Use your WHOLE tank as a Speaker Box + BIG 1:12 tanks

[TankDriver]

Recently I picked up a giant Max Factory 1:12 scale Tiger 1 with basic drive motors already installed, so my first project for the new year is to put a Clark board in it & other electronics to make it fully operational. Check out the size of this big cat:



Of course, with a kitty this big you gotta have good sound to match, so I set out to put the maximum speaker size into it that would fit, which is 6". Originally I was going to use a cylindrical shell for the driver enclosure:



But then I though why not try to use the whole tank body as a speaker resonator? So a piece of cardboard served as a quick 'proof-of-concept':



Initial test was a success, soon to be followed by a shaped lightweight piece of basswood for better acoustics:



Compared to any of my 1/16 tanks, I should get some pretty nice bass out of this setup!
Will follow up with more progress soon...

[Pavel]

The voids need to be filled with sound-absorbing material, cotton wool or foam rubber... Otherwise it will turn out to be a rattle.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

You may have found a relatively inexpensive way to get among the big boys! I had never even heard of a Max Factory 1:12 scale Tiger 1. It looks a bit like an upscaled HengLong PzKfw. VI, early production. Did it have any electronics in it as it came? I cannot find mention of it here on RCTW, but I did see it on Amazon for about $385. The bigger the castings, the higher the price, without regard to the quality of electronics, etc. What can you tell us about it?

[ColemanCollector]

Drill a hole in the bottom for a bass reflex port!

Mike.

[TankDriver]

Pavel - I am definitely going to dampen & seal the speaker box / body as best I can, for maximum bass & minimum buzz / rattle.

Coleman - I thought about that, but the final piece of wood will stop about 1.5" short of touching the 'nose' of the tank's hull in front, so that little bit of open space will 'kinda' serve as a passive radiator / bass reflex port.

Herr Dr - I found this Tiger online at "Plaza Japan" a couple months ago (links below), when the price was only $319... now it's gone up to over $500... yen-to-dollar value changes a lot, but not that much in two months! I suspect they may have raised the prices before the holidays. Still, $500 is a far better price than the nearly $900 they want for it on Amazon. By the way, the grey "Plamax" version available on Amazon for about $375 is a static model, so it lacks the drive motors that this "Girls und Panzer" (desert yellow) version has, but it does come with the extra accessories & workable tracks that you can get separately for the yellow one (see links below). It does have left & right drive motors pre-installed, but it comes from the factory with both activated by a single forward-or-reverse switch (and no remote), meaning that you switch it on & it goes in a straight line forwards or backwards until you run & catch it before it smacks into a wall Fortunately, the motors are not physically coupled together in any way, so they can easily be driven independently by a real RC tank board, for true proportional drive & directional steering, and the all-important ability to stop!

Here is the Tiger itself on Plaza Japan:
https://www.plazajapan.com/4545784068526/
Accessory Kit:
https://www.plazajapan.com/4545784069080/
Workable Tracks:
https://www.plazajapan.com/4545784069097/

[HERMAN BIX]

I'd say our Late 'General' would swoop on one of these like a Seagull on a chip.................
It even has the really early twin pot Feifels.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Interesting! I had never heard of Plaza Japan, so now I get to look around. I'm quite safe, as I am out of spending mode for a bit, always, as my son-in-law says, "debt averse."

[ColemanCollector]

TD--Regardless of the speaker design you go with, make sure it can stand being turned up to 11.

Mike.

[ongbenghui]

I was thinking about this problem. The issues I guess is that the speaker box is in the tank rather than out of the tank.
Hence, the problem is how to effectively get the sound out from the tank chassis. I was thinking of having grills or openning on the engine deck to let the sound through, but risk having dirt & rain into the tank.

[Martin2556]

Panzer IV from the same manufacturer