grimgard

I have wanted a RC tank since the late 1970's/ early 1980's when a older kid had a RC Tamiya Tank at our local school playground. I always kept my eyes open for deals and would shake my head at the price of these realistic RC tanks.

Fast forward and I am 45 years young and I finally purchased a RC tank. I knew it had to be from Tamiya with the MFU sound unit and from WW2 era. I never was a fan of the Sherman Tank or even the Super Sherman but I wanted a tank that represented the good ole' US of A! I never even heard of the M26 Pershing and did a little research and found out it did see combat during WW2 and kicked some German butt!

I also liked the price that was a bit easier to swallow than some of the pricier tanks I saw on Tower. The kit is flawless and Tamiya is king when it comes to scale and realism. All the pieces fit together perfectly and no seems show in the finished tank. The space for the electronics is a little cramped and I even used a 2200mah 2s Lipo to get a little more room. My only complaint is the clutch on the turret is a bit sensitive and after some tweaking it works without issue 98% of the time. Getting rid of the Tamiya NIMH plugs and replacing them with deans helped greatly.

I will spare you the build photos and show you how it turned out. I added 1/16 scale shovel, ax, pick ax, and buckets and some weathering.




































And the added 1/16 scale items (cell phone pictures sorry I was being lazy)

strippersteel

Looks awesome! I'm also fixing to get a Tamiya Pershing to add to my fleet as well.

philipat

Looks great! Please, bore us with the build photos. That's part of the fun is seeing the build.

Panther G

It is my favorite Tamiya kit. I purchased the Panther G for my first Tamiya then knew I had to have the Pershing. It is also my main fighter in IR battles now.

Reaper332

I have 2 tamiya pershings they are a great tank..... love the job you did on yours.....

grimgard

Thanks Guys! I have some more updates to show you and I would be happy to post the build photos! All I need is to find some other Tankers! I will get some recent photos of the small scale updates I have done this after noon. Here are my build photos and stumbles!

This is just a copy and past from my build thread.

My Tank arrived Friday late afternoon and I started building! I have a few minor problems along the way but the build went smoothly and fairly fast since this was my first tank build.


I did have a issue with getting the tracks on and after staring at it for 30 minutes realized the front wheel needed to be rotated down so the top of the tank fits and the tracks also fit properly. After that everything else was easy.


I finished the build late Sunday night and what a build! Man that took forever! 3 days (about 28 hours total build time)


I plan on touching up the paint here and there and building the ammo boxes and Jerry cans. I also need to paint the figure but other than that it's done.




I am using a 2s lipo 2200mah battery and it fits well inside the tank. I changed out the Tamiya plug for a Deans plug and added a audible lipo low voltage alarm inside the tank. All my RC's run of lipo's and I can't ever imagine going back to NIMH's


Here are some picture that I took as I was building it. I'll get some better shots in the sun soon as well as some video. I apologize for the poor cell phone pictures.


I love Tamiya Box's


Look at that Box Art!



Corporal Socks the Cat inspecting the packaging


The build starts! (not pictured is the pre painting I did. Tamiya TS 28 Olive Drab


Got the track wheels on notice I have the front wheels on wrong! Took me ages to figure that out.








Sergeant Winters the Cat taking a nap.


Backing brace





Motors and gears installed.





Tracks on wrong! I figured out I needed to rotate the front wheel down after ages of banging my head.


Electronics installed! No room for all of these wires!


Top of tank installed. What a mess of wires!


Trying to clean up the wires



Sergeant Winters on Patrol!


Turret on! I reinforced the turret with epoxy


Dreaded white stuff from using CA glue. I quickly switched to E6000 glue and will retouch with paint.


Lights working! check!


Rear light working! check!


Starting to look like a tank!


Done!


Done!




I went with my own decal theme and do not care if it's historically correct or not and added a flex antenna to the rear. Works like a champ and I am happy with the kit, build, and how it turned out.

grimgard

Sine the build I also replaced the other two Tamiya style plugs with deans, did more wire organizing, and the turret rotates perfectly. I did add some decals to the ammo box's and wooden box's as well as paint the two buckets and ad U.S.A. decals to them (don't want any German's steeling them and claiming it's was their's).

heavyaslead

The Pershing is a wonderful tank, very well engineered.

And the most attractive part as pic previously posted...

This final drive is a wonderful piece of engineering, enclosed metal casing, ball bearings and 2:1 ratio steel gears. I use this final drive setup on several of my custom builds to increase torque and have a robust drive without upgrading the gearbox.

grimgard

This is my first Tank build and I did not know that about the gear box. I am so pleased that I now own one and can't wait to find others to battle with. Can I ask how hard it is to swap out the targeting system? is it a pain in the but to plug into the DMD unit?

Also I am located near San Francisco, California and wonder if there are any clubs or places to drive my tank at.



I also ordered some SOL US Tank crew figures..... I know they are for the Sherman but I would think they would be happy with the upgrade to the M26! lol!

TheBennyB

Not sure if they are still active but I knew of 2 clubs in the SF area. Kelly's Hero's and B.A.T

http://www.bayareatankers.org/

https://sites.google.com/site/kclank/home

heavyaslead

When you say "swap out the targeting system", what do you mean?

The Tamiya has provision for the optional battlesystem and goes in fairly easy mechanical wise, electrically just plugs in to connectors already on the DMD/MF.

grimgard

Thanks for the info! I'll look into it.

grimgard

Sorry I meant when not in use I assume you can put your crew back in? The M26 Pershing has a removable hatch with spacers so it can be rotated and removed so the targeting system can be swapped out.

cleong

You don't actually need to remove the entire cupola to remove the infrared receiver AKA apple. If you're referring to swapping out the entire base, you need to access the screws from under the turret.

philipat

Looks great! I like the abrasions and the decals. The figures look good, too. One small historical correction: your tank is from B Co, 1st Tank Bn, 1st Marine Division. The Marines didn't get the Pershings until the Korean War. So, Koreans and Chinese would be stealing the buckets. Also, the figures look like they are from 1st Armor Division, US Army.

They're all really well done and it looks like you're having fun doing it. So, ultimately that is was matters most.

Panther G

In My opinion the Pershing is the best kit available from Tamiya. The KEO is a much more intricate and complex kit but the Pershing has just the right amount of complexity and all the reliability you could ask for. As i have said earlier in this post the Pershing is my absolute favorite Tamy, kit and first choice in WWII armor including all the German super tanks.
My Tamiya Panther G was a fun kit to build and just the right amount of challenge for a first time kit builder. Cut my teeth on it so to say. The Pershing compels you to have good set up, wiring and parts layout eve before you start to build the kit. Not much room in the hull of the old Black Jack but still an awesome kit. Wish I could buy another to build.

grimgard

I agree! I knew someday I would own a Tamiya Tank. Tamiya is king when it comes to scale and realism. I just bought a Spektrum DX6i so I can use the canon and machine gun with the press of a button. When I do the radio swap I plan on doing even more wire clean up since I'll have the top of the tank off.

Panther G

It is very important on the Pershing to keep the wiring a because it can lead to traverse and gun elevation problems if everything is not tucked away nice and neat. What I did that helped alot was get rid of the Tamiya plugs from the MFU and DMD and hard wired both into one plug to eliminate the "Y" harness. Many guys go with Deans connectors but I have never really had any issues with the Tamiya plugs just as long as you make certain that they have a good connection.

heavyaslead

The Battlesystem Base attaches to the inside upper part of the turret (more or less permanent) and has a plug that while not preventing a half figure from sitting on top, may be oddly precarious and fall over on occasion, certainly not a full figure.

grimgard

I got my Sherman Tank crew from Sol models in Korea. and the detail is great! I painted them using acrylics and made the cigar out of a round toothpick. I think I have done all I can do on this tank. The metal tools are a nice touch and the hanging buckets with USA logo on them also add to it. I might add some sand bags at some point but I don't want to over do it and make the tank look busy.