RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi folks,

Though it is fun to start a topic on my WIP Haya Chieftain desert trial version (kind of), and highlight all the little updates/modifications that I did to the chieftain.
My specific version has BB disabled, with intent to fit the Tamiya Battle Unit, along with gun flash.
Smoke unit has been removed. I don't see the need for this and really don't like smoke.

Certainly hope it can be useful for most.

This started as a Haya Chieftain Mk3 with metal track with rubber pad, and upgraded with Centurion wheels with ball bearings.
Electronics of choice is a Clark TK50ESP with a Challenger 1 soundset at the moment, possibly the closest I can get. The original plan was to use an Elmod but a few self-inflicted problems caused a change of plan.
Speaker was the rctank.de Viston M loudspeaker. This is rather nice sounding for it's size.

Radio was a Radiomaster Zorro with a Matek R24-P6 receiver. Might change to something else later.

This was primed with Mr Colour Surfacer 1500 gray, painted with Mr Color C528. This is my first time printing a 1/16 tanks. Used up 2 cans of surfacers and 10 bottles of paint Lots of paint.

One of the initial modifications I have done is to replace all the spacers that come with the tank with a proper M5 plastic washer. I found a specific one that has 8mm external diameter and 1 mm thickness to ensure it fits well to the plastic spindle.
4mm spacing is required, hence, 4 of those on the spindle will create a nice spacing between the wheels and the support screws.
I think that two screws supporting the spindle should have been replaced with countersunk head instead, this prevents any possible vibration from rubbing the rubber wheel with those screw heads.

I reckon at some point, I might replace the suspension arm totally with 3D printed ones, possibly with the right dimension or with aluminum spindle instead.
The original bearings for the drive shaft has been removed and replaced with the larger external bearing from rctanklegion.
See https://www.rctanklegion.com/products/r ... -bearings-
I do warn you to take extra care to remove the section of Drive Axle Support because it is quite a tight fit, and remove the cover cap and the screw properly. Else, you risk damaging that plastic section.

I reckon you can get the bearing of the right size and have it fitted. But Stanley is such a nice guy to deal with.

A good news for me is that the plastic spacer that I got can be used to reinforce the gearbox holder as it is just the right size.
I hope this will prevent any possible stripping of the screw threads for those mounting holes.

Because of my choice of speaker, and I am trying to learn 3D design and printing, I decided to replace the controller board holder with something custom.
I made a custom controller board with a specific mounting hole for the rctank.de speaker, along with a special base board to TK50. This allows me to have solid mounting of the electronics, and because they are all screwed on, I can remove the parts for any potential servicing.
The controller board also seems to make the chassis slighter stiffer.

There is also a small specific 3d printed tray that sits on that little section beside the battery bay. That section is not flat, hence, a 3d printed tray is made to make use of that space. There, I placed my receiver, and a small board of connector converters for TK50, and a variable pot for volume control.

All these 3d printed parts are available of here.
Seperate tray -> https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/tr ... -tank-1-16
Controller board -> https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/ha ... ller-board
TK50 mount board -> https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/cl ... ongbenghui

Hope these can be useful.

I love the hengleng breakout board that works well with the TK50, but I originally can't decide to place it on the hull (like Haya Centurion) (In Blue), or part of the turret (In Red).
I guess I will settle for Red at the moment. That helps to organize the wiring from the TK50 board to the turret wiring.
The ranging gun (sort of) can be fitted with a 3mm red LED added with connection to the TK50 as MG2.

Congratulations on a fine build started here with excellent photos, too! Even if silently, I am watching along.

Oh dear, i reckon this should be better in the "Modern Builds" section of this forum. Anyway to move this ?

I reckon it should be in OTHER-Modern so I will move it there now.

HERMAN BIX wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2024 8:50 am I reckon it should be in OTHER-Modern so I will move it there now.

Many thanks. Will continue to update on progress.

The Chieftain commander light and searchlight are such nice features of the tank. The commander light is a 5mm LED and the search light is a 10mm LED.
I used a rc car 2 LED light controller and hooked up a spare unused channel on the receiver to control the light.

However, I will strongly recommend soldering a 200~300ohms resistor inline with the LED light to protect over-current to the LED.
I burned out two LED lights when connecting directly to some light controllers.
Example of such controller.