RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Spent some time putzing around with the second Panther build, as VCO has announced that the rest of August is holiday. I am forbidden to do more than eto business, mow the grass, work on tanks, and take her to beach daily, said beach being 5 mike drive from the family digs. Tough life!
Anyhow, have a few super razzle dazzle Type 1 Tamiya TU's left, and have some HPC gears (used to make tons of these), soooooo...theoretically, the Type 1's will not fit in a Panther. Huh. Well, here they are. Had to mod the front lower part of the TU, took every bit of 5 minutes with a dremel, drill one mount hole in each TU, make another output shaft of the correct length, install the eto reinforcement, and here we be. Sneaky little gear down, stock motors at the moment as I am out of Graupners. Wecohe suspension, Wecohe steel wheels (more on them later), Impact tracks (best in the business). Trial run is scheduled for Wed or Thurs this week.
Now. The steel wheels. Basic wheels are aluminium turnings, with bushings. Excellent work.  Bushings you say, at that price??. Yup. However, 4x8 bearings fit, so, bearings are in them. Now, for the fun part.  I simply took a left over set of Tamiya KT wheels discs, bored out the centers to fit, dremeled down the back side, and popped them on. Fit perfect.
Also today did the rear hull cross brace, and next is the front hull cross brace. Keeping the hull square goes a long way towards keeping the tracks on. My tanks are fighters, as mentioned before, and automotive systems are paramount.
Hull will also be dust sealed. Keeps it cleaner inside, and keeps grit out of the operating systems.  

Nice work there Bob lets see them wheels you done and when are you going to have the hull cross braces on ETO Armor site and witch Tanks will they be made for first made my own for the KT need to do my Panther . 

Jimmy

I too would like to see the wheels,does ETO ARMOR have the new panther wheel sets? And do you have a line on early tiger rubber lined road wheels? Sax

Jimmy, here's a photo of the rear brace. Needs to be trimmed off on the left side about 2mm, then good to go. Decided to use the stock idler adjustment, as it's positive and works well. Don't know when we will start to do the braces, but it will be before Christmas for sure, for KT, Panther and JP to start. Also, Daryl and I are working on a Panther Outdrive Cover to use the existing track roller, of ABS. Hope to have that little missing item ready to go in a month or so. As you know, it is completely missing from the Tam Panther/JP.
Saxon, I don't carry this line of product any more, have not for over a year.  As for the other companies that make the Panther wheels, I have not had them in my hand, in fact one company has failed to answer any emails in the last 2 months or so, inquiring about both the wheels and a few other odds and ends I wanted to evaluate for possible stocking.
VCO's Panther has the wecohe standard Panther wheels. These fit well generally, but take the Tamiya Tiger 1 tyres, not Panther, so if you buy a set you need to get enough T1 tyres, two per wheel, for the set. Centres are turned aluminium for this set, and come with about 85000 miniature bolts and the PE bolt retainers. Look grand when you get them finished, but the expense of going to the eye doctor after building them to have your eyeballs recalibrated makes them expensive. And again an expensive set with no bearings, just bushings, and it's a machine shop job to put bearings in them. And these wheels were designed for a Panther using the Tiger 1 suspension arms and a specialized idler, so again you will have to do some shimming or cutting to make them align with the drive sprockets, tracks, and idlers. Takes time, but they are really nicely done wheels.
Also, for any of you that are having rotation problems with your Tam turrets, here's a couple fixes. First, bearings in place of the stock rollers. Yes, you can also use the Schumo ZUH30 turret roller kit, quite inexpensive, on my sight in USA, said kit rollers replacing the stock Tam rollers, a drop in swap, and they are a little larger in diameter, so they keep the turret off the upper hull and reduce the friction resulting therefrom. Me, I like to do things the hard way. This is s WIP, but works. Took 3 4x8 bearings, cut plastic stock to fit the 4mm hole, inserted the stock axel for the roller, and voila! A turret turning on bearings and said bearings are wide enough to again keep the turret off the hull. You can also beef up the stock Tam rotation unit, by taking out the clutch, clean out the grease etc, acc the clutch in place, and then reinstall with either stock axel pins or bolt as I show in the photo. No more jammed or stationary turrets when someone decides you are a target of opportunity.
I'll write more installments in the next few days on this build. Also waiting some parts. As most of you know, I'm at the far end of the food chain here, and there is hardly anything in what passes for the local shops, both of them, that is useful to me.

Ok Thanks Bob I like the 4x8mm bearing ideal I think I mite do this to the KT and Panther . Hay did you get VCO the Tamiya KV-1 and if its running how she like it . 

Jimmy

Jimmy, the bearings work good. Finished VCO's Panther last PM, and will do mine in the next few days.
VCO ain't got her KV yet, it'll be later this fall. Did just get the first batch of DP trans plates for the Tam KV yesterday, don't have a price yet, should have that today. Pretty nifty set up from what Jeff says, easy bolt in installation. It'll be on sight shortly.