Captain Nemo12

Hey guys!

Time for me to show you what I have been up to during the past week .

I've always wanted a T-34/85 ever since I started this hobby. Since the only 1/16 RC version was made by WSN at the time, it was hard for me to find one for a reasonable price, Mato did not have them in stock, and e-Bay sellers demanded crazy prices for them. So my only options were to either buy one second hand, or to convert the static Trumpeter 1/16 kit to RC. The latter choice seemed feasible, but I did not like the idea of not using the incredible interior detail that came with the kit. However, after I consulted with the experts here on RCU, I found out that there was an American company, Merit International, who sold a static display version of the original WSN model. This is essentially the RC version, without the RC stuff installed. This was perfect, since I planned to use the Clark TK-22 as the control board anyways.

I'd like thank sassgrunt here on RCU for helping me getting this build started. Since the Merit kit did not come with the motors or drive gears in the gearbox, Mike graciously offered to send me one of his WSN gearboxes a turret rotation unit, and even a spare turret with various parts! Thanks again Mike, this build wouldn't have been possible without your help!

Alright, lets check out what's in the box:

Initial Impressions:









The paint job looks very well done, it looks like a slightly more weathered version of the WSN model. I opened the hull to see what was inside:


No WSN electronics here! The gearbox was installed but without motors or drive gears. Luckily, the suspension was intact!


Merit did keep the important drive sprocket gears however, this saved a lot of time with the build!

Onto the turret, the recoil and elevation units were absent. The folks at Merit simply used a block of double-sided tape to counter balance the weight of the gun barrel:

Captain Nemo12

Lower Hull and Painting:

I started by removing some of the original plastic and set about strengthening the lower hull. After much sweating, sanding, and swearing, this is what I ended up with:



Since I had the hull and turret parts disassembled, I decided to give the tank a new paint job. I started by filling in the speaker and volume switch holes and sanding the putty smooth:



Tamiya spray was expensive, the 3 cans of German grey that I used for my Panzer III build cost me nearly 30$![X(] I do not have an airbrush so I decided to use Painter's Touch hunter green. This was a much cheaper alternative and it gave me a very good result:



One of the problems with the WSN tub was that the plastic was much thinner than the standard HL hull, which resulted in a lot of flex. I fixed this epoxying a few layers of styrene and making a base:



Here's the layout of the battery, speaker and gearbox:





I also strengthened the stock suspension arms by filling in the gaps with baking soda and superglue. Unfortunately, the people at Merit seem to have glued down the center caps on the wheels, this made accessing the screw that held the two wheel halves together impossible... unless I drilled through the center cap. Dang it, I really wanted to add some bushings to the wheel axles. All hope is not lost however, with the future release of the HL T-34, I'm hoping that I can upgrade the suspension and wheels later with some metal upgrades. For now, this will have to do.

The suspension and road wheels are put back together:



I also built a sealed speaker box to give the sound more bass:



Speaker installed!





More later!

Nate

Devildog0341Va

Great work so far. I have always wanted a T-34, just to much on my plate right now. looking foward to seing this build.

Jim

Martellus

Looks great so far, are you planning metal wheels? If so, where are you getting those from? Just a heads up also, the rc t-34s also have the caps glued on unfortunately, in case you planned on getting any.

YHR

Looks good so far. I have a Sherman on the bench right now, but as soon as that is done, I will be tackling a T-34 76, so seeing another T-34 being fitted out is inspiring.

Panther F

Yep, you're right Dan. Very inspiring.

I have one left now to build so my Dual Build has become a single now. But when the HL T34 comes out I'm sure there will be a BIG rush of the Russian tank being built. So much for our WSN projects.

This one has a big start already and it's looking good!














~ Jeff

Captain Nemo12

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Here's more progress!

Mounting the Electronics:

I've thought about various ways of mounting the Clark board to the hull, the TK-22 features 3 mounting holes for 2mm screws, but I did not like the idea of screwing and unscrewing the board every time I needed to remove it (pure laziness). I wanted a quick and easy way of getting things out, so I turned to Velcro.

I first secured the board to a styrene base, vertical styrene supports were CA'd onto the side of some of the connectors:





Self-adhesive Velcro squares were glued to to the bottom of the base...



...and the board is then mounted on the bottom hull:



The receiver is mounted vertically in a similar fashion:





I used a Futaba 75Mhz 7-channel receiver, so the antenna was quite long. Using some parts scavenged from a printer, I attached the antenna as follows:





I built a small styrene frame with a base and glued it on the switch, which is then attached to the lower hull via double-sided tape:



L-brackets were built around the battery to further strengthen the hull:



Here's an overall view of the internals:



I mounted the tracks back on as well. Not sure if I should repaint the tracks in flat black, I'm worried that under continuous running on pavement and dirt, the paint would eventually wear off... We shall see.





One thing I'm loving about this build so far: SPACE! The T-34 hull is very roomy, I tried to mount everything as low as possible to avoid interference with the turret traverse hardware nonetheless. Here's a view into the hull from the turret ring:





More to come!

Cheers,

Nate

bigfiver69

I want to do this build as well, with the 76 1942 turret (I have one from the Trumpeter kit!)

I had no idea there was a Merit kit of this... so much easier than hunting down a WSN, and far cheaper!

Shep

Lincs Winks Wayne

Hi:
I looked at the Merit site and it seems you have to spend $450.00 to make your first order.
I also was wondering if they had any other 1/16 tanks but I do not see how to find a general listing.
It also seems you have to deal over the phone is this correct.
I am glad to see your thread on the TK-22, I am about to start the wiring for my T-55 with TK-22 and feel a little lost, know I have something to look at.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Wayne

Captain Nemo12

Hi Wayne,

I bought my T-34 off Squadron, back in January it was on sale for for 53$. With shipping to Canada the tank came out to be about 68$.

https://www.squadron.com/product-p/mil86002.htm

Lincs Winks Wayne

Captai Nemo (???)


Thanks for the info, glad to meet another Canadian on RCU. There is a bunch of us here in Fort Erie at the Can-Am RC Tank Club, if you find the urge to travel this way contact me and come see us.
I see you list a submarine we have one guy who is big into Subs and tanks.
Show lots of pictures of your TK-22 wiring,I can use all the help I can get.
I enclose a picture of my Hooben T-55 without the electronic guts. A few more parts and I will start. ( Keep ahead of me though)

Wayne

Lincs Winks Wayne

I lost the picture

Captain Nemo12

Thanks Wayne!

Glad to know that there are other RC-submariners out there! I know that there is a big RC-sub annual gathering in Ottawa but I have not attended one yet. I will definitely check out the Can-Am club next time I'm in Ontario.

As for the TK-22 wiring, fear not, I know that the Clark setup guide looks a bit overwhelming at first sight but trust me, this board is essentially plug and play! I will be doing a tutorial video on Youtube later this month to help newbies and first time TK-20/22 users set up their boards.

That T-55 looks like it's been through hell and back! Very well done!

Cheers,

Nate

Strato50

This is inspiring, I like it! I might just order a hull myself...

Lincs Winks Wayne

What exactly are you using as a tutorial guide.I looked at their web site and the one there is for converting Heng Long.

Wayne

Captain Nemo12

Correct, I did use their website. However, all you really need are the HL cables. My guess is that the Hooben turret traverse unit simply has a positive and negative terminal? I'm actually using servo elevation and servo recoil for my T-34 and I would recommend you to use servos as well, it's just so much simpler mechanically!

Curtis (FreakyDude) from Immortal Hobbies is also very helpful, he sells the complete HL cable set on his website, PM him and he should be able to set you up. You also need an HBU/TBU unit and a Sony remote to program the board. Don't worry though, the programming is extremely simple as I will show later.

Nate

Captain Nemo12

Hey guys,

More progress has been made:

Lower Hull Completed!

There was a slight curvature in the rear edge of the lower hull due to hull flex, I straightened this by gluing on a styrene brace. This also allowed me to mount some Velcro strips to attach the upper hull. I've thought about using a rare-earth magnet to help hold down the hull like I did with my Panzer III build... However, I imagine the sound file and programming data is stored on the TK-22 using some sort of flash/magnetic memory, so I'm not sure if the strong magnetic field of the magnet will affect this. Anyways, Velcro does a great job for now:





I glued on some styrene lips on the front upper hull, these will slip into the space in the front lower hull and create a secure connection:





Hull halves assembled:





Not sure if I will install a smoke unit in this tank yet, if I do it will likely be a custom made one since the the stock HL unit tends to burn out often. In any case, I drilled out the holes for the exhaust tubing:



Turret Traverse:

I also installed the turret traverse unit:



More pics to follow!

Nate

Captain Nemo12

More progress to report!

Recoil Mechanism:

Probably one of my favourite parts of this build, I had a lot of fun designing and building this. The idea is simple,I added a brass tube to the stock barrel, this then goes inside an aluminum collar, which lets the gun slide in and out smoothly and prevents side wobbling:







A horizontal styrene channel is then constructed at the end of the barrel (the vertical styrene pieces prevent barrel rotation), you'll see why...







A ball joint roller salvaged from my RC helicopter rotor head is then screwed on the recoil servo arm:



... and the whole mechanism comes together!











Gun Elevation:

The advantage of using the servo elevation function, simple straight forward!

First off, the obligatory 360 turret rotation mod:



Elevation servo in place, the other end of the linkage goes on the ball mount on the side of the gun recoil base.



My turret mechanism completed!













Video of the mechanism in action coming soon!

Nate

9nene

very good job , nice

MAUS45

Nate, your recoil design will be copied by me. It is simple and compact. Thanks for sharing this as I was wondering how I could do this in my T-34/85!!!

YHR

Recoil and Elevation looks well done. I like the effort you put in to round the corners on the styrene work.

I guess you have to remove the elevation linkage, and re- assemble when you mount the turret back to the tank, connecting the linkage back up from underneath.

ausf

This is a great option. Excellent work.

I too have the Trump kit I was going to convert eventually, using this lower might be the way to go. How are the tracks?

Captain Nemo12

Thanks! Feel free to use this design, you can also grease the sliding part of the barrel to prevent wear on the metal parts.

Yes, I do have to remove the elevation linkage before disassembling the turret. I experimented by putting the elevation servo at various places in the turret and different linkage lengths to achieve the best elevation angle. The servo arm travel arc cannot be programmed with the TK-22... I had to make sure that the top of the recoil servo does not hit the ceiling of the turret at full gun depression and does not hit the elevation servo at full gun elevation. The location in the pics was the best choice.

The tracks are on-par with the HL plastic tracks, the plastic looks to be durable and pretty solid. I'm considering a metal track upgrade in the future, we'll see.

Nate

YHR

Rather then use grease I would suggest graphite powder as a lubricant. Grease becomes a trap for dirt, and problems later.

Panther F

I believe it's safe to use a plastic safe grease, unless you drive around with all the windows open.

Graphite powder is something you use where it can be re-applied easily as it doesn't stay put like grease does. Also, areas that are exposed to the elements.


Pretty ambitious project here!














~ Jeff