Aimee and I are definitely in!

If anyone's interested, here's a post action report from the last battleday with regard to my tanks. My Jagdtiger's right track wouldn't move during it's third battle. It's backup, my Tiger II ran, but was less than optimal, due to persistent intermittent power failures (usually when I was getting shot). Upon disassembly, I found the following:

As to the Jagdtiger, it turns out that I blew out a right transmission. The failure was with the plastic hex insert, which stripped (lost its hex shape, and is now somewhat round) right where the plastic gears meshed with the metal ones. I've decided I'm done purchasing Tamiya transmissions to replace stripped gears. My solution was that the Tamiya transmissions have been removed, and a new set of Impact transmission units were installed with Graupner 480 motors pushing them. Should be very powerful and very durable.

While it was open, I upgraded the battery from 1 4200 NiMH to twin 3500 NiMHs. Should be able to go for three or four battles without charging now. I also replaced all the track hangers (Wecohe brand) which would often break due to the metal being very brittle (they pretty much crumble instead of bend). Basically, one would break every time I turned the superstructure over on its side. The new hangers are homeade out of steel. Higher strength, and they bend, rather than break. I did milliput simulated welds around where all the track hangers mount. Last night, it all got to dry. Tomorrow night, (Not tonight, due to a "honey do", which is to assist with cleaning of the chandelier (Who in the heck cleans those things?! Nobody I thought, that is until I got married...)) I'll break in the transmissions, bundle up the wiring, and touch up the paint job.

My Tiger II had some intermittent power problems (actually, it has always had them since I built it). Basically, it would lose power during operation, and then suddenly power back up immediately. Generally it happened for no more than a half-second to a full second at a time. The shut downs seem to happen when the tank gets bumped, usually during recoil (it has the Wecohe recoil upgrade in it) or during traverse of rough terrain. I surmised that it was classic symptoms of a loose connection. In my opinion, it could only have been the battery, the homeade charge on/off circuit (to include wires), the MF unit, or the DMD unit.

To begin, I focused on my homeade stuff as I considered the other possibilities to be less likely (quality control was probably better than mine). I replaced all my wiring and the charging on/off switch circuit. I ran it after making the repair, and it immediately began losing power just like before. My next act was to replace the battery with a new 4500 battery. Again, I ran it on the bench, but this time it had no power loss. I ran it for about 15 minutes, and could not get it to malfunction. Therfore, I think the old battery had a battery bar loose, or a wire loose, and would separate from contact intermittently when jostled about. It'll have to run a few battledays before I call it fixed and trust it.

Aimee's Tigers ran great (as usual)... with no breakdowns.