x19912

so when you get tired of the 3rd and fourth shock you can do this. piano wire.05" 4.66 inches long. tong bend clocked +90 degrees from short bend. long end point .3" short end .16 drilled hole in hull mount 5/32
dowl is prototype spacer used to lock torsion bar in place.

afv aficionado

Hi X19912
Something I forgot to mention, when cutting down the hull, the rear plate has a lot of detail on it, especially at the upper edge. In order to preserve this, I cut this section away - approx. 5mm deep, with wings, then cut a further section out below it, so the upper edge detail can be put back, at the lower height. The wings - part of the side hull - allows this to be glued back easier - more grip. The other thing is that the rear edge of the M41 dips down, a bit lower than the sides - Comparison shots of the lowered hull vs standard HL hull

Re the upper & lower transmission (trany) hatches - Yes, HL got them wrong, both hatches should slope towards the rear Corrected model vs standard HL hull Doing this means the lower trany & battery hatches need to be shortened, but just to make it difficult, the battery hatch tops, the trany hatch bottom needs trimming. This preserves the grille detail on the battery hatches & trany oil cap.
Re the new barrel, I made it out of K&S brass tubes, tapering of the barrel was achieved by a very slow & painful multiple coats of paint in bands. Attaching the barrel fume extractor - Tamiya masking tape wrapped around the barrel until thick enough at both ends to slip on the extractor parts. The T Brake - double thickness tube - glued on.
I've fitted Henntech track tensioners to all my M41's.
Re the M26, the HL one has a couple of issues - short & stubby gun being the most obvious & major. Otherwise it's pretty good. Funny thing, I have 2 Pershing's - a M26 & a M26A1 - but I've never ordered one, both were dispatcher errors. The HL M41 & Pan Tiger have the most issues, the others aren't too bad, for the price.
Looks like you've reversed your rear plate?
Interesting approach to the 3rd & 4th wheel stations, but I'm a bit in the dark as to how you did that - a line drawing of the torsion bar would be useful?
If you want to see what I've done/doing - http://hobbyhavoc.com/forum/index.php?board=27.0 - though you'd have to sign on to see the pics

Mal

ah387

Amazing to see the detail and time put into the M41s. Great work.

x19912

Alan what glue did you use for the tracks???

x19912

fantastic detail work love the handles , your trans covers are functional? yes it is too ba d they got the scale screwed up but it is a challenge to fix it. I was making a lot of aluminum rear parts experimenting with final drive support bearing and in the process shaved rear detail off to install aluminum final drives. I have to go back and remake them no as i know i can and improve the scale. saw a set of final drive covers on ebay but missed them. I like the torsion bar setup but am still working on final design that allows a cover cap on swing arm. so far looks like nylon bolt may do trick. i will log on hobby havoc as your build looks great.

afv aficionado

Hi x19912
Yes the trany hatches can be opened on 3 of my M41's, still have to work on the others - this one is WIP, only the lower hatch opens so far, have yet to add hinges & handles
This one has hinges Handles ready to fit These are my 1st M41, before I rejigged the handles rear plate, have to revisit it to correct a few features - tow pintle too high, then whether I'm going to lower it

Re the final drive covers These are Tamiya Sherman covers, close but not quite there, still a WIP.

Mal

x19912

The the final drive covers would be another shape ways winner. there are a lot of models that can be built on M41 parts i hope the push in 1/16 armor continues. yes a heng long is iffy but it gives you a starting point not offered by Tamiya.
the excitement in th community makes it a lot of fun and 1/16 makes detail more easily produced. your 305 43 deck is great and i will use it to drive me.

x19912

that double opening is nice in toadmans book there is two bars that support the doors when closed and support the battery doors closed too. plan is to hide smoke switch and smoke refill under cover

afv aficionado

Hi X19912
Had already thought about the final drive covers re shapeways, but Woz has got another couple of projects underway at the mo, and I don't want to swamp him.
Can't answer re the track pins until Monday.

Mal

afv aficionado

If you lower the upper hull, you either need low profile Jadgpanther gearboxes or to sink the std boxes into the hull. If the former, there won't be sufficient space for the smoke unit.
Has anyone noticed that this web page seems to be losing letters when typing? It's combined with a delay & really annoying

Mal

siam

Hello,
May I recommend of using torsion bars for all road wheels hence we could eliminate all shock absorber springs as the modified Heng Long M26 below.
Note: The M26 was modified by SUGO .








And the photo below from "AFV CLUB " 1/35 M41/M42 ..which is quite accurate and correct.

afv aficionado

Hi Siam
The torsion bar set up looks really good. Any chance of seeing it in more detail? I recall your post a while back about adding torsion bars to the HL M41 & M26, and had wondered how it went.

The tie down loops on the M41 return roller support struts. I added those to my M41 'NZ30543' by cutting up a large spring & heating the half coils to melt them into place. Not too many people notice them & they're hard to photograph

Mal

siam

Hi Mal,
The torsion bars had been added on the HL M26 and all the strut springs had all gone. There are some photos which I will ask SUGO posting them asap.
By the way please post some photos of your M41 'NZ30543' tie down loops too.....Thank you in advance.

afv aficionado

Hi Siam
Pics below. When I installed the tie down loops, I wasn't aware that they should angle forward, and once melted into place, they're not coming out again.


Mal

x19912

Mato is selling final drive cover a bit under 3 bucks

x19912

I really want more info on this as it looks fantastic, in order for my spring rate with 1mm piano wire to work it has to cross whole chassis. this looks like the sring strap they used stops halfway. what and who is SUGO googling got me nothing.

x19912

you've got me seriously hooked on trying to get this hull correct, this thread is a life saver

x19912

After working through several of these scale issues i think part of the problem was Heng Long trying to put all the stuff into the M41 chassis without modifying their basic hardware, funny i saw adds for some early Pershing units with the M41 tracks

afv aficionado

Hi x19912
Cutting up the engine grille hatches like that is pretty brave, wasn't tempted to go there - was concerned that there would be structural issues.
Presumably you've figured out a way to do that & not have it all fall in?

Mal

x19912

thought i posted that pic i am trying to work out the hatch stops right now probably wont figure it out until the weekend , got a little jiggy with the front hull and have to replace 6mm was supposed to remove two....lol narrows my muff covers, have to lengthen them now, and have to attache rear doors, structure underneath was from Toadman's book page 35, albeit with some stoutness added. two things to change in lower hull before i can proceed. 1 have to get long shaft gear boxes that are the type like the PZ3 but long shaft, and decide if I am pursuing torsion bars. the hatches were cutesy of the thread cutting thread. had to see how far it could go.
worried about interference of gearboxes so i have to get those in and squared away so i know how low I can box rear end to contain switches and vol control..so easy to get carried away. this new Tamiya super thin cement is amazing compared to the old cements I had as a kid. may have to get a chopper os something as all my cuts need finishing and lots of filing to fit. Your bulldog was the driving force for me to get this at least close to right. i hope they will go back and revisit the molds though that is not likely. I found the proper tracks but they are way spendy, if oil prices ever rise maybe I'll be able to consider them. got a broke Tauch PZ3 off Ebay.. all plastic it had a bad tK01. put bulldogs guts in it for now. It's airsoft gun is quite good. scares grand kids. Thanks for help, I used dubro mini hinges cut to 3/4 for hatch hinges

x19912

Rebel 1

Hi Mal,
Wow!!! That's an amazing amount of work you've done to fix HL's many mistakes. I often wonder why when it takes a company so long to create an item that they would do such a poor quality representation of the actual item they're offering. You would think it would take the same amount of work to do it correct as it takes to do it wrong. I have two HL M41's. One is a parts tank and I have no plans to ever try and make it more accurate. It's an inexpensive tank and it works OK the way it is. I can certainly understand you wanting to make it look like the real thing though. Keep up the great work!!!

x19912

The bulldog from what i have seen was the worst, either they took libertines with the hull to fit the hardware or they started out with a bad scale representation to start with.
My Panzer 3 has some minor issues but nothing like this bulldog had. i built lots of models as a kid so this challenge make it worth while. Th big issue left is the tracks as no none make a under $200 dollars set of T91e3 tracks in metal.
AFV Aficionado narrowed all his in plastic which i will attempt after the hull is finished.

afv aficionado

Hi Rebel 1
I suspect the problem with the M41 is because HL were building a toy, not a model. They also tried to do it on the cheap, using their M26 components rather than build actual M41 parts - (M26 has 6 bolt hubs, vs M41 4 bolt hubs)- this is probably the reason for the fat tracks too (M41 road wheels are 25.5in X 4.5 in, M26 road wheels are 26in X 6 in). They did a similar thing with the Pan Tiger. The rear of the tank suffered, as did the overall height, because they used the standard gearbox, which is too tall - the Jadgpanther low profile gearbox is a better fitl.
Don't understand why they got the turret so wrong, both undersized & the wrong shape around the front, the bulge under the bustle being due to the gun elevation gear. The drivers periscopes are also hard to explain.
Having said all that the HL M41 is the only game in town - both Glencoe & 21st Century M41's being out of production and hard to find - so if you want it reasonably accurate, you've got a lot of work in front of you.

I wanted to replicate the RNZAC M41's - Early Construction - in service 1960-1985, but they are different again from the standard - Mid/Late Construction - welded M41, as they were built with more cast components. Very little has been written about them, Hunnicutt barely mentions them & the drawing is wrong in a couple of places. Doyle, Hughes & Mesko pretty much ignore them.

Contrary to what x19912 just posted, I haven't touched the tracks - that was Alan 123 - apart from adding What A Job to the track pads, which I think improves both the look & traction.

Mal

Rebel 1

Tracks and drive sprockets are the most difficult things to correct. The road wheels could be cast off of one correctly machined wheel. The hubs would be more difficult to replicate, but possibly one could be 3DP and used to cast multiple hubs at a fair price that is unless you have your own printer. Track are very tough to make as are the drive sprockets.