i bought this from Trev Boxerdog after keith (Firefly) Did an amazing paint job on this:







well i managed to acquire it after fancying one of these tanks for a while

the top half im not going to touch as its damned near perfect its just the lower half thats in for an overhaul ohh plus the electronics
havent decided on those yet but it maybe Elmod or clarkmodel

turret rotation and main gun re-coil will be going and replaced with something better again got some ideas im toying with nothing certain yet

on to the lower half

first pics show the problem

kenny kong tracks and hobby engine wheels arent quite suitable well not yet anyway





i hope from those pics you can see the issue?

some more done on the inside cleaned out all the defunct plastic and stands making a nice flat bottom for the sheet Plasti-card

Finally some time spent and parts acquired
starting Hacking the lower hull around to get my idea of using a Kv 1 chassis well the arms and wheels
from this
to this




next job completely dremel out an old KV1 chassis and cut it to size so the arms line up





Hmmm Wheels these arent much cop


sooooo grab the old Abrams wheels hmmmm razor saw



cut out the silly abrams wheels and make the kv wheels sit nice and snug inside



this is what i have now spacing correct and the inner hub runs lovely on the kv arms

Getting round to attaching the new suspension in place



some more wheels made



the ally angle is to help keep things straight whilst the glue dries

im using some plumbing adhesive for plastic pipes on this seems to hold pretty good and sets pretty quick too :O

Awesome material... Fantastic job done.Thanks!

Thank you Hal for the kind Words my friend
those that have these hobby engine Abrams will know the availability of an Idler is non existent so i set about creating my own version

as those Kenny kong tracks are darned heavy it needed to be metal here's what i did:

built the adjustable idler for it now



used an old Metal Tiger arm cut to size and some "BRASS" gearbox standoffs 3 in total for the wheel axle arm axle and the axle for the tensioning arm



Beefed up the inside wall with Brass plate to add strength

ok i couldnt wait



i think some Return Rollers next lol



Hoping the gearboxes are going to fit otherwise i may need to add a power buldge



old style Tamiya King tiger gearboxes

visiting relatives,eating and drinking sure gets in the way of a build 8O

bit more done
all the wheels have been made finished and set on the arms
got some 80th plasti-card and started filling in the ermm large holes in the chassis



corrected the rear



another skim of plasti-card and some filler should be good to go

front was a bit of a pain with the angle but its better now some nuts and bolts added to aid the Gluing



still not sure what to do on the front end whether to adjust the frontal angle or just leave it as is?
(i should have enough Plasti-card '8 )



Right hand side idler to build and some more holes to fill and the lower should be ready for it's gearboxes :O

Quick play with some parts



h/long pershing Return Rollers

WOW. Very ambitous project. Looks great so far.

You know what is going to happen don't you. Just as you get this finished the new HL one will be released.

Summer 2013! Still Definatly won't be upto your standards!

nice work! 

LOL Thanks Dan

and yes thats why ive bitten the bullet now
when i did my tiger 1 suspension many moons ago i got half a side done and then some daft twit released the asiatam lower

Finishing up the outside filling all the holes etc

rear end now with the correct shape



yup it had to be done corrected the Front Armour





inside shot i also retained the front Screw holders



Started adding the Weldlines sorry about the picture not being to clear

Wow, a lot of hard aggressive work being done on this. And I like what I see.


This has always been on my to do list, but it's a lot of work. Looks like you're doing all the right stuff to it.














~ Jeff

Many Thanks Jeff
Yes it sure is a labour of love

Awesome building !!!

Thank you wsn123

a bit more for tonight

Made all the Return Rollers and the right hand side adjustable idler

Fitted one side and popped the top on to see what it looks like







Motors need a plate adding to the rear to hold them nice and snug



Rear end dont look to bad now



blurry shot of the return rollers

looks damn good...

Thank you CCC2012

some more done but a bit slower due to work grrr

right hand idler built and both sides Return rollers built and fixed on



Started Figuring out how to Get those K/tiger g/boxes in there



nice bit of 5mm ally plate held inplace with some ally angle bolt to the sides with M 2.5 screws captive nut serts fitted as i am not fiddling with nuts in there lol





how it looks in the lower hull









thats it for now more to follow soon

can't wait to see everything else that you do, great work

Thanks Airbrushler
it's certainly been an enjoyable build so far

Rob

"Speaker box" added



this shows the "Tuned port" entering the baffle chamber



The tuned port lol



final Bass port



had her out in the snow and its all good except the left hand gearbox is slightly out of alignment so need to fix that

Looking good Rob!














~ Jeff