RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Holy moly, it just keeps getting better and better!

Mike.

HERMAN BIX wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2024 1:36 am Those front guards look like they are off an old Morris Minor 1000 !!
Lovely rolled compound curves, way too nice for a tank.

Correction...too nice for any of your tanks Herr Bix...

At some point, every tank was a new baby. This one seems a likely candidate to replicate such a condition.

Got a bit sidetracked, I changed out the resin for some clear stuff to try the headlight and taillight lenses. While I was at it, I thought I'd try printing the hull and coaxial DT machineguns in clear resin so that they can act as their own optic fibres; I didn't like my chances of drilling out such a fine and narrow barrel for a separate one. They've got a cup shape on one side to directly mate up against an LED.


Now I just need some LEDs to test them with! I'll use SMD LEDs in the taillight so that the convoy and brake lights can be separate. It's a tight squeeze (the inside of the taillight is less than 6 millimetres in diameter), but they'll fit.

Jeez they go alright Mr Ram
Headlight lenses are a royal PITA to just have available when needed.
I reckon having a handful would make the getting rid of the awful H/L offering so much easier.

Whoa, those are tasty, and incredibly accurate!

Will these be available to the tanking public? Have you considered breaking into the HL factory, smashing their Russian headlight molds and leaving a giant sack of these in their place?

Mike.

Raminator: I hope you determine a price for those lenses and sell them by the bazillions so you can retire to a land of moderate climate. Well, like ColemanCollector Mike, I sure would be interested in a few dozen of them.

I've been away from this for a long time due to illness, but things have been improving for me lately so it's time to get back to it. First task was winterising the printer; it's become much colder in the last few months (by our standards at least!). It's often around 17°C in the house in the morning, and the resin mix I'm using is way too viscous to print well at those kinds of temperatures. I've rigged up a series of springs and cable ties to wrap a fermentation belt around the printer to keep the resin at 30°C, which will do until I can make something a little more permanent.


The last thing I was working on before the break was the bow DT machinegun, there's a three-part bracket to attach the ballmount and servo to the hull so it can be remotely controlled.


Fitting it all together, the front of the tank is really taking shape with lots of little details here that aren't available anywhere else.


The next big thing to turn this into a proper pre-war model is the running gear. The next update should be exciting!

Great to see you back up & running Mr Ram.
You are bang on with the fact that this stuff is simply not available anywhere else.
To produce parts that can accurately backdate a new T34/85 model to a pre or entry war version is fantastic.
Cant wait to get some hardware to hand when you are ready to start punching them out !

Those tracks... WOW!