Max's 1/6 Blitzkrieg Armor Hetzer Project

[HERMAN BIX]

Following along Mr '52.................
Be also good to put in the picture or two as well as video.
Video Takes up a lot of bandwidth & can be a problem loading at times .

Loving the project mate

[jackalope]

That's a tiny motor for that big tank.

[Max-U52]

I hear ya, Herman. I just finally figgered out how to take photos with my phone and email them to myself so I can download them to the PC and upload them to photobucket so I can post them here. Hey! Wait a minute! That sounds like a lot of work! How will I keep my rep for bein' a lazy old hippie if I start doin' work? Oh well, you cats are worth it.









In the future, Hermann (and whoever else wants to) when you see something you want more photos of just sing out and I'll do my best to hook ya up.

Jack, those little motors have a good planetary transmission in front of them. And these will probably not be the final motors used, but for right now they'll be handy just to get stuff aligned and make sure everything works together the way it should (if I change motors and go chain drive I might try to use one of these motor/GB combos for the Sd.Kfz.250 halftrack). Wait a sec, I might have a photo with more tranny info. OK, try this



That's about 7,000 rpm for the motor (104:1, 67 final rpm) so I'm wondering if I can get up to about 10,000 rpm and not lose torque. More investigation required, but first, the testing and alignment. I need to order the bearings and the sabertooth 2x32 today. What I'd really like is to run it on a TCB with the ST 2x32 and 3S lipo power, with better motors to get the power I need. I'll also investigate going to a 4S lipo. So where's all the advice from the electronics Gurus? What do you guys think? If it was yours, how would you do it? Not sayin' I'll do it that way, but I want your thoughts. Be glad I can't do a mass Vulcan Mind Meld.

I just learned that at one time you could get this kit with the tracks unassembled and without the holes drilled. I really would have preferred that. It would have been a lot more work, but I could have made a jig for the Bridgeport and gotten much better quality tracks. There are a couple spots here that really worry me, and I'm fearful of link failure in a couple spots. That's bad, considering I got the thing with three broken links to start and I only have four spare links. I should be all right, though, because I think the tracks need to be shortened at least one link right away. I have to count them, but I'm told I should have 101 links per side. I just wish whoever drilled these links could have gotten at least a few of the holes in the same place from link to link!!

We'll soldier on.

[Max-U52]

Made some more progress on the tracks, and went to the hardware for the first trip. Naturally I didn't get everything I need the first time so a second trip is required. No biggie, since the hardware store is right around the corner.

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[Swamprat33]

Hey Max, the best advice i can give you is to dump those crappy little motors as they are not man enough for the job. They allow the Hetzer to move about on a hard surface, but it will not turn well on grass or any loose or rough ground and is prone to stalling.
I know a few in the UK, and they are not really much better than a Heng Long setup.

The speed 400 motors are a good upgrade for Heng Longs and those have more grunt than the motors in your Hetzer.

Now is the best time to sit back and work out a decent drive system otherwise you wont be able to get the best out of it.
This is what the Mark 1 Tanks chain drive system looks like.
This would be ideal, although you could run a bit lighter setup in the Hetzer.

Good luck
Tim

[Max-U52]

Hi Guys, back with an update.

First, Thanks, Tim, I'm planning to have a go at copying the mark one set-up. I can make the frame myself and all I really have left to sort out are the motors themselves. I need to do the math and figure the RPM needed at the sprocket to generate a scale 20 to 25 mph, about 3.5 to 4 mph actual speed. Then I can figure my reduction through the sprockets and get motors of appropriate RPM.

Now, the bearings for the roadwheels came in and I'll be boring the wheels to accept them tomorrow after work. I'm going to take the video camera to work with me so we'll see what kind of footage we can get of the actual operation. I got the bearings from Avid (just search Avid Bearings and they'll pop up) and a really good guy named Mike turned me on to them. Mike is known as Old MSgt on RCU but he's not yet registered here, even though he does stop by to read and learn from the guys here. I keep telling him he needs to register here, and I think he'd be a valuable asset for all RCTW members, so if any of you know Mike from RCU I think you should post right here and tell Mike that he'd be welcome and he should register and start a thread in "Introduce Yourself".

Here's a look at the bearings, and Avid has them in a boatload of sizes all the way down to one millimeter (they also have standard down to 3/32).

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I'll post video of tomorrow's adventures over the weekend. Got four days off so I should be able to get the lower a good base coat of paint. I won't paint the upper till much later, after all the goodies have been glued in place.

[Max-U52]

OK, got the bearings installed in the roadwheels. Next will be the spacers to properly align the roadwheels, and I'll probably take the lower hull back to work for that, maybe next week some time. Then it's all about the drive system and gettin' this bad boy rolling under its own power.

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[Luckylefty42]

Fantastic work my friend..loving this build and attention to detail your putting into it..great job mate

[Max-U52]

Hi Guys. The motor controller will be here Monday. I went to order the Sabertooth 2x25 and saw that the 2x32 was the same price, so after checking with an adviser or two I ordered the 2x32.

I also got the armored barrel kit for the remote MG34 from Armorpax. There's a guy there named Dave that seems cool so far and he's checking to see if he can find me a replacement for the bent sprocket. The plan is to make the MG34 operate as turret rotation would have if this tank had a turret. Not sure if I'll be able to get elevation, might not have the talent for that. We'll see. Anyway, I'll do the LED flash in the muzzle and the kit is well set up for that mod. I have the Dragon MG34 you need to go with the barrel kit, so now all I have to do is get with it. But ... I'm doing this build in two parts so the lower comes first. I need to get the motors sorted out. I've seen photos of what I want, I just need to figger out where to get them. And does anyone have a good source for sprocket and chain? The axle shafts are 12mm, but I still don't know what the motor shafts will turn out to be.

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You may be wondering, if he uses a stick for rotation and elevation on the remote MG34, what about the main gun? Well, the plan is to use the flysky i10, which has three pots, and use two pots for traverse and elevation of the main gun (third pot for volume). Since I want to use paintball, I'd like to have accurate, fine control and an FPV camera next to the barrel with the screen on the TX. There won't be any firing on the fly with this tank.

I know it's just paintball, but .50 caliber pellets can still do some harm, especially at close range so I want to be completely safe about it, hence the use of pots to get better control. I think a laser pointer is also in order, and paintball has enough accuracy to sight one in with a fair amount of success, especially if I keep it down to the 50 to 75 foot range. Nothing fancy, can ya dig it?

[Max-U52]

OK, I ordered motors (24 volt 350w), chain and sprockets, and a couple of 6S lipo batts. The sabertooth 2x32 arrived this week so once the rest of the parts get here I can get her running and test things out. I'm guessing two weeks for the motors to get here from China (where else?) but you never know about shipping from across the Pacific.

The current plan is to just use the sabertooth and the 9X for testing, then add a 7.4 battery to power an IBU for a motherboard to get stuff like lights, smoke, and servo control for the MG34. I'm debating whether it will be worth the work to add sound effects for elevation and traverse of the main gun, and I'm leaning towards not. For the paintball system I'm planning to use pots to control elevation and traverse of the main gun, and those will run directly off the RX. The i10 is probably the perfect radio for this tank in the hands of a Gomer like me, so that will be the final TX for this tank.

More to follow.