RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I'm sure many others have done this, but since I couldn't find anyone who had written about it I had to work it out for myself...
This is my eldest son's Heng Long Tiger 1 which I am in the process of up-grading to a mid-production Normandy variant. It all started last summer holiday when I offered 'to change a few things'. 6 months later things are getting interesting...!

Anyway, one of the things I offered to do was to make a moving ball mount for the hull MG (kubelblende).

I had already bought a Modellbau LED MG and ball mount (both from Welsh Dragon Models). The latter is actually just a section of the front face and it's designed to fit into the existing HL blank with a very precise hole for the MG to slide into it from behind. I have to admit that it looks pretty convincing but, even before I had decided to go for the moveable mount, I realised it would actually look better still if it was set more deeply in. Since this would involve having to drill out the entire aperture anyway I thought I was already halfway towards building the whole thing myself, so what the hell...

First of all I had to find a suitable plastic ball. I thought this would be easy. For a week or so I was wandering in and out of those pound shops picking up all sorts of things (including strange looks). Eventually I found a pack of girls' hair bands with some attractive balls attached - eureka! I thought the pink colour was especially subversive for what I had in mind...
Of course the balls are actually too big in purely scale terms, but since all you see outside the tank is a fraction of the whole I thought this would hardly be noticeable. The larger size also makes them easier to work with. Plus they already came semi-hollowed out.

I used a drill to make a path of suitable width for the Modellbau MG and, once I had a snug fit, used some milliput to plug the outside of the hole (and the another pre-existing hole that I did no need). Once this had dried I drilled it for a more precise fit and also made the hole for the gunner's sight alongside.
I then gave it a couple of coats of Humbrol gun metal acrylic wherever I thought it might be visible from the front of the tank.
Finally I built (rather clumsily I have to admit) a thick plastic box behind the glacis plate to accommodate the ball. This is really a matter of trial and error to find a way of effectively 'trapping' the ball against the rear of the plate whilst allowing it some side-to-side and up-and-down movement. In the picture below I have yet to add the final bottom plate (actually to go at the top in this view). By bevelling the inside front edges of these pieces of plastic it's possible to obtain quite a snug fit.
So all I have to do now is wire it in (I have tested it) - wish me luck!

Tim

Excellent Idea, thanks for sharing. Very creative use of material. Now I think I will have to follow your example in my Tiger S13.

Cheers Saxondog

Exellent idea all you need to do now is find a way to make it move when its fired.
Stevie

Just a thought. If you used a drill roughly the same dia as the ball, Don't dill right through the side mounting plates thus leaving a kind of cup. Use a little grease. this may be a more positive way of holding the ball in place. Sorry, no camera at the minute or i would put up a diagram. But hopefully you get my drift.

The Jagdpanther has an ball mounted MG from H/L. Your modification is very similar. But with your idea it can be reproduced by the average hobbyist. My Porsche King Tiger has a servo controlled MG,but the modification design is from Bubbajoe. If I may add one small piece of advice.

The ball can be held in place by a round bracket that connects to the MG port via two small bolts.