Thank Barry,
Moving on to the turret in order to work on the integration of the Perfect Scale Modellbau turret to the Tamiya chassis, with rotation, gun elevation and recoil arrangement. None of which comes with the Tamiya chassis or the resin turret.
Looking at the 2 halves of the resin turret, the turret base is not flat and a malformation exists at the back that needs correction. The upper turret have is good.
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
Putting the base for 1 minute in the microwave is just enough to warm the resin at a flexible temperature, without being too hot and damaging the resin. My guess is that the timing depends on the power of each microwave so be careful. Taking it out, the base is put on a flat surface to straiten it, and the back is manually folded in place on the upper turret, then it is put in cold water. The small dent at the back that seems like someone pushed a finger in soft resin is a feature that actually exists on the Meng kit and left there.
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
These are the parts rounded up for the task ahead. Rotation will be with a HL metal rotation unit and a large HL wheel. Gun recoil will be achieved with a DKLM metal unit, with servo elevation. That L7 metal barrel gun is long and heavy, i think the expensive metal DKLM recoil unit is better than a cheap 3D printed unit for the task ahead.
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
The resin turret base fits correctly in the Tamiya hull. The 2 notch are removed.
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
I had a small metal rotation unit in store but it is too small.
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
Need to use a HL Large rotation wheel, but it is too big...
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
A spacer ring needs to be created in 2mm plasticard to bridge the wheel with the base of the turret.
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
The ring inner hole is the size of the turret inner hole. The ring is made to fit inside the HL rotation wheel and glued in place. The 2 mm reinforcement rings around each screw hole is removed for a flat base surface to glue the ring on.
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
After ensuring it is perfectly centered, The wheel is bolted to the resin turret base. A washer was used on bolts in between the two parts to ensure the turret is loose and turns freely. The rotation unit is installed on a custom base behind the turret. It needs to be centered to clear the sides and there is just enough room to clear the Mato motors at the back.
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
View from above.
- RC 1/16 Canadian tank Leopard C2 Mexas - Afghanistan - build
Rotation is done, that was fairly simple.
Continuing on following post.