M3 Lee 1/35

[philbibbey]

I wanted to share the progress I have made on my M3 Lee in 1/35 scale. The shape of the transmission case / final drives made it interesting squeezing the gears into place. It also took me some time to find the right motors and come up with a DIY gear box ish thing to connect the running gear.

At this time I’m a bit stuck and could use some help from the RC Gods out there. I’m not sure what RC components I should use for this build. I’m using x2 3V motors.

Power source: x4 AA batteries or small 7.4V lipo with a buck converter to step down the voltage.

ESC (electronic speed controller) do I need this and if so is it one per motor?

Receiver / transmitter: I figured a simple 4 channel receiver would work.

Parts recommendations are always welcomed!


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[lmcq11]

hi, you should get an MTC-2 control board from 35RCTANK.COM and just follow the provided instructions. You will have a lot more fun with your tank this way. If you want engine sound and add some features to the tank like turret rotation, gun recoil, flash, sound and elevation, MG flash and sound, you will also need the ACU that connects to the MTC-2. You just pre-wire your tank for it and can move these boards from one tank to another by plug and play. So It is a single good investment. Don’t forget to add capacitors to your motors if you want some speed control.

[philbibbey]

Thanks a bunch! I’ll take a look and go from there.


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[jimbo_wa]

Clark also did a TK-39 (I got a few from Stian on here) which are useful if you want to use S-BUS.

If you just want basic functionality: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33008316502.html

[philbibbey]

I have been checking out dual ESCs today. I think that is the way to go. A lot has changed in the 20+ years since it be been away from the RC world lol.


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[lmcq11]

I have been checking out dual ESCs today. I think that is the way to go

Ah, yeah, if you just want the tracks to spin in order to drive the tank around.

[philbibbey]

I mean what other functionality will I be losing? From what I’ve seen the dual ESC can operate each motor independently forward and back. I’m a newbie though.


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[lmcq11]

I mean what other functionality will I be losing? From what I’ve seen the dual ESC can operate each motor independently forward and back. I’m a newbie though.
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It pretty much depends on your interests, money, time you have and skills you want to acquire. An RC tank these days with a control board has at least a few, if not all of the following features;
- sound engine start, idle, acceleration and stop
- turret rotation
- gun elevation
- gun recoil, flash and sound
- machine gun 1 and 2 flash and sound
- engine smoker
- head lights and tail lights

These are a bit more difficult to achieve on a 1/35 tank because all the components need to be really small. But these are the challenge that modellers can take on with micro servos, small gears and LEDs.

[philbibbey]

I mean what other functionality will I be losing? From what I’ve seen the dual ESC can operate each motor independently forward and back. I’m a newbie though.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It pretty much depends on your interests, money, time you have and skills you want to acquire. An RC tank these days with a control board has at least a few, if not all of the following features;
- sound engine start, idle, acceleration and stop
- turret rotation
- gun elevation
- gun recoil, flash and sound
- machine gun 1 and 2 flash and sound
- engine smoker
- head lights and tail lights

These are a bit more difficult to achieve on a 1/35 tank because all the components need to be really small. But these are the challenge that modellers can take on with micro servos, small gears and LEDs.

Ahh I understand now. My initial goal was basic movement forward / backward / pivot steering at a scale realistic speed. From there I was going to “expand” if possible adding other feature like you discussed. I’m not interested in IR / airsoft battles.

I see this project as being entry level to establish basic RC understanding / compatibility building from there.


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[modler]

I wanted to share the progress I have made on my M3 Lee in 1/35 scale. The shape of the transmission case / final drives made it interesting squeezing the gears into place. It also took me some time to find the right motors and come up with a DIY gear box ish thing to connect the running gear.

At this time I’m a bit stuck and could use some help from the RC Gods out there. I’m not sure what RC components I should use for this build. I’m using x2 3V motors.

Power source: x4 AA batteries or small 7.4V lipo with a buck converter to step down the voltage.

ESC (electronic speed controller) do I need this and if so is it one per motor?

Receiver / transmitter: I figured a simple 4 channel receiver would work.

Parts recommendations are always welcomed!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, from what I can see you have done the hard part. The dual gearbox setup is defiantly the hardest part of motorizing the M3. Next is the sprockets. have you sorted that out yet?
For Tamiya Tanks, the models that have a single motor motorized or dual motor remote control versions have the best track sprockets even in the static versions usually. Otherwise you have to do a custom sprocket interface to the output shafts both left and right. The sprocket above is from a non motorized version of the Panzer III and required some skill to interface to the output shafts and still be removable.