Trumpeter T-72B RC conversion

[MichaelC]

Another Trumpeter RC conversion after the M-ATV MRAV......... The Trumpeter T-72B has all the hallmarks of an RC version soon (mount for speaker on the rear deck, screw mounts for the upper/lower and turret, mount point for gearbox, rotation etc etc). I choose the Heng Long T-90 (which is basically a soup-up T-72 anyway) and it fits quite well with some minor shimming. I did choose the Trumpeter road wheels as they actually have soft rubber rims on them.

[Ad Lav]

Very nice! I have been waiting for the waltersons T72.

[mcevoyi]

Nice one Michael

Did you
have to modify the trip road wheels to fit the HL axel stubbs ?

And any pics of the inside of the turret ring ? To see how u powered it

Are you going to use the hl turret internals to make the t72 gun elevate ?

Lots of questions for u ..sorry !!

Iain

[c.rainford73]

Mike another fantastic build my friend! This is really nice looking

[MichaelC]

Thanks guys....... I have to believe that there will be a factory RC version as many of the extra parts from the kit is to actually make it static (like locking the swing arms, mounts specifically for the sprockets with a wide opening for gearbox install etc etc.). Only the road wheels is from the kit( I do need to bore them out a bit to slide over the HL swing arm mount and a small brushing to keep them straight), I kept all the rest of the running gears HL, like the sprockets, idlers, tracks and the complete lower other than the back plate because I need a tighter fit and also the kit's locking mechanism. I still have to figure out something for locking the front upper down as the screw mounts does not match the HL ones obviously.

I will post some more pictures but the lower is quite boring, just a straight HL T-90 with an IBU2U with T-72 sound files from Ian. The upper I used the kit's turret ring which is a standard WSN/Trumpeter piece, identical in teeth to the HL ones. I used a HL rotation unit epoxied to the upper, no elevation as the kit's mantlet actually does not allow that. I did drill out the coax MG but for some strange reason it is not lighting up so next time I open the turret will have to take a look. Clark TBU mount was easily mounted to the commander's cupola and the IR emitter fits nicely in the gunner's covered sight.

[MichaelC]

Here are two interior shots.

[Raminator]

Great work on the conversion, Michael. The T-72's my favourite tank by a long shot, it's great seeing that long and low silhouette come to life. It looks like it's going to be a solid runner, and a model to be proud of for sure.

How did you find the Trumpeter kit? I've heard less-than-favourable things about it.

[MichaelC]

Thanks Ram........ The kit is not bad, also I think they have RC in mind so everything is much more solid than say their T34/76 kits. The only thing that really bothers me is that there is tons of injection mold nubs (I don't know what you call them. They are the little nubs that hang off parts you need to cut off) and the spruce mount is all over the place (sometimes you have to cut from two different angle to get it off the spruce without damaging the parts).