1qaz

My wife & I decided to give the 1/16 IR tank battles a try so we bought a Tamiya Sherman at the AAF tank museum gift shop. So far the build is going great, we have done everything up to step 19 and now we can drive the hull around the living room. The lighting harness that is included in our kit looks nothing like what the instructions are showing. Our harness has two bulbs and none of the super small bulbs for all the external lights on the tank.
Is it something we are missing or do I have the wrong lighting harness?
Larry & Brenda

Rad_Schuhart

Check for an extra piece of paper with the instructions for those lights inside your box or manual.. The light kit that you have are the ones that comes in the newer kits, just the manual is not updated.

BUT I must say the lights look cool, but are not enough to drive at night, so I suggest you to replace the front lights with 2, 3mm warm white leds, and the two read ones with 2 SMD red leds and not to waste not even a minute with the optic fiber that comes in the kit.

That way the lights will have an utility. If you do what your kit says, the lights are just not even far enough.

Green Amphibian

Larry, the lights in the kit are not worth messing with. Get the LED's as suggested and you will be much happier.

Herman

1qaz

Thank you guys for the input I did find the additional instruction sheet in the kit and I agree with both of you, the lights look pretty weak!

I think we will just press on with the build and worry about the lights later, so far it looks like we should be able to make the September AAF tank event.

Green Amphibian

I will look for you there. I should be there sometime on Friday.

Herman

1qaz

It's finally looking a bit like a Sherman, still some stuff to add. I am able to get the turret to work along with the gun elevation but still no machine gun or main gun firing. This tank stuff is complicated compared to airplane stuff!

Herman, we will try and be in Danville Friday evening which means if things go as planned Brenda & I will see you Saturday morning. It looks like we will need some help getting the rest of the IR & electrics working before our little Sherman is "battle ready".
See you there,

Panther F

I know Herman will get your Sherman guns working properly and you will have a blast there at the worlds largest battlefield!

As far as the lights I do agree with others on the front lamps NOT working but maybe have the rear lights to function as a column light. The Pershing has a function in it's MFU to simulate braking illumination so American tanks did work just not always with the front lamps on during battles.

MAUS45

Nice weathering!!!

1qaz

Thank you for the compliment MAUS45, that is a good looking Panther in your photo gallery. Was that a kit also?
It has been many years since I last put a plastic model together! As a kid I must have built almost all of the Tamiya 1/35 scale tanks and armor kits but that was back in the 70's.
I was kinda disappointed just a little with the lack of detail on the little Sherman, like the front drivers hatch not being able to open and a few other small things. I guess maybe Tamiya has made their 1/16 R/C tanks a little less fragile to withstand the "battle field"?

Panther F do you come all the way from Franklin IN to the Danville event? I agree with you about the set-up at the AAF museum, they have put a ton of work into their 1/16th scale battle field.

MAUS45

1qaz, thanks for your comments. The Panther G is a 1/18 21st Century I used as a paint mule to test my new airbrush and a new method to texture the armor plate.

Panther F

Hey Larry, I've only been to Danville twice (and yes, we drove there the 13 plus hours straight) so I'm no real expert about the battlefield like so many here are. But I do know if you love tanks (and sounds like you do) the place is all one ever needs. I mean sure, some guys here have some nice events in their state too, but the museum is a bonus there.

Sounds like you come from the same background of modeling I did as well... I cut my teeth on 1/35th Tamiya and Aurora tanks and just about had all their 1/35th wire remote controlled kits too. We built them and used them like battle robots after they were finished, then picked up all the pieces and repaired them. My favorite were the rubber-band tracked kits. They gripped the best on the table top at my friends house so it had an advantage.

The 1/16 Sherman was Tamiyas first large scale tank but was originally a program tank that ran a certain pattern, so it was more toy oriented and targeted for kids to easily assemble without too much detail. They just got lazy when they made it a full option RC and left it pretty much a blank slate but there are a lot of AM detail kits to help it some.

Let us know how things turn out with it!

Desertrat99

Ok,I am in he same dilemma with lights where can you get those LED lights?

Green Amphibian

This is one place to get them. I normally get them with the resister and pig tails already on them. LED Lighting, LED Replacement Bulbs, LED Light Bulb – HERO-LEDStore.com

Herman

Desertrat99

hi Herman,

went looking at site you listed. First link did not want to work, and then went looking for 3mm warm white LED and did search on site and it came up empty. Same for red. Unless I am doing something wrong with the search.

Desertrat99

Found this place?
3mm 9V Pre-Wired LED Warm Soft White Ultra Bright 16,000 mcd

Rad_Schuhart

Dont buy those pre wired ones! You will suffer a lot installing them into the tiny sherman headlights.

Just put on ebay or aliexpress "3mm warm white led" and you will have hundres of them for a dollar or so with free shipping.

About the rear lights, you should install SMD red leds. The sherman's rear lights are very tiny and a 3mm led wont fit.

You dont need any resistor.

Shark27

Here is a link for some LEDs, I have purchased several from them, they have SMD LEDs and smaller. They sell them pre-wired with the proper resistor, you can easily cut off the resistor run the wiring and then add the resistor back on. What no one mentioned is that you have to be careful soldering SMD LEDs, if they overheat while you are soldering the wire leads on, they will fail. If you are good with a soldering iron no problem, if not get the prewired LEDs.
Steve

Desertrat99

HEy Steve, Thanks for the link very helpful. For the headlights i would get the Nano LED and taillights would be Pico LED. On connecting them wired to the tank I would follow the light harness and wire up through the original wiring for the head and tail light?

Also it asks for voltage options?

Shark27

Desertrat99,
Check the voltage for the headlights and tail lights, the LEDs generally only need about 3.0-3.3 volts I believe the Tamiya wiring harness provides that voltage range but it has been quite a while since I did mine and I don't remember what the output was. That LED site offers 3 volt 5-12 volt LEDs so whatever the output they should have what is required just measure the output to be sure of what you need.

Steve