Tamiya Tiger I Main gun Elevation and Balance Q

[Muscleflex]

Hi all,
My Tiger tank has metal barrel and plastic muzzle. I decided to unhook the spring and servo arm from the main gun just to check on balance and sure enough, the main gun drops straight away. It's quite heavy.

I have read about other people mentioning balancing the main gun. Question is, where do I put the extra weight to balance it? Really sorry as I don't have a photo but there's an aluminum arm that connects from the elevation to the actual servo arm that moves the gun up and down. Can I stick the extra weight on this arm?

Regarding elevation, how high should it be elevating? I've noticed the actual recoil system hits the bottom brace of the main turret. If I bend the recoil mount up a bit, I can get more elevation... but is this safe?

Extra question: my brother pointed me out to a couple of youtube videos of people using servos for their recoil. How do I do this on my Tiger? Is this even recommended? Can I do this without hacking my tank? I don't want to cut anything on the tank. (it might affect resale value! )

[sassgrunt]

I have had luck adding weight to the underside of the metal bracket that holds the recoil unit. My goal was to make less front-end weight that might overtax the elevation mechanism/gears. Although a metal barrel adds a little bit of weight, you'll see a REAL increase in barrel weight if you add a metal muzzle brake, (there are cast aluminum ones from Hong Kong, metal ones from Germany, and a really fancy brass one - that you have to build from several parts - from Aber).

Another thing you might want to consider when talking about balance, is that the front half of the turret weighs a whole lot more than the rear half. That makes it hard on the rotation mechanism, and can even cause the turret to "fall out" of it's hold-down lugs (in the case of Tamiya) when turned so that the lugs line up with their corresponding holes in the upper hull. One thing you can do is to add small lead shot (and epoxy, to keep them from rattling around) to the inside of the turret stowage bin on the rear. Or, if you've already glued the top onto the bin, you can also build a styrene box on the inside rear wall of the turret that follows the curve of the turret. (I've built them to stand about 3/4" away from the wall). On a Tamiya Tiger, where the turret roof is removable, you can build this box with an open top, so that you can wait until the build is finished, and add shot/epoxy until the turret balances where you want.

Now, a third thing to consider is whether any/all this extra weight will cause the top of your hull to want to sag. It may need added reinforcement from the underside. You can easily do that by making a styrene stiffener, but then also have to consider if that causes you to lose room in the hull for electronic stuff.

[Muscleflex]

Thanks for the tips! I'll remember them!
It's a bit hard at the moment for me to visualize most of what you meant as I'm new to tanks but I'll get there!

[billpe]

I put a spare metal weight in the turret bin on mine which seemed to help a great deal. As sassgrunt suggests, adding weight to the base of the metal frame that holds the recoil mechanism would work for balancing the gun out a bit. Personally never found I needed too, even on my KT with a metal barrer and the aber brass muzzle break.