Starting 4 th 1/12 ABRAMS UP-GRADE (tracks & gearboxes) (Finished 2-19-09)

[BIGMIG]

Thought I would post the up-grade process on my fourth Heilang 1/12 abrams,this one is the last stock one I have thats been setting on the shelf waiting to be done.I did two of these on RCU and did the last one on Hobby Havoc. "first one"--Has tiger tracks,HL boards,HL motor boxes,and cog-belt and pulley drive on axle shafts,and elevating air soft cannon. "second one"--Has tiger tracks, (4) four gearboxs,(4) four sprockets,(2) HL driver boards with (1) HL receiver board,Dual batterys,and elevating air soft cannon. "third one"--
I used (tracks for a 1/6 M5 Stuart--21st Century tank) (1) set of tracks,had to make a sprocket to fit this tank and tracks,And used the exsisting Heilang radio and board.

There are a lot of these tanks out on the market place and a lot of members who have them.I will post this as if it's the first one on the forum (it may be don't know) and go into detail about these tanks and what you can expect when you buy a stock one and what you will get right out of the box.These don't apear to be all that popular over-all for various reasons,two being their size and poor quality of their controls out of the box.As some of you know I have the most fun working on trying to improve the tracks and the internals of these tanks.Kind of like to exspearament with these a little and not concerned wether they are correct as an actual model would represent.I'm more interested on how they run,not how they look.

I'm posting a few pictures of the last one I did on Hobby Havoc to start this post-------and it will be followed by the start on the stock tank I'll be redoing.
Feel free to ask any question (if you will have any ) as I go along,and I'll give it a shot at answering.These pictures to follow is the Abrams with the 1/6 Stuart tracks---------                                BIGMIG 

[BIGMIG]

As I start off on this tank I would like to say we have a lot of guys on this forum who have talents that I don't posess,and I would like to take my hat off to them-- We have some great model builders and painters on this forum and this work I will do is just to mabe inspire others to jump into this fun hobby and do what you can do,you may surprise yourself at what you can do.



This won't be a high speed build as I have other projects I'm still working on,so will be jumping back and forth on them.I hope someone will see what I do and mabe see even a better way to do one of these,and then jump in and post their build.I know there are all different tastes in tanks and a big varity to choose from,but these are kind of neat tanks and one of the few in this price range for those on a budget.

Posting pictures first what you will get out of the box and what the inside stock tank looks like---------BIGMIG 

[BIGMIG]

Got about four more pictures of the insideand then I'll get into a little about what the stock tank is like out of the box.

[BIGMIG]

I'll start off with what I know will be done with this tank to begin with.It will get tiger Tracks,and will get HL gearboxes.This is all I know for sure at this point,and what I'll do for the electronix part of it will be decided as I go.


A little about these tanks as they come stock out of the box---They come just like all the others,the tank,radio,battery,charger,and some BB's.If you buy one of these thinking you will get a tank simular to the quality of a HL tank,you will be very "dissapointed".
If you buy one planning on up-grading it to as good a quality as an HL great,other wise "DON'T".
The rubber tracks are very stiff,the cannon rides over a mickey mouse cam-system so gun fire accuracy is non-exsistant,The gun is powerfull though,there will be a lot of crunching and grinding coming from the roadwheels when you drive it.The road wheels are two piece and put on that way without gluing them togeather which causes a lot of this crunching sound.( this is good for the up-grade though that they are not glued).There is a lot of lag time when you move the controls,the tank keeps moving for a few seconds after you have stoped pushing the leaver.      To be continued--supper time for me 
                                                        BIGMIG 

[Mackem]

Hi Larry,

I've read your's and wacky's conversion threads on these tanks quite a few times over on HobbyHavoc,
and must admit I've been tempted to get one. (They go for around £40.00 over here)
Looking at your pics of the internals they are very similar to hobby engine tanks.
ie: very weak suspension, plastic gears, and very poor tracks.
I'll be following this thread with interest, so keep the posts coming!

Cheers
John

[BIGMIG]

Hello John,
    Thanks for the reply.I think the price you quoted is simular to what we pay here compairedto what you guys pay for the HL tanks on your side of the pond.If a guy shops around over here you can buy them for around 60 to 70 dollars and around 15 to 20 dollars shipping.As I pull this one apart I'll take pictures of all the components for the benifit of those who have never seen one and may have interest in them.I think Wacky used the stock plastic gearbox in his,but I think it is best to pull it and use the HL gearboxes.The stock gear box is not very good and might be geared a little higher than the HL.The swing arms for the roadwheels flex quite a bit but can be reworked a little to take some of the slop out of them.But the biggest improvement is putting the tiger tracks on them,the stock rubber tracks are very stiff.

                                  BIGMIG 

[BIGMIG]

Well it is snowing like a big dog this afternoon as I write this.

Going to have lots of pictures as I go along on this,hope they may prove helpfull to others.I'll start with the tracks,just pull a pin and the track is off.I'll post two pictures of the tracks and you can see how stiff they are----
                                        Larry

[BIGMIG]

Next was to get the upper hull and the lower hull seperated with out unpluging all the wires at this time.(at this point not sure if I'll use the exsisting board--or a new HL board) There are 6 screws that hold all the internals in the lower hull.Five screws hold the gear box in place,and one screw that holds the board.Two wires that need to be snipped off.A  red  wire from the battery to the board that is soldered to the board,and a black wire from the switch to the board that is also a soldered wire to the board.Thats it and all the internal stuff lifts out and the lower hull is free to work on.

                                           Larry 

P.S.  I will add here, there are four screws that hold the two hull halves togeather.Easy way to remove them is to lay the tank on it's side and then remove them.Be carefull here when you open the tank as a couple of the wires are short and you can lay the hull "top half" off to one side but not the other. 

[BIGMIG]

Well we can take a little brake here and talk about options at this point.  Did I say these were some of the projects I had the most fun doing,along with the two 1/12 hummers I did.

Now I will say at this point if you just want to up-grade the tracks,re-do the roadwheels to make them cpmpatable to work with the tiger tracks,and replace the original gearbox with the HL gearboxes.----then try to preserve everything when taking it apart like stated above.They are a fairly good working tank at this point and 300 percent improvement over what came out of the box.I will also say that the (metal gearboxes would be better for a heavyier tank like this) but the plastic ones do also work just fine if you don't try to climb a mountain or go through two feet high grass with them.If you don't care about the way the gun elevation system works and you don't mind the stock radio,then its just a mater of redoing the track system and putting two new gearboxes in and attaching the four wires to the drive motors and clsose it up and run it.   But knowing how most on here want there tanks,there is a lot more that they will want to do and this is just the start.


P.S.  (NOTE)  the stock battery in these tanks is a 9.6 NiCd------
        (NOTE)  the stock tank has all the features of a (NON-S&S HL tank-----with the exception of a controlable gun elevation motor)

Using HL transmitter and boards in the up-grade----
For the full blown HL sound and smoke system=="what you will need" (covers most of it,a few things you may not find from the parts supplier) S&S Transmitter,(two matching crystals),big and small S&S boards,a speaker,smoker unit,gun elevation motor,and this combined with everything else that has been done in the upper starting posts.


       (NOTE)                          (NOTE)
                        Lets talk systems and "batterys" here.----If you are going to use just the stock transmitter,stock receiver,and up-graded HL gearboxes,then you will use the 9.6 battery that comes with the tank. (I have run my last one I did this way and the extra voltage did not seem to affect the drive motors--not yet anyway)
                        If you use the HL receivers then you need to use the 7.2 volt Battery----
                        I guess you could also use the NON S&S board and transmitter for this tank with the above Posts also if you wish,and happen to have one for this type of systems.
                       I did not use any of the smoker units in any of my conversions.

                          I think this covers a lot of it up to this point---Larry                       BIGMIG 

[BIGMIG]

Every thing to this point has been mostly on stripping it down to where the up-grade begins.Some of the above will get hashed over again several times I'm sure as I tend to drift around and repete things as I go.


I'll start with the left front idler ( which on these tanks is pretty much identical to--in fact they are the same as the road wheels,except the bore for the axle is bigger with it's own insert.) The front axle shaft is ( Gnarled )------(know this word and use it on occassion,but had to look it up to see how it was spelled. ) on both ends with a push on end cap that is held in place by the Gnarled ends of the shaft.This end cap is what the wheel hub rides on so treat it gently when removing it.This hub is kind of tricky getting it off as you need to start prying against the very inside of it and the hull.You don't want to dammage the hub and you don't want to dammage the hull of the tank.

(NOTE)  lets take a minute here and mention the fact that when doing the work on these roadwheels that you will not just be able to go buy these if you screw one or more up while working on these tanks.In the following posts I'll be making when I get to the point where 1/4 inch will be cut off the inner flange of the outer wheel,this is something that has to be done right the first time.Will be getting to that soon.(if confused at that statement---try writing it up so it makes sense to someone--- ) To get parts for these tanks will require finding one being sold as a parts tank--Be carefull and go slow---


The axle tension device that is allready installed will work OK for the tiger tracks.I took it apart so I could take a couple of pictures of what it looks like inside so you can see how it works.There are 6 screws that hold it togeather and in place,and is well built in general.

The roadwheels are held on the axle shaft by a screw.When the screw is removed they slide right off and they are two piece and will come right apart as they were not glued togeather when installed.This is part of all the crunching noise you will hear when running a stock tank right out of the box.Also the chineese workers who put these togeather didn't bother to clean sprue and mold edges off these wheels which also helps to make them run untrue
and adding to the crunching sounds as the wheels flop around on the spindles.

        Pictures below----      Tension device first--