ausf

I'm glad I orederd mine early then. Hasn't shown up yet, but left HK on the 4th. I guess it's taking the slow plane...

mordock999

WOW! THAT Was QUICK!

TheBennyB

Yup, looking forward to your progress to see if these are just to make it a motorized model or if they can handle IR battle conditions.

ausf

Got mine today and hooked everything up for a test.

This kit is superb. The quality is excellent, think Benedini or El Mod over HL. The two boards are well assembled and in static proof bags, a far cry from the bag of RX-18s with sticky tape.

Interesting approach to gearboxes and recoil, but again, it's quality stuff, all laser cut steel, The gearboxes are layered sheet steel, I don't know what's inside the final drives but the way it's sandwiched, I'd say it's tight and safe. I'm not sure how much weight they would handle but the 38(t) is pretty light. Metal tracks may be too much for it, I have no idea because I've never seen a design like this to compare. There's the pinion, then a bevel gear that drives the final. When I first opened it up, I thought the final gears needed to be installed since they aren't visible.

Directions are well done too, everything is clear and the kit includes everything needed. I'm very happy with this, I think it will creep to the top of the list once the Kubel is painted.

The directions mention an available gun stabilization unit for it using channel 5, that would be amazing.

Green Amphibian

The burning question is, will it have the capability for IR battle?

Herman

ausf

If you put a Rx-18/DBC and Benedini in, yes. I was going that route originally when I bought the robot motors for the model. I came up against finding a gear big enough for rotation and shelved it in lieu of other projects. The turret setup is nicely thought out and could directly connect to the DBC/Benny. The only question is whether you want to spend $180 for this kit, then another $210 just to replace the kit electronics.

If you're going Hetzer for IR, I wouldn't buy this. Robot gearboxes, DBC/Ben, a few servos and you're done.

I'm really happy with this, but in reality, I doubt I'd battle a light so setting it up for IR isn't a priority.

The pins are the exact same size as the music wire I used on the one half of tracks I did a while back. Precut is definitely welcome. I haven't looked at them in months and had another once-over. Even though they are plastic, the connections are solid, pinned straight across, spreading the load well. I gave the whole assembly a good tug, I mean I pulled with some force and in my opinion they'll be fine. I'll do some testing when I get to building this, but I'd be more worried about the metal tracks on styrene sprockets than these breaking under the small load the 38(t) will be (slab o resin Hetzer is another matter).

macnjam

I am building one of these as well with the 35rctank kit. Mike and Marty of SEAD have found that the tamiya tiger 1 road wheel tires are a perfect fit to the 38t wheels. I am going to try the asiatam hetzer tracks with this and will advise how the gearbox and drive sprockets hold up. The kit tracks with metals pins are suprisingly strong but the proccess of drilling out 168 or so links would probably make me insane and blind so I am going metal track route. Marty told me mato is making metal sprockets and tracks sometime this year.

My kit is pretty much done with mechanical part. As to battling the clark tk35 seems to be the ticket.

Joe

bowlman

35rctank has no plans at this time to make a IR system for any of there tanks I asked last year for the Leopard 1A4 and they said no for even 1/35 and 1/16 tanks.

Jimmy

bowlman

Now after you do the 38 T you could buy a second and make the 38T Katzchen prototype APC something a little different .

http://mainly28s.com/odds/Katzchen.htm 38T Variants http://henk.fox3000.com/38t.htm

Jimmy

herrmill

Thought you gents may like watching this test video from that appeared on FB today. Its supposedly the first completed conversion Down Under.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kobMHMMYFQM&sns=em

DirtyBird69

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tE_3NZ1D78

ausf

That guy really doesn't like turrets, huh?

bowlman

When the kit from 35rctank comes back in stock may have to look at maybe a better gear for the turret drive .

Jimmy

ausf

The main selling point on this for me was the turret setup. I couldn't find an appropriate sized gear and didn't want to go with a servo/friction type of thing. If you're planning on switching that out or are suspect of it's design, there's no way you're going to want to use the drive gears. If you want IR as well, there's really no reason to get this kit since you'll be replacing most of it.

A couple of robot gearbox motor setups, a Clark or DBC/Benedini and some servos and you're in business. That was my original plan, but this came along before I could hit the bench and it's pretty nice.

bowlman

Well have to see I like the 35rctank kit started this thread cause I was impressed with what I seen on there web site they made some 1/16 tank turret rotation systems for me back in 2009 I got one in a Tamiya Porsche Turret KT and 2 more for the older Tamiya Shermans .

Jimmy

modeltank

Just for thoughts and simple discussion:
If this tank were to have IR (tamiya IR standard) and able to do IR tank battling:
Does it really make sense that this tank is able to take out a M26?

Realistically, this is a light tank, even set at LIGHT (reference to Tamiya MFU), does it make sense it is able to survive 3hits from a heavy tank?

Of course, it won't matter if this is not taken into realistic account during IR tank battles

macnjam

Little update on mine. I have the 35rctank kit completed and have used Asiatam metal Hetzer tracks. With a little light sanding of the drive sprockets to be sure they are "sharp" the tracks work great. I also used a axel to replace the rear idlers and Tamiya Tiger 1 rubber tires on the road wheels. I will post pictures soon.

Also, waiting on a tk35 from Curtis @ Immortal Hobbies which is in the mail. That supports servo turret rotation and also the tamiya battle unit. So it should be the solution for this to make it battle worthy. From what i can see it should be "plug and play" with the 35rctank hardware. The tk35 is 1.9" x 1.5" inches in size. I am getting the panzer 3 variant, assume that clark will make a 38t version at some point.

Joe

bowlman

Joe great ideal the TK35 for a battle system after you get it working let us see how you wired it up .

Thanks
Jimmy

ausf

Looking forward to that mod Joe, I'll follow in your footsteps.

I'm in the process of casting new roadwheels for mine. I bashed a kit wheel inner and a Tiger outer so the rubber tires will slip on. I also changed the axle size on the road wheel and suspension arm to accommodate brass sleeves and bolts as well as beefing up both the arms and wheels.

macnjam

My road wheels and arms are stock. I plan to modify them to use bearings eventually but for now they are working ok. That said the 38t was apparently a very reliable tank so if my road wheels fall off that would not be "historically correct" so I guess I will need to find the time to do this....

macnjam

All, update on my 38t project. I have since received the kit from 35rctank.com and installed it. Unfortunately, as the pictures below document, I ran into big problems with the gearbox. In my view the gearboxes are ok for flat smooth surfaces but over rough terrain you will have a failure. In my case the star gear failed (see picture). I think these gearboxes are designed for 1/35 tanks and won't in their present form handle even a small 1/16. Note I am using Asiatam metal Hetzer tracks which clearly accelerated the failure but in my view they would have failed within 15 minutes not 5 as I experienced in outdoor running. The positive is that the kit is otherwise fabulous and the turret/servo electronics are very easy to install. I am sending the gearboxes back to 35rctank (he is refunding the cost) so he can analyze them. Good guy.

My solution to the gearbox problem was to move the gearboxes from a 1/25 tamiya panther kit (Mike of SEAD not my idea) to the 38t. I put mine in front and used the stock sprockets. So far they are holding up and I think they will until metal sprockets are releases by Mato for the Hetzer later this year.

The next step is to finish the install of the Clark tk35 I received yesterday that will make this battle worthy. As of last night I had the motors, sound, turret rotation/elevation/recoil servos all hooked up. Tonight I should have the TBU wired and will be able to battle test it. I will post a video when that is done. I plan to take this to danville for the May 16 event so if it holds together that will be fun!

Here is a link to a video of a test using the 35rctank gearbox and electronics. It seems to run smoother with the clark tk35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V8UYVVyWJw

MAUS45

Do you think 35rctank would sell this kit minus the control boards and gear boxes as I plan on using a TK35 and my own gear boxes as well?

macnjam

Yes, I think he would do that. Seems like a reasonable guy to me.

MAUS45

Thanks Mcnjam, I will e-mail 35rctank, What is his name? How are the Asiatam Hetzer tracks? Do you have a photo of the track pins?

bowlman

Maus45 if he will sale the kit minus the control board let us know .

Thanks
jimmy