Matorro King Tiger w/ Tamiya-HL upgrade

[xrad]

In the works:
Matorro KT with Tamiya hull and suspension and HL electronics.

Of course, parts have to come from Japan, England, China and USA..so this may take a while...

[xrad]

Received my KT today. Overall nice presentation with plenty of detail and decent basic paint job. Turret speed and elevation unit nice and slow. Actaully, overall ground speed not too bad either. Hull plastic thickness very good. Nice and stiff. Only minimal recoil track action, which is nice.

However:
1) battery cover horrible design.
2) Barrel with inner aluminum liner has big plastic surround seem
3) suspension extremely stiff (keeps tracks on,,not realistic)
4) Horrible sound
5) antenna mount stripped in transmitter
6) lifting hooks backwards
7) broken track mount

Good for the price. Will be fun to upgrade.

[BREL]

with al of those faults you have a great project in the rebuilding of your tank

[Saxondog]

What was the price? Was it a one time deal or do you have a source for damaged tanks for sell? Sax

[xrad]

I think most of them come with some minor shipping damage for FREE!!

Price was 129$ plus minor shipping cost (not 40-50$ like some places charge) Ebay dealer located in USA I think it was Stella models. Unfortunately, i do not have a source for cheap tanks or parts.

or maybe their shop can help directly:
http://www.stellamodels.net/catalog/default.php

[xrad]

Note that the Matorro KT uses the HL Style BB mechanism and can be converted to recoil/flash. Also uses same speaker and smoker and vloume control and elevation unit. Basically, only thing different is the motor gearbox and Rx/DMD unit.

Also, it is a 7.2 volt system so conversion is easy.

[xrad]

Thanks to ETO armor/ Jason in Japan/ Welsh Dragon/ RCCOmmand/ and a very fast UK tamiya spares dealer (can;t remember name..on ebay)...we can get this project rolling


1) Using Schumo panzer bolt set x2(includes 18 2.5mm and maybe 10 3mm bolts of VERY nice quality), built up the tammy hull next
2) Using Schumo rear axle and lock upgrade (need to buy one of two different sets to make the whole thing work) Excellent manufacturer. Parts go right together. Although, I did have to drill and tap 2 3mm grub hole for axle locks (came with NO grub screws and a weird size ...3.5mm???)
3) Got tammy parts from Jason. Need the hull, side plates, torsion bar set, torsion rod carriers, torsion rails, swing arms, and rear bulkhead sprue set.

went together like a dream in about 2 hours.

Test fit the Matorro hull. almost perfect. Need to fit and grind a little..no big deal. Ordered a tammy barrel from Jason as I am not saisfied with the Matorro one.

Ordered metal wheels and front drive guards from Welsh dragon(the Asiatam version NOTE: THERE ARE TWO ASIATAM WHEEL SETS..ONE FOR TAMIYA AND ONE FOR MATORRO ...asiatam website says one 'is not for Tamiya' and one is 'not for matorro.' not the best wording. A little pricey for the wheels and tracks , and I have not ordered the tracks yet ..have to save some $ first.


looks good. biggest tank I have built yet and really, a good bit of fun. I definately would not recommend this build as your first. It was nice to build the PIII first, then the JP(lots of work) and then the Stug..and now this one. The KT will be the most expensive.

PRICE:
tammy parts: 150
Schumo parts: 70
wheels: 150 ouch!
tracks: ~200 OUCH..not ordered yet
HL electronics: 25 for rx18 and 25 for recoil unit with side pins. I have the other parts out of the Matorro tank.
Matorro: 129 ( I really like the hull detail and zimm!)
shipping: extra

total: less than 750 (oops..forgot the gearboxes 120)...hmmmm not so cheap. what doe full option tammy go for? I still would have to upgrade the wheels and tracks and gearboxes so add 470$ to the tammy price...

[xrad]

with a little effort, the Mat rear bulkhead fits the Tammy hull nicely! Saves some Zimm time!

Just waiting on a few electronics and metal parts ...

The Schumo rear axles were just a hair too long inside the idler barrel and need a little grinding. They ARE perfect length for fit to idler adjusters. I use DuBro 2x12mm allen head bolts to hold rear idlers (3 pieces) together. DuBro makes and Traxxas make some very nice small screws and hardware found in most hobby shops.

The Schumo tensioner rod fit PERFECTLY!

I was just cleaning my desk up tonight and found about 30 little ziplock parts baggies...Sheesh! if the cops saw my desk, they would be checking for crack or something! Maybe I am addicted..to building stuff! Probably costs me more!

[xrad]

Some more pics:

Easy to make side track guards. Takes about 1 hour per side. I use .025 inch copper sheet (~.6mm..probably thicker than scale but not much, and should take abuse) It is easy to solder with small torch and easy to bend with pliers, vice, etc... These will be held in place with some ~1.6x8 bolts and nuts (welsh dragon). This size is also used to hold on the rear vent screens.

I split some brass strip to make flanges. Vise and solder. Trick to making it easy is using some old Schumo insert paper (slightly heavier than regular paper). And some dirty fingers. Just hold paper in place agaist originals and rub with fingers to create a relief on the paper. Then just cut out allowing a very slight excess for later fitting. DO THIS BEFORE removing the KT plastic guards. AND, you only have to make one side of patterns as the other side is a mirror!! Or, you could by the copper ones on ebay but they are very expensive and one piece(?)

Looks like used scale sideguards. May leave a few off and damage a few. also.

I admit to being lazy. i ordered a set of photo etched front guards and heavy cast rear guards off ebay.

[tankmad]

Its coming along nicely keep up the good work.
Stevie