CLEANING UP SOME OLD PROJECTS
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2021 9:58 am
As i've been home for a while now with this shonky ankle, I have cleared a few builds and decided to spend a bit of time on improvements & repairs to the older members of the fleet.
I thought rather than resurface the submarines in each build I would just sum up the basics on what I did to them before beginning another new project.
- Tiger F05 Gruppe Fehrmann , had an ongoing problem with turret rotation, intermittent flash & recoil sound, and low volume from the speaker. Its running the Taigen V3 set up so should be much better than it is. Opened it up & promptly belted the upper hull with my arm which changed a simple job into a bigger one !
The rotation problem was discovered to be a fractured wire from the unit to the splitter board which I tore asunder when I smacked the hull, tore both connections out of the solder & the positive wire was left long which showed me that it was the problem- new wires & fresh solder-job done.
The flash & recoil/cannon sound was that the recoil mechanism was not tagging the micro-switch all the time, dont know why.I supeglued a small tab onto the taigen microswitch tag to make the contact firmer, solved.
Dug out one of 2 spare Visaton7 speakers that are destined for my Ferdinand project, that I figured I can get 2 more later when I go to start it. Ohh yeah, that volume problem instantly solved...........once I managed to get the thing mounted in the limited space that is.
- Panther-Zu-Fuss, had shagged a steel gearbox about 4 years ago and with all the bits on the outside of the thing had scared me out of fixing it. Also, was running the at the time second Gen 2.4G H/L system
Well, grabbed the last set of steel Taigen gearbox's that Ozarmour had in stock, along with a 6.1s board and set to it. had to get a hand to hold the thing while I unscrewed all the hull fasteners(yes yes, magnets I hear the crowd roar) but it did come apart with only minor damage to the anti straffing armour on the engine deck.
Turns out the gearbox was not destroyed, rather a shaft had worked out of one of the gears allowing the pinion to become un-meshed. Forced the shaft back into place & made "arrangements" to ensure it did not happen again
The virtually new but sadly old 2.4G system was removed, the new board put in and thanks to the bonus of being able to use old rotation and elevation units, no servo surgery required. It still needs to have a re-do so I can get recoil into it, but I was not in the mood, nor have any servo's to hand. The sound and function improvement for now is fine.
- Bedspring T34, Having 3 of Mr Raminators wonderful quality printed solid centre roadwheels left from my SU-85, I thought "lets chuck them on the Bedspring" ..............hmm, thats only easy if the metal roadwheels fitted were taigen ones, but the old beast has early H/L metal ones on it with completely different mounting points. Never mind, I have to do one at least. Removed the Taigen locator from the printed wheel, and carefully drilled the centre out to suit the locator of the H/L wheel. Luckily the inner carries both bearings, so the outer wheel was superglued to the inner in such a way that the inner can still come off if required.
Its going to need new gearboxes soon, as its been run to death over the years, so when thats the case it will likely get a new electronic system and the rest of the wheels done.
Thats been xmas day evening and boxing day while the Ashes has been on & excess food was processing to its inevitable outcome
Sometimes its easy to go onto a new project when going back to an old one can have as satisfying results
Merry xmas all, & happy tankin
I thought rather than resurface the submarines in each build I would just sum up the basics on what I did to them before beginning another new project.
- Tiger F05 Gruppe Fehrmann , had an ongoing problem with turret rotation, intermittent flash & recoil sound, and low volume from the speaker. Its running the Taigen V3 set up so should be much better than it is. Opened it up & promptly belted the upper hull with my arm which changed a simple job into a bigger one !
The rotation problem was discovered to be a fractured wire from the unit to the splitter board which I tore asunder when I smacked the hull, tore both connections out of the solder & the positive wire was left long which showed me that it was the problem- new wires & fresh solder-job done.
The flash & recoil/cannon sound was that the recoil mechanism was not tagging the micro-switch all the time, dont know why.I supeglued a small tab onto the taigen microswitch tag to make the contact firmer, solved.
Dug out one of 2 spare Visaton7 speakers that are destined for my Ferdinand project, that I figured I can get 2 more later when I go to start it. Ohh yeah, that volume problem instantly solved...........once I managed to get the thing mounted in the limited space that is.
- Panther-Zu-Fuss, had shagged a steel gearbox about 4 years ago and with all the bits on the outside of the thing had scared me out of fixing it. Also, was running the at the time second Gen 2.4G H/L system
Well, grabbed the last set of steel Taigen gearbox's that Ozarmour had in stock, along with a 6.1s board and set to it. had to get a hand to hold the thing while I unscrewed all the hull fasteners(yes yes, magnets I hear the crowd roar) but it did come apart with only minor damage to the anti straffing armour on the engine deck.
Turns out the gearbox was not destroyed, rather a shaft had worked out of one of the gears allowing the pinion to become un-meshed. Forced the shaft back into place & made "arrangements" to ensure it did not happen again
The virtually new but sadly old 2.4G system was removed, the new board put in and thanks to the bonus of being able to use old rotation and elevation units, no servo surgery required. It still needs to have a re-do so I can get recoil into it, but I was not in the mood, nor have any servo's to hand. The sound and function improvement for now is fine.
- Bedspring T34, Having 3 of Mr Raminators wonderful quality printed solid centre roadwheels left from my SU-85, I thought "lets chuck them on the Bedspring" ..............hmm, thats only easy if the metal roadwheels fitted were taigen ones, but the old beast has early H/L metal ones on it with completely different mounting points. Never mind, I have to do one at least. Removed the Taigen locator from the printed wheel, and carefully drilled the centre out to suit the locator of the H/L wheel. Luckily the inner carries both bearings, so the outer wheel was superglued to the inner in such a way that the inner can still come off if required.
Its going to need new gearboxes soon, as its been run to death over the years, so when thats the case it will likely get a new electronic system and the rest of the wheels done.
Thats been xmas day evening and boxing day while the Ashes has been on & excess food was processing to its inevitable outcome
Sometimes its easy to go onto a new project when going back to an old one can have as satisfying results
Merry xmas all, & happy tankin
My solution: Enjoy some amber nectar anaesthetic. 
At least "Man's best friend" was there to help you through the whole thing! My two ankle surgeries pale in comparison to all that "superhero" metal in your extremities! 