B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Yeah, like I said, *always* read the FAQ first!!! Haaaaa, OK, so prior evidence points out it's not what I actually said , don't use grease for break-in, it defeats the purpose, instead clean the gears then use an abrasive grinding compound ... guess we want a controlled grind to clean up all the factory imperfections first. Even though I will probably order the 3:1 gears & possibly 400 motors fairly soon, I'd still rather break in the current motor & gears the best way possible ... FAQ dictates that it seems there is some disassembly coming in the very near future before any more tank use.

~ Craig ~

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Hmmm, now I'm not so sure I'm doing what the FAQ says to do as far as using a lapping compound to break in the new gears, especially after reading a prior post by sevoblast (here) stating,
"While we're on that subject, suffice it to say I wince every time I see the 'break in' posts here. Valve lapping compound is a fine abrasive, designed to cut hardened steel and alloy valves. Some tooth pastes have fine abrasives in them also. Any time you are using an abrasive on your transmissions, the fine powder is getting not only on your gear teeth, but also on the gear shafts and bushings and 'breaking' them in also. Don't do it!! Take the new HL or Mato metal geared TU's, run them after a heavy oiling of the shafts and gear teeth for an hour in each direction and be done with it. You can NEVER get all the lapping compound out of your transmission with out special cleaners, and besides, the damage is already done. "

204sailor

B.A.D.A.S.S.,I agree with Bob (ETO armor) 100%.Lapping compound will smooth out the gear teeth faces,but you will open up the brass bushings at the ends of the gear shafts so that you will have
introduced a new problem.If you want to,break the boxes in with some light oil on the gears and bushings.At least you won`t have to worry about lapping compound residue under the gear shafts that
you would have to dismantle and strip down to clean.As for grease,I took a fellow N.E.A.D. members advice and bought a 2 ounce tube of a product called "Finish Line" ceramically enhanced grease
at a local bicycle shop.It costs $10.00 for the 2 oz tube ,but it goes a long way.They also have a website,www.FinishLineUSA.com.

Charlie

P.S.Just a disclaimer,I am not in the employ nor advertise this product for gainful means.

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Hello Wade, speaking of electronic upgrades, because I realized it will take a lot of thought, & even though I'm not at a point where I'm remotely ready to do any at all, I have already started looking into several possible packages for consideration. Those I've looked at so far are the SLU, El Mod, I.B.U., Mako, & DBC3 systems. I think that discussion will need a new thread on its own to keep the entire conversation focused & going in one direction for flow & comparison sake.

~ Craig ~

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Thanks Charlie, what I don't want is to introduce more problems when trying to solve others ... & WoW ... yet another choice to consider & add to the plethora of suggested gear lubricants ...

Man, so many different greases, so many different forums & members with various recommendations that worked best for them ... it's almost impossible to get just one good answer for this question, seems like I couldn't really go too wrong choosing any of the suggested brands & types. For these stock metal gears & tanks I'll probably just go with either the white lithium or Mobile1 red grease since it's readily available in my local shops to just go buy it off the shelf, & they are rather inexpensive for how much you get. I mean really, can anyone say firmly,"NO don't use either of those, horrible choices for your gears & you will be sorry, go with 'XXX brand' or nothing!"?

Now, when I upgrade & get better 3:1 gears with 400 or 480 motors in the near future, maybe I'll revisit this & try to nail down the one gear grease recommended by more 1/16 RC tankers than all the rest, maybe a survey is needed ... now that will be a project all in itself!

~ Craig ~

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

While I am waiting for my KV-1 to arrive (Matomart suggested it may be shipped to me this week), I had the Panther apart again & decided I was going to try a couple of the "easier" mods ... make the turret 360° & move the antenna to the inside.
> Wish me luck <

Would something like this from eBay work? Slip ring

~ Craig ~

FreakyDude

that slip ring might be a great idea. all the voltages and tech info goes beyond the requirements. it would have to be mounted in the center of the turret though. 

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

... already started FreakyDude, already started!

It certainly makes perfect sense, & would probably be best case scenario to center it perfectly, & that was my initial plan, however, I'm not sure it absolutely must be centered or not. I am actually going to first try placing it down into one of the side hull depression areas, as it fits perfectly there, & see if it will work. If not, then I'll do a more centered bracket.

~ Craig ~

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Started the process to get the turret turning 360° tonight.
Before cutting the wires & removing the turret ring gear, I marked the one black wire of the 3 wire group with tape (to avoid future confusion since there are 2 black wires) on either side of where I would cut these wires. I will add a 3 pin connector plug here which will connect to the slip ring.
I left the 7 wire group together for now until I can thoroughly test the setup. I will purchase a few 5 & 2 pin male / female connector plugs to mate everything up to the slip ring after I get the plugs.



I then cut the three wires & could removed the turret ring.


Here is the removed turret ring gear with the area circled that I will need to manually add a few teeth to allow the 360° turret rotation.


I actually used a 1/24 VSTank Tiger I turret ring gear as a sort of mask to cut the new teeth into the Panther's ring. Even though the total diameter was smaller, the few teeth I needed to add actually lined up very well to mask my cuts.
I used a straight edge one sided razor blade to notch the teeth out of the gear.


I wasn't too meticulous, & did this in less than 5 minutes ... ... but the finished Panther turret gear didn't turn out too bad, looks like this now.


I went ahead & put the turret ring gear back into the Panther, hooked up the turret wiring for preliminary testing ... good news , silky smooth 360° rotation working perfectly.
With the test of the new 360° turret gear working, I just need to get out & pick up all the wire plugs to connect the turret's 5 wire, 2 wire, & 3 wire groups down to the slip ring in wiring, & wire plugs to connect the slip ring out wires back to the RX-18 & up to the upper hull for the 3-wire connector.
I realize center bottom hull would be ideal for the slip ring, but I'm going to try the below location first, since it was easy & fits the slip ring perfectly. Right now it's just wedged in there pretty tight, but I'll secure it later if this next test passes!


For a quick test I just taped all the wires together from the turret to the slip ring in wiring, (looks sloppy as heck) ... here it is


and you know what ... the rotation tests went very well!

I first held the upper hull well over the tank & rotated 5 or 6 rotations. The slip ring & wiring spun perfectly with no binding at all. I then lowered the upper hull into what would be its running position & continued to rotate the turret 5 or 6 more full spins ... opened it up & the wiring was not twisted at all. So far it looks promising that this might just work ... I'm excited to get the plugs now & finish this, my first mod ever on any RC vehicle.

If this off-center location binds at all & just doesn't seem to allow totally free & easy 360° movement of the 10 wires going into the turret after I add all the plugs, then I guess I'll design a more centered bracket to hold the slip ring. I'm hoping this works well when I finish it up (tomorrow hopefully), because it is soooo simple!

mustclime

don't know how nuts you want to go but this guy does a lot of hl panther detailing on the cheap.......

http://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/forum...hp?f=22&t=8956

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Go nuts on detailing? Who me? Guess ya missed my "I wasn't too meticulous, & did this in less than 5 minutes" quote earlier, hint, hint, ha ha.

Yes, I have been following that thread for quite a while now, some great work. I love looking at the photos & admire it whenever someone uses all that time working on those kind of details. I may do some very light, very easy outside detailing on my Panther, but for now I'll be leaving most all the aesthetics & historical correctness detailing done on tanks to the more skilled modelers like jeff1101 on RCTW, yourself, & others here on RCU.

My main goal right now (& maybe for most of this year?) is to work on the running & battling aspects of my tank(s) first, before I start really doing any amount of finer detailing on the outside looks. That & actually being able to get them out & use them for what they were intended ... to battle! I'm more looking forward to the day when I'll get my KV-1 from Matomart & finally be able to have a battle between 2 of my own 1/16 tanks for the very first time. But while I was waiting for the KV-1 to get here, I figured I might as well start the ball rolling with the 360° turret on the Panther, then moving the real antenna to the inside to get it out of the way.

Which brings me to ask some historical questions ... when I search Google & look over the many real war photos with a Panther G in them, I've seen the command Panther G tanks with the multiple antennas, quite a few Panther G with the single antenna, but there also seem to be a large amount that do not show any antenna sticking up anywhere on the tank.

So was it typical for a Panther G to not have any antenna, or should most or all the Panther G types at least have the 1 back antenna like on this HL Panther G?

I'm really clueless about these kind of facts. The main gun barrel is so long, during actual combat, I'm assuming the antennas just bend out of the way as the turret rotated in full circle. Since I intend to move the RC operating antenna to the inside, if the consensus is that it should have a mounted antenna on the back in that spot, then I would try to figure out something to use in place of the metal antenna, & install a dummy antenna for looks ... something that would have less stiffness & bend more easily as to not restrict the turret movement & place unnecessary resistance on the gear & motor.

Anyone with any thoughts?

~ Craig ~

philipat

The HL antenna is too long and could be cut down without really affecting your range.  All tanks - WWII and modern - use external antennas.  However, HL's placement is inaccurate and was done to keep it in that "notch" where the turret can't rotate through.

ausf

The Tigers had antenna storage tubes on the deck, so I'd assume they were easily removable and if so, probably lost, not put up, etc.

When the crap hits the fan, I bet a lot of things go missing. I've read more than one account of using muzzle brake covers for latrines when it was too hazardous to venture out. I doubt that piece of gear ever made it back to it's original purpose.

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

So is this photo ( from a Tamiya kit build here: http://jbwid.com/art74f.htm ) a more accurate representation as far as the antenna size & location for a typical Panther G?

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

So being totally new to any type of upgrading for RC or small electronic stuff, I was disappointed that the local Radio Shack had absolutely nothing I could use in the way of quick connect plugs for my 360° turret wiring mod. I also have absolutely nothing in the way of old electronics or RC stuff where I could pillage connectors or anything when working on most any mod I would be doing in the future concerning these tanks. Really sad, isn't it?

I see by another thread that the RX-18 connectors are JST-XH type. I really won't need this specific type of connector to do other quick plug wiring connections inside the tanks that don't specifically connect to the RX-18.
Even with that said, I ended up ordering a bunch of JST-XH 2,3, & 5 position headers, housings, & pins from Digi-Key today anyway. At least I'll have some if or when I absolutely need them.

But I am wondering, what other types of quick connectors are good to use when working on the wiring inside these tanks?

Will I need to basically get all this type of stuff to use for modding these tanks by strictly ordering from various online places, or are there local US stores (big box, hobby stores, electronic shops, etc.) that I could actually go to for parts when messing with the wiring & electronics?

I can't finish the wiring for the Panther 360° turret until I can either go out locally & get some connectors, or the ordered parts come in from Digi-Key. I was hoping I would definitely have this mod already done by the time my KV-1 arrives.

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks for any input.

~ Craig ~

mustclime

just find a rc shop( cars/plains).....they tend to have a lof stuff likethat.

ausf

I know anything local to me is both limited and expensive. Digikey is my go to source, they have almost anything you need (as long as you know what you looking for) and shipping is by weight and fast. I can go to the local Radio Shack and get a couple of things in a pinch, but for any quality or specific components, especially connectors, it's DigiKey. I may have to wait 2 days to get it, but it's better and always cheaper, even with shipping.

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Yeah, thanks guys, it looks like Digi-Key is the way to go for connectors. My local hobby shops are very limited in what they had as far as connectors, & the price for all that I need for just one tank was priced out to over $16. With my Digi-key order I should be able to do 6-8 tanks for about the same price.

Digi-Key has already shipped my order placed earlier today, so I may even get it by Saturday, & this way all the connectors will be the JST-XH style like the rest.

~ Craig ~

philipat

yes to both questions. as i recall, antennas were about 2 m in length.

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Thanks. I think I'll add a fake antenna to that spot, then fill in the original area.

~ Craig ~

Panther F

Make sure it's a flexible piece so that the gun barrel can pass over it.










~ Jeff

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Made an internal antenna today.
I used 14 AWG solid core copper wire wrapped around an old plastic marker.


Desoldered the original connector ring & then soldered the connector wire to the antenna. Not a great looking job but seems to be connected well.


It fits nicely between the smoker exhaust tubes.

B.A.D.A.S.S.Force

Exactly Jeff, that will be my intention for the fake one, something that will flex out of the way easily enough to not place any strain on the gun & turret gear, but stiff enough to pop back into place.

Any ideas what would make a good material that I could make look like an actual antenna, would have easy enough flex qualities, but still be stiff enough to return to the upright position after being beat across by the gun barrel?

~ Craig ~

philipat

Use thin wire and put black heat shrink over it.  I recommend using the original HL wire that has been cut down.  Heat shrink will give it some stiffness and a realistic look of a military antenna.

Your internal antenna has a horizontal polarization when you put it straight up-down like it is in the photo.  Lay it on its side for a vertical polarization.  Generally you'll hold the transmitter more or less upright, which means it will create a predominantly vertically polarized signal.  Matching the two antennas will give you maximum range.

Panther F

Craig, I heard that a guitar string is perfect for this, and cheap too.

I used some carbon fiber and a real spring at the bottom on my Oddball Sherman. I need to check out the guitar string for it sounds easier and less chance of sagging like standard wiring would do, even with the heat shrink. I have a few tanks I need to add the antenna to because it really makes the tank look realistic AND in the correct position too.










~ Jeff