I removed the rest of the plastic radiator cap and mounted Woz's amazin' 3D printed cap and hinges in it's place. I searched for a bit to find appropriate metal pins to keep the cap on once the hinges were glued on and came across a large paper clip that worked out great. After that, I put Tamiya's two piece front tow hooks on the HL mounts and started filing down the HL frogeye LEDs in the headlights to mount Tamiya's ring and lens. I'll have to finish that up tomorrow night. Pics:

Still lots of work done Painless... really like the dimension Woz's cap adds ... think I might have to redo at least one of my Shermans lol..... it looks terrific

ALPHA

Alpha, thank you. Yes, Woz's work is really a boon and looks much better than the molded caps. It is fully workable and opens either side by pulling a pin. The antenna port it covers might make a decent charge port one of these years. Nothing in the post today so I got started again on the headlights and continued work on the upper deck. Pics:

Nothing in the post today. That's not all bad since I am feeling a little under the weather and didn't want to repeat last night's session. I contented myself with continuing to add upper deck detailing and cut out the engine grill stops from pvc strip and glued them on. Pic:

I didn't check the tracking Painless... hopefully the stuff I sent will be there by friday

ALPHA

Good Morning,
No worries, Alpha, I am watching the metal idlers and arms shipment crawl it's way here from Oz and Tank Army. I would _love_ to find those parts here in the States or in the UK so shipping would go quicker. As I now have to order a couple more of the metal road wheels, wanting to find them closer is even more of a thing. I figure that once the first shipment gets here and I see what they are like, I will go from there. RCTank.de has them as well but then I am dealing with the Exchange Rate then.
regards,
Painless

Hey Painless

Really like the look of those head lights, I didn't even know you could buy such things, they make such a difference, nice work..

Jake

PainlessWolf wrote:Good Morning,
No worries, Alpha, I am watching the metal idlers and arms shipment crawl it's way here from Oz and Tank Army. I would _love_ to find those parts here in the States or in the UK so shipping would go quicker. As I now have to order a couple more of the metal road wheels, wanting to find them closer is even more of a thing. I figure that once the first shipment gets here and I see what they are like, I will go from there. RCTank.de has them as well but then I am dealing with the Exchange Rate then.
regards,
Painless

Yeah it's hard when it comes to heavy bits...reason I like Dave...he always tells you all the details in advance....


ALPHA

Jake,
Thank you! One of the first things I do when researching a redo or build is see if there are sprues of Tamiya or Schumo parts for the tank. I build what I cannot locate ( or afford ) but have had a lot of luck with Tamiya parts working on HL, Mato or Taigen tanks to help detail them out.
regards,
Painless

Great day for the Post! It's like time stepped forward and delivered the metal idlers and suspensions as well as Alpha's unique turned brass barrel, buckets, 8 pin cable and a Tamiya 1/35 Stug I will finish building this beautiful kit, Alpha and use it as a research tool for a Taigen Stug. *bows* Thank you, my Friend. For work, I backed and filled the upper deck mounting holes and discovered that HL has made a couple of changes over the intervening years in their Pershing. Doing a test fit, I saw that the single central mount in the rear between the gearboxes turned into dual mounts on the new upper. I sawed and sanded them away and did the test fit. Six screws will see the two hulls mated as well as seven ( or eight ) ever did. Finishing up, I drilled as small a hole as possible in the caps on the front road wheels and removed them with a phillips head driver. Going to removable caps on their road wheels was one of the best changes HL ever did, that and dropping the use of push rivets to hold suspension arms in place. The new metal arms use hex screws. Now, I need to order two more of the metal wheels and once all are mounted, they will balance the weight of the gearboxes in back pretty well. Pics: