RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

This is the Heng Long ZTZ-99 (non-A) model. It is a closeout I got on Matomart.

Ended up being right at $185 USD shipped to my door from Canada and it got here in 7 days. It does have the zinc gearboxes, but I have a plan to replace those eventually. Came with the metal tracks/sprockets/idlers, spare metal track links, the plastic tracks/sprockets/idlers, and spare plastic track. Road wheels are plastic. Metal tracks are single pin. I wanted to just weather this one up and make it battle capable so I don't care that it came with the old crystal based TX/RX system. It is amazing just how huge modern tanks are compared to WW2 vehicles. I have only one regret, I should've added the ZTZ-99 mesh engine deck grills to my order. They have now been ordered and are on their way. You can see the size difference as compared to my SU-152 which of course is based on a not so small KV-1 tank. The running gear is very similar to the T90/72 so I found this information on Wikipedia very interesting:

The development of China's domestic third generation MBT was started in 1989, under China's eighth five-year plan. In the early 1990s China produced one of its second generation prototypes, the Type 90-II series. The Type 90-II was designed by studying the T-72 tank. The chassis was to be based on the T-72's hull but with Chinese subsystems. The Type 90-II had a 125mm smoothbore cannon with an autoloader, modular composite armor and a centered driver position. While the Type 90-II series ultimately did not enter PLA service, it saw success as an export tank and was built under license in Pakistan as the Al-Khalid.

The Type 98 or WZ-123 was China's domestic Type 90-II derivative. It was first seen in rehearsals for the 1999 National Day parade and was officially revealed on 1 October 1999.

An improved version was shortly produced and was named the Type 98G or Type 99.

An updated Type 99 model was officially introduced at the 2015 Victory Day Parade as the Type 99A. This variant had previously been used by PLA troops during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) military exercises in 2014.



I have added the unditching log to the rear.




I modified an RC Tank Legion adjustable idler tensioner and brace kit from the T-72/T-90 they sell. It looked like it would work out of the bag, but I had to do some tweaking to get it to fit. Overall it was a good mod and really helps stiffen up the front of the tank for use with the metal tracks.

This is the before shot. It takes a phillips head screwdriver inserted into the small center hole in the idler to remove the screw holding the idler on.



Once the idler is removed there is a small barrel like piece glued in the circle that must be removed. I just pried it off with a flathead screwdriver.



The old flimsy hub needs to be removed and some material from the fake dozer blade to make room for the brace mounts.



The area in the triangle was flattened and two 2mm holes were drilled using the brace as a guide to drill.



The brace itself needed to be shortened to 47mm to fit inside the ZTZ hull.



Shown installed. The lower hex head didn't come with any nuts to hold them in so I supplied my own M3 nuts which went on the inside.



Bottom shot of the brace/idler assembly.




Due to how far the brace sticks out I had to remove part of the sprocket hub. I removed the brass bushing from the plastic sprocket and bored the idler to 8mm on my lathe to accept the brass bushing. I may fit bearings later, but the bushing is fine for now.



Bushing installed in the metal idler. Bushing needed to be bored to 7mm to accept the new idler shaft and it had to be shortened slightly.



Track alignment is great after modding the sprocket.



Metal tracks installed that came with the tank.





Magnets installed. At this point the 10mm N52 rated magnets are so strong that you can pick up the tank from the upper hull and it won't come apart. You can also see that I switched the connector over to an XT-60 and will be running the tank off a 7AH 18650 Li-Ion battery pack. Also installed a large metal turret ring I had here that will be mated to a metal (fast) rotation unit. Magnets are the countersunk variety so you need to order both north and south versions.



I think I may switch my T34s over to Clark boards so that I can install my Open Panzer TCB in this tank. There is tons of room for the ESCs and the TCB board.

That's all for now.

Some further work on the redheaded step child...

Got magnets installed in the turret for easy maintenance:



Also got a Clark TBU base installed:



Had to remove a little material on the inside of the area to fit the apple in it.



Apple installed:



And for those times when the apple is not being used I can install the cover and no one is the wiser:

Very slick work. Those apples are like the HALO's in F1............ugly but functional and you've done a great job making the ugly disappear until its required.

So continuing on the budget build of the Type 98 I did install and test my Open Panzer TCB in it today. I had a close call though as I moved the electronics from my T34/76 build over to this one. Long ago I found that the HL switches wouldn't take the current of the ESCs and the TCB through the switch so I removed the inline switch and just connect the battery via the XT60 when I want it powered up. I never had a chance to test everything after installing it into the T34 and fabbing the Y cable to the ESCs/TCB. I normally look every connection over the first time I put power to something, but not this time. I stupidly just connected everything. Next thing I heard was a little sizzle and then another. I was like "OH, CRAP". I grabbed the XT60 and yanked it apart watching the insulation start to melt off the wire going to the Y cable. I had soldered the XT60 main power connector backwards. The Li-Ion battery was almost to hot to hold onto and every power wire was hot to the touch. I thought the project was about to take an abrupt break. I cut out the bad wires, resoldered the XT60, grabbed a different battery, and retested everything one piece at a time. First ESC...works...then the second....works...then the TCB...works. I was so happy nothing fried. After the battery cooled off I tested it also and it seems to work just fine. I was grateful it was Li-Ion as it probably would've caught fire if it had been a Li-Po.

Electronics are roughed in. It uses the Open Panzer TCB, a Taigen Leopard 2A6 sound card, dual HobbyKing X-Car 45A Brushed Car ESCs, Taigen 390 motors, steel gearboxes out of my T-72, and a tiny FrSky XM+ Sbus receiver. The T-72 is getting a metal hull that comes with new gearboxes so it will run on the old zinc ones out of the ZTZ for now. The ZTZ is supposed to use a German 12 cylinder motor which is why the chassis is long even though it is based on the T-72. Therefore I used the Leo 2A6 sound card because the engine sound. Will also be using the metal wheels and suspension arms from the T-72 metal chassis as my T-72 already has time and they are the same as the ZTZ wheels.



????Next....upper hull wiring and mechanicals.

Some further progress.



Engine grills and spare fuel barrels installed. Had to attach the grills with a flexible adhesive as the upper hull flexed too much and would break the super glue loose taking the top off.



Had to remove the LED lights in the rear as I mistakenly blew them out. I failed to see the note about the Open Panzer TCB that says it puts full power to the LED ports on the board and that I would need resistors. I have replacement LEDs coming in the mail today - WITH resistors.



I was going to mount the IR emitter in the barrel with the flash, but it was pretty cramped so I mounted it in the mantlet. I will be using a Taigen Xenon flash unit in the barrel that I salvaged from another tank.

Tankme,

Very nice tank. I like all the little extras you've added, especially the engine grills. Sizzling, popping, and small whiffs of smoke...my ultimate fear! Especially when you're as dense as I'm with electronics! I once worked with a guy who was an electrician, his nickname was "Blue Flame" and he always was missing fingernails! Go figure!

Glad no "real"damage was done!

Cheers,
Eric.

I'm an electronics tech originally trained in the Army. I've also worked on computers for my entire career. I've burned up a few things...some my fault, some not. Sometimes preventable, sometimes not. It is never fun to let the magic smoke out and sometimes expensive, but it does happen. Luckily in both these cases this time I recognized what was going on very quickly and removed power. LEDs are pretty fragile when it comes to overvolting so they will need to be replaced. Luckily they are cheap. I also worked as an electrician for a bit for my ex-father-in-law. I've seen what a live wire can do to a side cutter. "Yeah, the power is off. *POP* *explicative*! Whoops, I guess that wasn't the right circuit." The person looks down and sees a huge chunk of their cutter missing. "Hey Bob, I'm going to start plugging and plating in the lower level. All the power is off right?" Five minutes later I get bit by a live 110v line. "Oh, yeah that was a last minute change so that circuit is fed from upstairs...sorry forgot about that."

Since my issues with the electronics I have made some updates to the tank. I found some reasonably priced 2-part resin on Amazon so I decided to fill the bottom of the chassis to stiffen it up. The plastic lower hull on this tank is the thinnest I've seen on any tank I own. The amount of flex it ridiculous. I also decided to use some small angle aluminum to help with the upper edge of the hull. Like I mentioned in a different thread, if you decided to do the resin in the hull make sure EVERY LITTLE hole is plugged or you will have resin everywhere leaking out. This chassis is longer than most so I mixed up 8oz of resin and I probably lost 3oz due to leaking before it cured enough to stop. It was sure a mess and PITA to clean up the resin around the holes that leaked. I may add one more brace under the turret area identical to the flat brace in the front that is shown. I have also found the rear hull around the gearboxes moves around a lot. Another brace may be needed there. I tried to install the sprockets, but for some reason they don't align well. When they are screwed on they sit to close to the chassis. I have ordered some small 8mm clamp on shaft collars to set the sprockets to the right offset. I tried using washers and a shaft support bearing I had from my HL Abrams, but both solutions caused too much drag on the drivetrain. The washer solution actually made the rear chassis bend in on itself. I have abandoned the original ZTZ-99 metal idler wheels as the bronze sleeves were causing them to unscrew themselves due to the drag and weight of the metal tracks. I replaced them with bearing units from the T-72 and now they work great.



Better look at the resin on the bottom and the cutouts in the aluminum angle making room for the smoker attached to the upper hull.



Got the new elevation/barrel recoil mechanism installed.



Another view of the elevation/barrel recoil. It works really well. The small electronics board is from the Taigen xenon barrel flash. I had to remove the heat shrink because I had to desolder the wires to get it installed. I have ordered some 2" heat shrink to replace it since I can't find any that big locally. The bulb was too big to go through the recoil system so the wires were desoldered and fished through from the barrel tip. I also took that opportunity to sleeve the entire length of the flash wires in heat shrink tubing. The wires from the flash bulb to the small driver board are so small they kept breaking off the board so I gooped them up with hot glue to ensure they don't break off anymore. I've used that method on the Clark apple mount to keep all the wires in place.



Close up of the area where I cut the barrel off the mantlet. I had to drill out the mantlet and shorten it slightly to get the barrel to insert into it. The barrel came with an aluminum tube in it for the airsoft mechanism. That was glued into the barrel, inserted into the recoil mechanism, and then fixed with two small screws on each side of the tube.



Next steps: Install the IR LED and finish replacing all the burnt out LEDs (headlights/tail lights). Have ordered the ZTZ-99 metal wheels/suspension as the T-72 suspension arms I planned on using are different than the ZTZ arms and cannot be made to fit.

More progress...

Factory flat top LEDs in 3mm and 5mm. Flat ones look much better than the round ones - more like lenses.








My mess of wiring that took forever to solder up. Next time I will use small gauge wire.


Everything is functional except the smoker so here is a little vid to show it all in action. The LEDs are on three circuits and probably not like the real tank, but they are more interesting now IMO.

Wow, you really beefed this thing up! Great job on your build brother thanks for sharing....

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