RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I'd promised on another thread to post details of how to do this, so here we go...
First off, I'm going to assume you know how to bust open your tiger - if not, there is 3 screws on the underbelly and 6 more tucked up under the tracks - you will need to push one of the track pins out (they are pressed in from the inboard side) and remove them from either side in order to get at these screws.

Next up are the 3 screws holding the turret ring gear to the turret, and 'un-soldering' the 3 wires (non S&S - 5 wires if its a Smoke & Sound tank) leading to the turret. Please consult the wiring diagram half way down this thread: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5760954/tm.htm (the thread also covers breaking apart the tracks). You are advised to mark the wires before removing them as they are not consistantly coloured!

Now that you have disconnected the turret...

As you can see from the 3rd pic, this is a job for Mr Dremel! The best I can tell you is take it slow and keep checking the fit until you are happy. The gun comes in 3 pieces - the barrel and the back of the mantlet fit together, but the box section part that you need to cut has to be lined up by eye. Don't cut too much away or the screws will not have enough to grip on - tho you could always glue the parts together if you had too

For the emitter tube I use small stiring rods from our coffee room - best to describe them as a tiny drinking straw, I can't remember if I've seen anything similar in the UK They're about 4" long and a little less than 3mm OD - just right for stuffing the 3mm LED of the DBC inside without fear of it ever falling out! They are PVC tho, so they need to be sanded heavily first in order for loctite to get a grip. As they are intended to be used once and then thrown away (yeah, I know - what a blooming waste ::) - the old UK office had real spoons for stiring your coffee, unfortunately some ****** has stolen all the cutlary from our kitchen here!) I just keep them when I'm done stiring - much cheaper than brass tube or whatever else you might buy!
The emitter can also be mounted in the machine gun LED hole if you don't have one - I did this with my Kursk Tiger as it was non S&S and I bought a LED hull machine gun for it instead. I would say tho that for the DBC emitter its easier to drill a fresh hole than try to use the MG hole, as its much bigger (5mm) and just that extra little more tricky to get the emitter pointing where you want it.

nice work Martin
I flipped the mantlet on my first tiger the second one came with it flipped so I had less work to do

good write up mart, so far ive only done 2 mantlets, my Tiger and kristens "131", not my favourite job

              Tony

I've one more tiger to flip - must say its easier to do it with a dremel cutter than a drill or saw