Originally Posted by
jarndice
Idler adjusters (Track Tensioners) for the Panzer4 are a very good idea and I have fitted them to all my PZ4s BUT any study of photographs of Panzer 4s in the field show that many Tanks ran with the tracks quite loose,
What has to be remembered is that in service the PZ4s max Highway speeds were approx 35/42 Kmph (20/28Mph) and far slower off road so throwing tracks was not a common occurance,
Our 1/16 Tanks throw tracks because we run them with the original Heng Long/Taigen/Torro Gearboxes which are not scale unless you really think slot car speeds are normal for a WW2 Medium Tank,
It makes removing/replacing tracks easier if you fit Idler adjusters but if you don't "Fight" your Tank then running it without should not be a problem.
Plastic/ABS Hulls are fine with a plastic body and metal turret as long as some reinforcement is fixed to the side of the hull.
I cut out the battery box to provide more internal space but that is just me,
The advantage of making extra space is that you can fit a wider choice of control boards/receivers/smokers/sound cards all because you can fit much smaller battery's with the same output such as Li-Pos/Li-ions,
Coating the floor of a plastic hull with epoxy resin will add more rigidity.
I think you're right about the idler and sprocket wheels on the PZ German site not being as aligned up as straight across as the US version. Also about the V3 boards and its anti-tank recoil - the US (not the German version) has it as well, plus it's less $$ which is always nice (don't get a nice wooden box with it though) and I've come around to really liking the white winter metal camo of it and the turret and barrel is steel as well.
What I'm going to do (if I have enough width in it), is take out the stock 3 - 1 gears and 380 motors and replace them with the 4 - 1 gears and 390 motors in order to smoothly slow it down.a bit. The 4 -1 is slower than the 3 -1 but has more torque so that's good - it just has to fit and if it doesn't then I'll have to just wait a bit and rely on an Elmond and maybe some chains, etc. to do the job. I'm already painfully aware of how fast and 'zippy' most of these standard issue tanks are and don't know why (other than cost?) why they're outfitted with them.
Unfortunately, the 2nd 1/16 scale WWII tank I already have my eyes on (Sherman 76) won't take anything else except its stock 3 -1.
I checked out 5 different major tank co.s including the two Taigen sites and not a single one, whatsoever, has any torsion bar adjusters, track tensioners, or idler adjusters for the TAIGEN Pz4, only for the Heng Long's and those are plastic and probably don't do the best job on a TAIGEN. So, what I'll do instead is lubricate as many of the gears and bearings with a thicker lubricant and spray the more difficult to reach bearing's with a high quality spray lubricant can with a short flexible plastic straw for the rest, where I can. The rest will just have to last as long as possible.
Cutting out the plastic middle hull portion of the battery compartment is ingenious. Is that what you mean by "making more room"? Also, heating and melting your own resin to help attach items in your tank; that's also what you mean, right?