RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Once cut ,place a smaller diameter plasticard under the whole and another piece round the edge to make a rim. I also removed the plastic saw and barrel cleaning rod stowage tube and filled the holes.

Next with these hatches i thought they had to big a flat part at the back of the hatch and it left a huge gap when closed, so with some plasticard and strong epoxy i filled them in and when dry, i filed them down to what i thought was better and drilled some markings on them.

Next up was a bit of detail, fill in the indents on the back of the steel plates which shouldn't be there and try to add the bolt hooks that were there for lifting the steel armour plates off, i used a 3mm nylon rod and cut small pieces and filed them to shape trying to get the scale right ,then drill a hole through them trying to keep the curve.

Next im going to fix the turret. the round circles are supposed to represent weld circles where steel armour plates are bolted on then the bolt head welded around, problem is these did not exist on top of the turret and the ones that were on the back side of the turret and else where on the tank were normally flush and not so perfectly round, so i got rid of them on top and all others were filed down and roughened up. Also added a little brass pipe to rear machine gun ,make it look like a barrel, and the original plastic top hatch from torro has the indent marks the wrong way around ,so i filled with putty to fix this. although later in the build i change it for a metal hatch

next add some weld lines to the rear .

Next begin the painting process, first time using the airbrush , which i got from ebay for about £30 never used , revell vario masterclass, connected to a pressure regulator and filter and running off my 50ltr garage compressor. But I painted everything with red oxide from a rattle can first. I thought painting the hatches while unattached to the tank and inner edges of hatches would be easier before attaching them for good. Also can i just point out what a great idea it is to buy a cheap 1/16 scale vw bus and try it out on it first before you hit the tank

From what I’ve seen since joining this forum, you Scots are amazingly great modelers and sticklers for details. Excellent build thread!

Thanks for the kind comments Jimster, I am just a mere learner trying my best, I will continue with more photos tomorrow, its getting late here now. Hope yous like photos because I'm a bit mad with the camera . Although I take a lot of pictures of somethings then other more important parts I forget to take any .

Wow, Capt.Hilts,

That is very impressive, and I like your dedication to detail! Very nice and clean! I guess some of you Gent's on here just have modeling come naturally! Me not so much, perhaps if I ever have more time! Watching with interest. Carry on!

Cheers,
Eric.

So next up before i gave it the colour , i fitted out the turret with the elmod battle system, i had to epoxy in a thick piece of wire and plasticard to attach the mushroom plug onto , it had to be strong enough to be able to plug the mushroom in and pull out without moving. To fit this in and be able to close the top hatch i had to move the gun elevation motor down ,which involved extending the 3 legs for the motor by 4mm ,this has the motor sitting pretty flush with the bottom of the turret , and also i had to cut down the lever on the back of the gun by 4mm to compensate. then i cut the original torro electric motor off the gun and glued the servo to the side of the gun ,spaced out with a little bit wood and drilled a hole through a little lever on the barrel which slides up and down inside the main gun body and connected to the servo with a little wire rod. no need for recoil kits .At this point the elmod emitter was put in a brass tube, keeping to the tamiya battle rules. also once the turret was back together i mixed some tamiya putty with acetone free nail polish remover and with the thin sticky mixture dabbed it on the gun mantlet to give it a cast metal look. but i never took a photo of me doing that. but you will notice it later on in the build , also i heated the plastic fender front and rear on the right hand side with a gas dremel tool and bent them a little with plyers for the dented look,also no photo , but can be seen later on.... Can i just point out here, Anybody looking to buy an elmod fusion i would recommend buying the pro, my other elmod board is the pro and the reason is because the ECO only has 1 servo, which i connected to the gun recoil , if i had another servo, i would have been able to do away with the gun elevation motor all together and connect that to a servo also, and give me more space in such a tight turret. for that reason alone i think the pro is the best option.