RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I hope I am not boring you guys with the fun I have been having with these bargain basement deals I have been getting on Ebay.

I started a few days ago on a busted up Pershing I picked up for 50 USD on Fleabay. I knew I was going to be tearing this one apart and giving it a face lift. I ordered stock Henglong recoil mechanisms. I measured the BB unit and came up wit a factory HL recoil that should work well. We will see, but my best guess after a few beers and staring at it long enough, gave me enough confidence to hit the buy button.

I tore the entire thing down and started with the most difficult part, which was fitting a barrel assembly. I went to Walmart and bought a Shakespeare Durango fiber fishing rod for 8 bucks. I took my calibers in with me to measure the rods to find out which one would work well. This one happened to be the cheapest of them all. I took a 50 cal casing, and sliced it up to put into the mantle as a guide for the recoiling barrel. After finding the section and the length that I needed, I took a brass Airsoft barrel that I had lying around from some of my airsoft guns. It fit perfectly inside, needed a bit of shimming at the mantle to center it in the fishing rod section. I then epoxied it all together and added the stock HL Pershing muzzle. Glued it all together waiting on the recoil units.

So here it begins.......the Tiger Killer. I needed a formidable opponent for my Axis battalion.

Good Evening, Pale,
Anything but boring. ;o) I love the .50 cal case as the main gun component. ;o) Please keep right on keeping on.
warm regards,
Painless

PainlessWolf wrote:Good Evening, Pale,
Anything but boring. ;o) I love the .50 cal case as the main gun component. ;o) Please keep right on keeping on.
warm regards,
Painless

Thanks Painless, I hated to destroy the cartridge, but as I was rummaging around the place, I sighted the casing on one of my benches, and it sized up perfectly. Those things are getting pricey. Fortunately, they have 4-5 good reloads on them when needed.

On the upside, I was able to salvage the fishing rod after cutting out the section I needed. It will make a great kids rod for my daughter.

PP

Whoa! What caliber is that thing? That can't be based on any real tank, right?

The issue becomes this for me,how do you tune a long barrel? And how does one tune a tank?

Any ideas?

Pretty neat, well done. Hope you enjoy my humor,as I think you might well know the answer.

Saxondog

jeff1101 wrote:Whoa! What caliber is that thing? That can't be based on any real tank, right?

My best guess is that it is pretty close according to dimensions at the mantle and the muzzle break. L/70 90mm gun. I have not cut it to final length toward the breech. Waiting on the HL recoil to see what I have to cut.

Wow, I was wrong then. Thanks for the photo of the real tank. I guess maybe the way the first photo was framed or the perspective made the barrel appear so much longer.

Also I think, on your 3rd picture, they had to add a counterweight at the end of the turret bustle just to counterbalance the length of the barrel...

Yes, from what I seen in my research is that they also had hydraulic assist on the mantle as well on later models. There are a lot of changes to the turret from the stock version, including the counter weights.

Saxondog wrote:The issue becomes this for me,how do you tune a long barrel? And how does one tune a tank?

Any ideas?

Pretty neat, well done. Hope you enjoy my humor,as I think you might well know the answer.

Saxondog

I certainly do not think it will be as easy as when I have to tune a fish.

Does anyone know where I can get the correct Sherman loaders hatch for this project? I was hoping maybe it was available in resin. I had seen units used on other builds, but no mention of where they were obtained. I hope I can find it before the time comes to fab the unit.

Thanks in advance,
PP