tankme

I broke down and bought a Merkava back in April so this will a mix of a catchup thread if you are on Hobbysquawk. Toucan had them for $70 off the normal price for the all metal (minus the hull) version. I decided to start off by build a cope cage for it as seen in the recent conflict:



I found one on Cults3D to print:

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/vari...-4-1-35-panzer

Unfortunately no matter what material I tried to print it in, it failed to print in either version. Tried it in ASA, PETG, and ABS like resin. The mesh or the bar version was just modeled too delicately to print right in 1/16 scale. The bars and mesh got distorted as it would detach from the resin printer's FEP or the supports on the FDM printer were too difficult to remove eventually breaking the bars or the mesh. At that point, I took the bad PETG print, cut out all the center sections, found a free scalable plastic grill mesh on Printables, printed it out, cut out the sections I needed and glued them to the cope cage. As you can see, even a few of the squares broke getting off the build plate as they are like less than a mm high.



And my Frankenstein results:



Next task was to magnetize the lower hull. It was a little more difficult than some as the lower plastic bosses in the front were pretty short. I had to cut a little off the tow hooks before I could glue them in. I also removed the front hooks as they will probably dig into the dirt when running the tank. I may add some removable 3D printed ones later.

Front magnets:



Rear magnets:



​I didn't like the look of the fake rubber skirts so I 3D printed some TPU skirts as replacements. The skirt pieces I printed are 1mm thick which might be a little thicker than I'd like, but I can always print more later. Each piece also has a thinner mounting tab used to glue it to the back of the armor skirt. I had to remove the fake piece so I scored along the seem line and bent them off using a needle nose pliers. Quick and simple with minimal cleanup.



Pulled out the razor chopper and cut them into 40mm sections. The sections on the slat armor and the first and last 40mm section were printed with an angle per the real ones.





Just used some CA to attach them and they looked like this from the inside:



Not a fan of the Philips screws that came with everything to mount the dangling balls and the engine grate so I replaced them with mini bolts:





And the final results:





Continued in next post...

tankme

After consulting some more reference materials, I saw that the front and rear mud flaps also needed some attention. I printed some more flexible TPU and cut out some mud flaps for the front and rear. I still need to add some fake fasteners to the faux mounting strips. I also blued the tracks to get rid of that nasty silver color:





In the first post, I didn't show how the front magnets were attached. They will eventually be covered with the plugs that came with the tank like the ones in rear. I have had glue fail so my magnets are usually mechanically attached using fasteners.



Speaking of magnets, I decided to magnetize the turret together as I've done on other tanks. I also started work on a mount for the LegoDEI apple. I 3D printed the mount and found a junk piece of ABS to put the mount in securing it temporarily with the screws for the BB chute which has been removed. I haven't ever shot a single BB through any of my tanks. I've only installed 4 magnets, but I think I will be adding at least two more to ensure the turret stays closed.





Remnants of the BB chute as it had part of the barrel mount attached. I had to cut it down that much to clear the new elevation and recoil unit.

The hatch can still mostly close when I'm not using the apple.



Speaking of the new elevation and recoil unit, I had one of the metal units in the stash so it was installed and the BB recoil/elevation was removed.







A couple of M4 stand offs and some failed ABS print material was used to create a support for the servo and the platform for the servo to sit on.



Mounting the barrel in the new unit took some brass tube, two M2.5 set screws, and removing a bit of length from the back of the barrel. I had to then drill/tap the hole for the set screw in the barrel and do the same for the plunger on the metal recoil unit.



Being a modern tank, I wanted modern tank speed so some Taigen 390 motors were installed:



Since my local battle club tends to have more HL tanks than Clark based ones like I typically build, I decided to try installing the CS-TK6.1 unit I had bought a long time ago. Everything was going well with the unit until I tested the battle functions. It took hits just fine, but unfortunately after using both the HL IR emitter and an Osram emitter, I couldn't get it to give hits. Using the my phone camera I could see the Osram unit light up, but I'm going to assume it wasn't lighting up for the required length to register a hit. The Open Panzer TCB had that issue until Luke increased the pulse length of the IR LED.



Being me, I wasn't happy with the end result of the way the dangly balls that Heng Long supplied. I had spent hours on the HL units only to not really be all that happy with the way they looked. Visually they were lacking, plus since adding the turret magnets the HL units were actually magnetizing up to the rear magnets. So back on AliExpress and Amazon I went. I found some 4mm chain (Amazon) I liked and some 4mm brass balls (AliExpress) that are used in making jewelry. Since both the chain and the balls are non-ferrous, no more magnetism issues.





You can see a comparison of the HL units on the left and the new ones on the right. Much better IMO.



And after hours of playing with these little balls, this is what I got:



A very satifying result:



I'm currently waiting on a HL 7.1 controller to show up so the project will go into hold status until that arrives.

That's all for now...

Fsttanks

When you get your 7.1 don't forget to "jump" the bb motor "yellow" wires. The 7.0/7.1 will not fire the IR if the wires are not "jumped". Basically makes the system think the bb motor is still there.

Fairly common to overlook. Even I forget to do it from time to time. Just an FYI for when you install it.

Something I notice too, the mount for your LegoDEI receiver is set up to have an LED facing forward not an IR bulb. I set mine up this way too. Not a problem if you are using the 360 shade, but it does become a problem if you use the 45 degree shade. Basically with the 45 shade your receiver will act like a "twisted Tamiya apple. Kinda is not fair if everyone else is not doing the same. But if they are it makes for one fun battle with lots of shooting and maneuvering. Depending on what club I am playing at and the theme I swap out from 360 to 45 to better match the days needs.

Good choice going with the Taigen blk 390s. I used them in my Merkava and it is stupidly fast. So much so I have to run it on no more then a 7.2 volt NIMH batteries. On a Lipo pumping out 8.4 at peak voltage mine would become nearly uncontrollable.

tankme

Thanks, I do sometimes forget to jump the BB switch. After I try to fire the tank the first time and nothing happens it usually reminds me I forgot it...

I use the 360 shields for the most part, but since there are guys on our battlefield using HL and Torro apples they still have the advantage of not taking hits even with the 45 offset shade.

There are so many fake 390 "red" motors that I just went with a known quantity. The Taigen motors are also decently priced. I just added them to another order so that I got free shipping and most of their motors (if not all) come all wired with noise suppression caps. If they end up being a little too fast I can always switch into "slow mode" pretty quickly on the 7.0/7.1.

Fsttanks

The SoCal clubs are having to deal with the stock HL receivers too. Sometimes is can drive us long time members crazy. At least two of the clubs and the third highly considering it are about to require attendees after their second event that they add a LegoDEI receiver or they can not participate in battles. They are welcome to come and drive their tanks just not battle them.

Yep Taigen are the safe bet these days. They are not as "torq'y" as the real reds but have noticeably higher RPMs so tanks tend to be faster.

Keep up the good work I enjoy reading about your builds.