RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

During my introduction to this site I informed you that I purchased an easy-eight conversion kit from Nick Agular and started to combine these kit parts together with the Tamiya IDF Super Sherman. Now I am so far to show you some pictures about my progress in building together the turret. As you can see I am using only the rotating ring from the turret and I made it fit into the turret which was provided by Nick. I already tried out the recoil mechanism, the gun flash, turret / coaxial MG (I am attending to have two guns: the coaxial and the bow machine gun) and the elevation of the gun. I am also thinking of smoke coming out of the gun after recoiling has taken place.....I am looking forward to have some ideas from you about this....

Hope this inspires......

Good start, look forward to more

Great job.

I have that one feom nick also.
You made a great solution to the problem of the bottem of the turret.
There is not much space to build stuff in.

As Niels Jansen commented, there indeed is not much space to build in stuff in the tower. However, the bottom hole in the tower base is large enough to build in the gun recoil system (Tamiya), turret MG and the barrel motor (Tamiya) and the complete wiring: recoil cable, MG cable, barrel motor cable, gun flash cable and even a 3-5mm hose to enable smoke come out of the gun barrel after firing a shot.
Next to that I can reach these parts via the hatch openings on top of the turret. As long as the hatches are not build in, there is plenty of room (even with my thick fingers) to do adjustments. As I decided to use an IBU 3 board to control my tank I have to modify the tower somewhat. I will use a led flash instead of the high-voltage flash set from Tamiya. Other additions/changes to the tower are (and are work in progress):
•It is not my intention to build a copy of the “furry” tank or so, but many M4A3’s were packed with extra armour or extra gunpower. It was very common to mount a Browning .30 cal. machine gun on the turret to knock out nearby enemy infantry next to the .50 cal. Browning heavy machine gun that was more in use for air defense and long distance targets. I will add a .30 cal machine gun in front of the commander’s hatch. Shapeways (http://www.shapeways.com) provides a very detailed 1/16 scale .30 cal. Browning machine gun with a vehicle mount with ammo mounts and very detailed ammo boxes. The quality of their 3D printing is excellent.
•It is not that I do not like the gunner’s split-hatch that was provided by Nick Agular, but the Mato metal hatch from http://www.rctank.de is much more detailed, so I will use that instead.
•From the same supplier I purchased a New spring load high detail US antenna.
In the meantime, I already made good progress in building the lower hull. I added a few modifications (to the standard super Sherman Tamiya kit):
• To make the tank heavier I build in a steel bottom plate. This steel plate can be purchased by Axels Modellbau (Germany). According the vendor the weight of the tank increases by 460 grams which improves the driving behavior. Next to that it offers a stable and separated battery compartment and it separates the motor compartment (grease) from the electronics. The electronic compartment is big enough for an IBU3 board, a smoker unit, other electronic switches and the cabling.
• At the front-side I enforced the sprocket axes with two aluminum plates with high quality ball bearings for additional support of the drive axles of the model. These bearings are externally mounted to the tub. The axes of the gears are better supported, in addition, the life of the transmission is significantly increased (no sand can come into the gearbox. These bearing/plates can be purchased by rc.tank.de.
• At the back-side I changed the exhaust system. Many of the older M4 Sherman types were utilized with a single exhaust pipe (pepperpot), filter-systems at the left and the right side and a relative large back engine door, such as is standard in the Tamiya kit.

As I want to build a late, say 1944, M4A3E8 with smaller back engine doors and the specific exhausts gas deflector/diffuser I had to change these parts. The gas deflector was delivered by Nick Agular as part of the M4E3E8 resin kit. To change the doors and to add the trumpet like exhaust pipes, I used the Mato metal set (Sherman rear plate with exhaust) from http://www.rctank.de. I had to remove the metal attachments of this set to make it fit to the original Tamiya hull. To enable smoke coming out the exhaust pipes I drilled two holes in the hull so that I can attach hoses that come from the smoke unit. I used some metal strips to attach the deflector to back-side of the tank.

• At the bottom of the back side I added a tow hooks and a trailer hitch with holder which are not part of the Tamiya original kit

After spraying all the metal parts with a primer, I air-brushed the lower hull, the tracks, and all the metal parts of the idlers, sprockets wheels and suspension sets.

Hope to update you very soon.....comments are more than welcome...

my project in the current state: lower hull and tracks ready.

Nice mate it’s looking good ...

Got to love a good Sherman

It was far too hot in the Netherlands (and elsewhere) to sit on the attic to continue with the build of my Sherman. So I introduced a summer break and do "intellectual' stuff like programming my transmitter and to set up the IBU3 module.
The picture below gives a good impression of the easy-eight project: tracks and lower hull are nearly finished. As all of you can see I am using an IBU3 module in combination with a Taranis X9D radio and X8R receiver(s)
The set up of the radio and the IBU module has been done and all is working perfect. If you guys are interested in a full description of my set up and programming (mixes, curves, outputs) I will post it here.....

All have a good summer....easy-8

IBU3 Controller set up

Hardware connections for Tamiya Sherman M4A3E8 (super Sherman based).
I purchased an IBU3 board to control en steer my Sherman. During summer holiday I figured out how to get this board working in combination with my Taranis X9D transmitter. The whole set up is working now and I wanted to share the electrical part with you: how to connect the IBU board to the standard Tamiya mechanisms (turret motor, recoil unit, flash) etc. This is the electric wiring diagram how to connect the board.
Scheme above represents the IBU3 board and all needed connections to set up my Tamiya Sherman tank with all functions described in the set-up of the transmitter. The connectors colored in grey are not needed for this set up. A battle system is not in use. Please refer also to IBU3 Manual and addendum.

X8R receivers: There are 8 connections to connect the pins of the receiver channels to the appropriate pins on the ibu3 board. For the channels 1-8 servo leads from receiver to IBU board can be connected in any order: the configurator software detects and configures automatically. The signal-pin of the servo leads is nearest to the USB connector. The second receiver can have its power from the ibu3 board.

The USB connector: the colors of the wires have to be connected as shown above (red is in the connector on the top, nearest to the receivers)

Power: The Voltage for the board is 6-12 Volts DC. The positive pole (red wire) in the connector should be connected to the pin nearest to the fuse switch. I have chosen to switch power to the IBU board by means of a double pole two-way switch. In one position, it powers the IBU board and in the other position the power is disconnected from the board and the battery can be charged via an external battery charger. The charger outlet will be mounted in the tank so that the battery can stay in the tank during charging.

Motors: For both drive motors connectors are available but the polarity of these connecters differs from the power connector from the board (polarity switched). Both drive motors have to rotate in the same direction. The motors and the IBU board are protected by the electronic fuse on the board.

MG2: Two machine guns can be operated. The coaxial in the tower; the other one is the bow machine gun. This outlet is to connect the led for the bow MG. By means of switch SG either Mg2 (bow) or MG1 (coaxial) will flash. Polarity as shown in the diagram.

Led Canon Flash: Outlet for the led flashing diode. Polarity as shown in the diagram.

Tail Lights LEDs: Outlet for the tail lights; also, function as brake lights. Polarity as shown in the diagram.

TAR Smoker unit: One outlet is for the heather (SMR) the other one is for the proportional fan (SMP). Polarity as shown in the diagram.

Speaker: the standard Tamiya connector to connect the standard Tamiya loudspeaker can be used here.

T Recoil: the standard three pin Tamiya connector can be used to connect the Tamiya recoil mechanism (green, blue and black).

H L Connector: The Heng Long connector can also be used to control Tamiya devices too (color scheme same as Heng Long connector, except pin 4 yellow is not in use):
- Use red and black wire to connect the Tamiya turret rotation motor;
- The blue and brown wire must be used to connect the gun elevation motor;
- The green wire is the positive pole for the LED’s for the front lights and the second coaxial machine gun. The white wire is the negative pole needed for the front lights; the orange wire is the negative pole for the coaxial MG-led.

General tip:
The IBU board uses mini jacket adapters on its circuit board. Tamiya is using its own connectors and that do not fit into the IBU3 board. To make life easier RCTank.de offers a cable kit for RX18/Taigen 2.4 Ghz or IBU2 mainbord unit. This set contains sufficient cables that fit into the board to make the necessary connections possible with the Tamiya motors and other devices, even a Heng Long cable with fitting adapters is included.

After some work with the tower I now share a few updates on the upper en lower hull.

The Sherman has very limited space in its lower hull. It is quite a challenge to build in (next to the two engines) a speaker, a smoker unit, a tank controller - in this case IBU3 -, a battery and two receivers.
For protection I glued a few plastic sheets together to have a battery case and attached it into the hull with double sided tape. So it is a semi-permanent connection. If it is needed it can be removed. The picture below gives an overview of the position of most the items that are planned to be placed in the lower hull.
The open space, back in the tank will be used to contain the 10 Watt loudspeaker, the smoke-hoses leading to the exhaust pipes and some electronic components such as the relais for the tower light, connections for USB and battery loader and power on/off switch. The two FRSKY Taranis X8R receiver modules will be attached on the sides right above the tracks. As both receivers are bound to one and the same transmitter I have 16 channels on board.

Standard Tamiya delivery is a welded upper hull. Basically the hull offers many details but I want to add several after market products, like hatches that can be opened or an infantry telephone box. So I started to cutting, filing, drilling and grinding.

To create more realistic hatches, that can be opened, for driver and gunner I had to cut out the plastic. The metal Mato hatches are complete with periscope and hinges.
To enable that hatches can be closed properly and that the opening has a nice rounded shape I bend some electrical wire (electrical wire that is use in normal electrical home installations) and glued it into the openings. I used a 2 component glue for that for fixing the wire and the hinges.
The second mayor upgrade is the replacement of the engine deck. As I wanted to build a M4A3E8 that deck must be replaced. Next to the tower, Nick Aguilar provided me such a deck with two large engine doors. But again you have to cut out all what is not needed.