Day 2: Fitting the new turret, gun elevation and gun "breach". The new turret was not a direct drop in and some fitting and alining was needed. I spent a bit of time trying a few different approaches to achieving smooth operation and fit as the turret would of course be the center piece of the build. If it did not work well then there was no need to move forward. I used some simple plastic strips to mock up correct fitment, market what was going to need attention and made the modification. I lucked out and got it right on the first try, the measure twice cut once rule.

Once I had the turret fitted and working I went right into the next phase which was installing the elevation and barrel "breach". For this I used the stock parts from the original T72 turret. The problem was they did not have the correct mounting points to just drop into the new donor turret. This was a bit of a set back but not one hard to overcome. I simply made new mounting bracket for the elevation motor/gearbox to attach to. This made it easy to adjust for the more forward position the "breach' needed to be located in the new turret. It also allowed me to adjust for added barrel depression more easily over the stock T72 turret.

A side note here. I did not add barrel recoil at this time as it is not high on my list of important features as it usually can not be enjoyed from more than 10-15ft away. My tanks are more then often further away then that from me during use. I did though leave the room for it should I wish to add it at a later time.


Setting the turret fitment to aline the turret & "gear" ring depth with the turret rotation gearbox gear.


New elevation mounting bracket, elevation motor and "breach" locations. The airsoft motor and gearbox section of the "breach" were removed prior to final assembly.