CountChocula

Due to the lack of light armored vehicles (shame on Tamiya and HL!), I've recently decided to try to put together a 250/9 from a 1/18th scale 21st Century 251/1 Hanomag. The version I'm going for is the "Neue" version since the 251 already comes with the straight up-and-down sides versus the more common angular shape. I'm realizing how much work is actually going to be involved to get this to look right. But, in the interest of just jumping in, I've started by first tearing the existing 251 down. I want to thank to "bullysys" whose half traffic projects on SCATS website (and this forum) have been gold to me along with all the helpful insights he's given me via emails. To properly tear down one of these half tracks, it's important to find all those hidden screws. So drilling was necessary in order to reach them. Once torn apart and gutted. I then removed the last 2 sets of wheels and the drive sprockets. This was necessary since the 250 only had 5 interleaved wheels and not 7 like the 251. The drive sprockets were then removed. What came next was the scary part of cutting off close to half of the rear compartment and at an angle that would more easily match the 250. I used an old school protractor to determine the angles to cut and got it as close as I could (lots of sanding in my future!). With the rear half removed, I then had to cut the rear idler wheels and raise them up a tad since they were even with the other wheels. This is as far as I've gotten on the project. I will be taking alot of time off during the holidays to work on this. I doubt it will be ready by the next DAK battleday in January, but possibly by the next. So much to do still from adding suspension/front steering, turret, rear and top deck, and the list goes on and on. More pics to come.

Dave

CountChocula

Oops! Sorry about the huge pics! This should be better!

edoubleaz

My Feedback: (1)

another "simple" conversion for the DAKbattlefield. Brings a tear to me eye!

CountChocula

I was able to work on the sprockets tonight.

Following bullysys lead, I cut off the existing teeth off the sprockets and used a 1/8" thumb drill between where the teeth were and deepend the holes.
I then used a small round file to bore the holes out wider to accept the HL Panzer III tracks guide teeth. It will work like the T-34 tracks/sprocket using using the track guide teeth for grip.
I haven't secured the sprockets to the gearbox yet, but I slid them on gearbox to see how it will align using the existing gearboxes spacers. Looks like it may work out of the box with just minor adjusting. I'm hoping to avoid cutting the shafts if I can.
Next step will be to cut out the floor and mount the gearbox.

Dave

CountChocula

For some reason, I can only upload one pic at a time... so here's another.

CountChocula

Try again!

CountChocula

...more...

Captain Action

Looks like a vary interesting project, where did you get the gear box from??

CountChocula

The gearbox came off of one of those 1/18th scale New Century PZIV's.

Captain Action

Ya lost me...I dont know that product...did a serch and got nada..

CountChocula

Sorry... I think it's the New Millennium Panzer IV. They're 1/18th scale and were RC. People have posted about them here on the forums in the past.

ksoc

It was the old 21st Century Panzer IV.

Tamiya Sherman shown for scale.

ksoc

sorry, posted all three photos at the same size, and this is what I got????

Captain Action

OK i see now, Tamiya makes a twin-motor gear box, will that work too or is it too weak a drive system.?.

CountChocula

I have one of those Tamiya twin motor drive gearboxes and considered using it at one time. But, from what I've read on this forum and in other places, they tend to be a little weak with the gears prone to slipping/grinding. The one I'm using came out of a 1/18th scale tank already so it should be up to the challenge. The gears are thicker and it's a more solid gearbox overall.

I may use that Tamiya one in another light tank project someday down the road.

Dave

Rex Ross

I have used (tried to use) all of those inexpensive gear trains that Tamiya has. They are not very strong and make a lot of noise. The motors didn't last long and have no torque. They may be great for a lot of things, but I have found them to be unsatisfactory for anything that an R/C tank would need.

Rex

sassgrunt

My Feedback: (1)

What about the forward-reverse gearbox that comes with the "basic" King Tiger from Tamiya? Has anyone ever tried to use one of them for anything? I don't know how fast or slow it goes, but it's at least designed to move the mass of a tank - it ought to be sufficient for a halftrack. The axle runs straight across to power both sprockets at the same time, so you'd obviously have to rely on the front wheels for steering, (although from what I understand, the longer the run of tracks; the more the vehicle would want to go in a straight line - steering wheels or not).

-Mike

tigertiki

Hi, did you see this ?
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1091499
The differential might be a better ideea
Regards

ksoc

Here is a link that some of the new guys may not have seen - Merle's (bullyhys) German Skdfz 251Halftrack.

He tried both the 21st Century and Tamiya Gear boxes.

http://web.mac.com/ksoc/Special_Proj..._PakWagen.html

CountChocula

I was able to work on the 250 last night. I measured and cut out the foward
portion of the floor in order to mount the gearbox. I had to also notch out the
area where the sprockets are mounted since they are mounted higher than the road
wheels. I'm still fine tuning the cut in order to be sure the gearbox is
straight and the sprockets are at the proper height.

CountChocula

An inside view!

CountChocula

Ok... a more progress today. I went ahead and "temporarily" mounted the gearbox in place and put on the tracks.
I had to do some cutting inside the body since the PzIII tracks are a little wide.
I'll cover the "holes" later from the inside. I went ahead and put a 3.5 cell pack on it and just wired
the motors up to see how it would perform. I checked (and ended up modifying) one of the sprockets but all-in-all,
I was impressed as it moved across the carpet and floor with ease never throwing a track or slipping a sprocket tooth.

CountChocula

One more!

1sgt

Count,
Looks pretty cool. I wonder if it would perform well with metal PZ III tracks? Maybe give it some more weight?? Just a thought. I have been following very closely, as I have thought of the same conversion. Yours seem to coming along nicely.


Jim

CountChocula

Jim,

I had considered metal tracks at one point, then thought the plastic ones may be best for a couple of reasons. Metal tracks may wear down the plastic sprockets more quickly since they're modified to use the tracks guide teeth. I also thought slipping could possibly occur more with metal tracks with these bored out sprockets as well. I'm actually trying to keep the weight down as much as possible since I really don't know how durable the gearbox is as well. I suspect it would do just fine though.

Are you considering a 250/9 as well? I had thought of the 250/7 with the short barrelled 75mm L/24.

Dave