Gun Tech

On the eve of the new year, greetings.
To keep from cluttering up threads, I am going to start a separate thread for my second Tiger made by the Seki company. The reason for the title is due to these tanks often being referred to as Seiki and the limited information about these indicate that the ones with electric drive were called Engel (Angel) in Germany. This poor decrepit thing just arrived from Germany after almost a month in transit and had a Stamo .61 helicopter engine installed in place of the original electric drive. Luckily, the gearbox and chassis are in good order, but a very unique individual cobbled together this wacky mess. These are the photos from last night to show the before condition and I will take some more photos as I strip it down to parade rest and bring it back from the dead. I did clear out the hull earlier today and left only the suspension and road wheels, along with testing a few parts with paint stripper. Here is what I have so far:









This is what I had:

























I know, I didn't take any full pictures, sorry, I will work on that later. This is the same Tiger as my other one, just brutalized and painted with a broom. This one is going back to electric, but with some radical modification. I plan to eliminate the clutch system and set this up with dual motors and I am leaning heavily towards making this a Sturmtiger. So there is something to chew on for another oddball from many years ago.

Mark

Gun Tech

Okay, I took some full pictures.
























I started in with some spray on stripper and it is working great. Once I finish cleaning it up, I will add photos of it naked. I pulled all of the parts out of the turret and I removed the road wheels, sprockets and tensioners for stripping and cleaning

Mark

Max-U52

They've got the exhaust shields on backwards. The notch is to clear the piping from the airfilter box and should be on the outside, even on T1 lates. Great looking project, though. You're gonna have a blast. That's the worst thing about internet buds, ya can't just pop over to see how the latest stuff's goin'.

I really like the way the grates open in the rear and I'm already wondering if I can mod that on a 1/16th tank. Can't wait to see more photos of this one, Mark, but that doesn't mean I'm losing interest in the first one!

EDIT: And I think I'm just gonna HAVE to copy those jerry cans. Very, very cool.

Gun Tech

Max,
Funny that you say that about the exhaust shields, the other one is the same way. The Japanese must have crossed their wires as to the correct placement. As for the jerry cans, Let me know what I can do to help you make some copies and I will do my best. If you happen to be passing through San Diego, you are welcome to come by and thaw out from that Detroit weather. Those grates are interesting, it looks like the previous owner took the solid grates and cut them out (not too well) and then put some screws in to hinge them. I will see what I can do to improve the fit and clean up his work. The first one is just idling for the time being, since it is fully functional. I don't want to make any radical changes just yet and will use this one as a test bed for any mods. Here are some more pictures after a bit more stripping and teardown.













That back section of the turret is a beautifully made piece of copper??? that is soldered together. The turret is cleaning up better than expected, so if I can patch it well enough, I will keep this one a plain old Tiger, but if anything gives me an excuse, I will go the Sturmtiger route. I am going to grab some more stripper tomorrow and get that done with, that way I can focus on other aspects. I want to completely strip the gearbox to get all of the bearing numbers and order up fresh bearings for everything. I felt a rumble in one of the inputs and intend to have it all tight and fresh before I go further. I didn't spend any time today looking for planetary units, so that is on the agenda for tomorrow. I actually have a Tamiya DMD and MFU for a Tiger, that I might just put to use on this one, since I don't know my butt from a hole in the ground when it comes to electronics. One of the other new members (Rich Johnson) is here in SD and is gung-ho for battling, so I could spice things up if this was battle ready. If I got frustrated I could roll over the other guys tank.

I am glad you are enjoying this thread, it is a great way to generate more info and discussion about these tanks since they are so uncommon. The funny part is that nobody else out there has ever seen the electric version (even Jerry C.), but they were known to have been made and here I am the guy with the only two anyone has seen. I keep hoping someone else with an electric version will pipe in, but I can definitely thank Jerry C. (Tanque) for his guidance and input for my first one and the lead for the second one. Speaking of which, Jerry needs to post some pictures of his Nitro versions for comparison (hint, hint). Now if only I could find a Maier Panther or other 1/10th tank that someone wants to part with.
Till later!

Mark

Gun Tech

Just ordered two 4:1 P60 planetary gearboxes and two 775 motors from Banebots. Now to figure out which ESC from Dimension Engineering would be best. If anyone has suggestions, I am all ears. I still need to tear down the transmission and get bearing numbers to freshen those up. I am nervous getting the body prepped well for primer and paint, luckily I can ignore that until after I sort out the drivetrain upgrades.

Mark

Imex-Erik

Banebots Nice choice there! I wish I would of known, I have two 775 motors I would of donated to this project! I saw the banebot motor has a nice stall current of 130A, so be careful there! There used to be some nice ESCs that ran both brushed and brushless motors... I know Novak has a two cell version, but I think the one Castle one used to be stronger. They had a sidewinder (I believe) that could be setup to run both and could run up to 3 cell if it had a fan on it. Could you post me some links on the ESCs you are looking at getting?
Oh and I think the picture of the tank on the tailgate was the most surprising, wow that thing is big!

Gun Tech

Here is what I am looking at. Pricey, but it looks like it would be solid, shy of completely jamming the drivetrain. If I understand amperage ratings correctly, peak efficiency of those 775's (18.7A) is way below the ESC's running amperage at 60A continuous and the ESC peaks out just shy of stall at 120A.

http://www.dimensionengineering.com/...sabertooth2x60

Mark

Tiger115

I have two Seki Tigers. Both are electric. One was NIB and the second one is a used but not too badly abused one

Gun Tech

Tiger,
Welcome, it's nice to know I am not the only one out there with the electric ones. I sent you a PM before you replied, don't worry I still have it and will eventually get around to putting it together.

Mark

Tiger115

I am new to this forum. I would love to get in touch with boys re: these Seki tigers

Btw, Gun Tech, which paint remover did you use?? any suggestion?

Gun Tech

I had to use Jassco, it's nasty stuff that burns the skin. I used a liquid for the small parts that I could immerse, but I forget who made it. After the parts were rinsed and allowed to dry, most of the really tough paint could be picked away from the surface, but tedious as heck.

Mark

Tiger115

Thanks

Tanque

An ancient thread I know however I'm wondering whatever became of Mark's Seiki/Engel Tiger I project ?

I've never understood the relationship between the company in Germany that sold the Tiger I and Seiki in Japan.
All the information I'd had, and I lost the best part- a video Seiki made for me in the early 80s, re-enforced my perception
that Seiki never seemed to sell the electric versions of their Tiger in Japan or at least very few of them. I never doubted the
originality of the electric versions I just have never had the opportunity to get my hands on one.

The glow (gas) powered versions I believe had a specific type of gearbox that wouldn't really lend itself to conversion to
electric without major changes. I've never seen, anywhere, an electric version that uses a modified gas gearbox.

Curiosity...

Jerry

Gun Tech

Jerry,
I'm embarrassed to say that I have not made any progress and it's sitting idle in my shop. I have so many projects sitting in the wings and I'm hoping to get back to that one in the reasonable future, because I want to mess with RC stuff again. Every now and then I still poke around to see if I could find a 1/10 scale Panther (or anything weird), but no such luck. I still like the idea of the 1/10th stuff and just have the two Tigers left.
Regards

Mark

tankme

Most of the 1/10th stuff is now being manufactured as 3D printed stuff. I personally printed a 1/10th Jagdtiger and I believe there is a 1/10th Panther available to print, but if you aren't into 3D printing then I don't know of anyone making 1/10th tanks as RTRs or kits. 3D printing is a complete hobby in itself.

Tanque

I know a thing or two about having a backlog of projects.....

I hear what tankme is saying about 3D printed models; 1/10 scale armor seems to be taken over by 3D printing. It's really ironic after all the years I tried getting locals and others
interested in 1/10 scale as a fantastic armor/tank scale it took the advent of 3D printing to wake people up. For years I can't tell you how many snide remarks I had to tolerate
regarding the scale... "why waste your time and money", "such a weird scale"... on and on...

While I am intrigued by the potential for 3D printing of more esoteric subjects, Italian, Japanese and whatnot; but only for the purpose of making patterns that I can cast in a metal
of my choosing...

Mark you mentioned an interest in Maier Panthers. If you ever become serious in that regard I may be able to help you out. I have 3 Maier Panthers just sitting in my storage bedroom.
One is the Maier/Klingeberger hybrid (see the thread here on RCU somewhere) I mostly rebuilt- needs the wiring redone- The only complete such Panther I've ever seen here in the US.
Plus two more 'standard' Maier Panthers, one with the last version of the 2 speed gearbox Maier ever made before stopping production, a rare bird and what is probably the nicest condition
full-blown, fully equipped Maier Panther with 3 speeed gearbox, Webra 6,5ccm, starter and the works... including the unique 6 shot electrically driven 8mm theatrical blank firer Maier made.
The models exterior needs a make over and refresh but mechanically the model is absolutely the best maintained and condition Maier Panther I'd ever seen outside of my own; I'm pretty certain
it was a one-owner model before I got my hands on it. It really is quite a stunning model. Both the 2 speed and this last Panther are complete mechanically as is the hybrid.

The problem with most Maier Panthers I've either seen or purchased second hand is most owners didn't understand them, how to set them up properly and maintain them. Just about everyone I've seen has had some uninformed violence visited upon them due to lack of understanding. A properly set up and tuned Panther is soooooo much fun to run. They are unforgiving if abused or not maintained.

As I really doubt I'm going to do anything with these since I've gone in up to my eyebrows in 1/6 these days I'd be willing to sell them off, to someone in the states- I don't want the hassle of
sales overseas. I'd actually hate to see them go as they're so hard to get, good examples, these days, I'd love to see them go to someone who will keep them in their original configuration.
I know a number of collectors who, once getting a Maier have gutted it, eliminated the engine, chopped up upper and lower hull to 'make it scale' but they missed the point entirely. If you want
a absolute perfect 1/10 scale Panther - print one, don't hack a rare model, no matter what good you think you're doing.

So keep it in mind if you ever really want one. I'm not actively trying to sell them, they're gathering dust quietly, contentedly in my storage along with all my other 'some day' projects....

Jerry