Greeting all. I have a Hobby Engine M1A1. It has been completely upgraded with ElMod (installed by Phil), New Transmissions( installed by Phil) , Wheel Spacers, Kenny King M1A1 tracks, you get the idea. I am utilizine the Recoil unit what came with the tank. The recoil is not perfect, however it works fine and has saved major turret modifiactions. I am looking at upgrading motors, speeding it up to scale speed and putting a battle unit in it so I can have some fun. What I need to know is, is it possible to get a flash unit down the barrel without tearing up the recoil unit. The recoil and that silly "bullet Shooting system, are all connected and I can't seem to get anything past the stopper that launches the round. I've thought of usina a lons thin deill bit and drilling through part of that plate so I can thread the wires through. Any ideas here short of redoing the entire system?

No, it is not possible. The barrel is a part of the actual firing mechanism of this tank. Sorry. Should have asked that question before the build up.<div> I am going to use a Tamiya Leopard barrel for my Leo, Don't know what I'm going to do with my M1 just yet. Most likely will have to build something out of tube of different sizes. This has been the single biggest hurdle with these tanks for me. Decent recoil and flash for main gun.</div>

I've not done one of these tanks, but I did modify a tamiya Leopard 1A4 and it had a one piece barrel which had no recoil at all. I cut the barrel inside the turret and made an extension on it so I could tie it into a recoil unit. I have done this on several builds with success. All you need to do is add a piece of brass or plastic tubing to extend the barrel and keep its correct length while still using a recoil system. Hope this helps.

By simply extending this barrel does not fix the issue. You still can not feed a flash lead through the stock barrel at all. The gun barrel ios a part of the firing mech in it self. You would need to bore straight throught the entire barrel with a long drill bit and while your doing it have some glue on hand to glue it all back together once your done cracking it all to hell while drilling. <div> Ask me how I know LOL.
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LOL! Ok, I won't ask.

Would it be feasible to cut a notch on the underside, down the length of the barrel, to hide the wire in for the flash? Cut just behind the muzzle brake to install it in it and glue it back on. Just a thought anyway.

Herman

Herman, you know that just might work. Ihave an extra barrel somewhere I can experiment on. Putty is a good friend LOL.

Glad to be of some kind of help to someone anyway!

Herman

IIRC both the Leo and the M1A1 use the same 120mm Rhinemettal cannon, don't they? So couldn't you take an aftermarket barrel for the Tamiya, one of YHR's cool new "HL Elevation motor recoil units", and have what you wanted? That is to say, get rid of the stock barrel and recoil mechanism, replace it with an aftermarket barrel and HL recoil of some description, and run the flash unit that way? In fact, why not order the barrel sprue for the Tammy Leo from Karen and use that? Ithink it'd work...


Andrew

Thanks for the input. It's all food for thought. I would love to battle it at Danville. I've thought about that, the only problem is that the turret itself has a solid bottom so if I did install the HL recoil or even stripped it all out and replaced it all with Tamiya recoil and elevation I don't think the elevation would have room to work. YHRput a flash in his Hobby engine LEO. What I don't know is if he changed out the barrel etc, or, figured out how to get the wires down the bore of the gun.

The gun assembly on the tamiya Leo is quite complicated with a lot of parts. They don't all come from the same sprue either if memory serves.<div> I looked into that. the elevation and recoil unit is all one integrated assembly that you need to build. Could be done I'm sure but a little expensive.</div><div>Yes thats right YHR did get a flash in his barrel. We will have to see how he did it but the Tamiya Leo barrel could be used for the M1 you would just need more parts for it because the aluminum barrel does not have the bore evacuator bulge on it. It is a part on a sprue , not sure which one at this time, same with the bore deflection sight. Can't remember the actual name.</div><div>So it can be done , it just takes a little creativity.</div>

You know, a guy brought one of these M1A1's into the hobby shop where Iworked over Christmas. Ihad it appart and Iagree, a standard HL recoil setup (and likely the Tammy as well) will not fit withough quite a bit of modification. However Ido seem to recall there being enough room for an Asiatam Tiger/Pz IV recoil/elevation/flash unit. It would take some scratchbuilding, but I think it could be done. The benefit of the Asiatam is it's very low profile and the elevation all happens internally, nothing breaks the plain of the turret ring. More food for thought

Andrew

I have a Hobby Engine Abrams and it can be done easily. The barrel is joined down the top and bottom by a seam which once you take the tip of the barrel off, pryes apart quite easily but go slow. Then you remove all the internal cross members and glue back together with an aluminium tube down the middle. For the recoil you can keep the existing housing, just replace the gears and motor with a mini servo modified to work in one direction and connected to a continuous power source. You need to install a microswitch to cut the power apart from when you trigger it.

The groove worked.    When you cut into the barrel there is a spring in the front section of the barrel.    I cut the spring apart and pulled the pieces out.   I then cut the groove all the way back.    It looks like there is a tube in the barrel where the spring for the recoil is.   I was able to stuff the wire into the barrel.    Now for the putty work LOL.