sgtparker01

I just got into tanks with my first purchase of a HL M1A2 1/16 and am looking to upgrade some of the suspension. Going with metal drive sprockets, and road wheels. Not for sure about the metal track. I want to keep it as light as possible. Is there anyplace in the states to get these parts or am I stuck with buying from overseas. any help would be great. thanks

Strato50

I have a few retailers I have experience getting parts from and none of them are in the US... sorry.. heheh, BUT I can drop a few names of solid places to get stuff from. Taigen Tanks / Imex is in the US, they have a forum presence in Erik & he's pretty useful I haven't ordered much in parts but I just got a kit & Taigen is an excellent R/C company.

Hobby Raw has great deals and often free shipping on parts like gearboxes, tracks, wheels etc. They're in China.

RcTank.de is in Germany, best service around & quality components.

Tank Army and OzArmor in Australia. Good selection & great prices, deadly shipping costs..!

MatoMart is in Canada / China and might be your best bet, but there ARE American vendors I'm sure others will mention, I just haven't got stuff from them.

As far as Abrams tracks go from what I've read / heard / scene, go for the rubber-pad version if you have a choice .They're WAY lighter, and light is good in tanks.

By the way welcome to the forum... ask and yee shall learn! A simple rule to live by... once you make something heavy on your tank, you have to make something ELSE heavier to support it. Have fun!

Crius

Welcome aboard, Sarge. A couple of us are currently building the Abrams. Have you looked at these threads yet?

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-t...er-wow-x3.html

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-t...a2-abrams.html

There aren't many US vendors, but Imex is great and you might also check out RC Tanks of OKC.

I'm doing a video build log that should be complete in a couple weeks, and Asmodeuss is really super-detailing his, and that's just two of the Abrams builds going on right now.

Panther G

Does anyone know if WelshDragon is still in business? I swear he used to get me my parts before I could even have the model ready for them. From the UK to USA in no more than 2 days. I just dont know how he did it.

Crius

As far as I know Welsh Dragon is alive and well.

Strato50

Very much alive, pretty active on Facebook with page updates and a busy community. Haven't ordered in forever but a solid vendor

sgtparker01

Thanks for all the input, I'm debating on a winter camo. Dont see very many of those around. While stationed in Germany, I was on a M60A3, it had the European woods camo. We just white washed them in the winter when would go to the border. That was back in 80-83. I have seen different winter camo configurations but haven't decided which way to go. After the paint, then comes the upgrades.

sgtparker01

UPDATE:
well for the winter camo, It didnt even come out they way I wanted it to. So, after stripping the paint back off, went with the desert camo. Went with the camouflage 2x ultercover from wallyworld. its the Sand #279180. Put a couple of coats on and letting it dry for 24hrs before seeing if it needs another coat. Im happy with the color, looks better then what came on it from the factory. Next would be starting to weather it then look for a clear coat to seal it in. Im sure this is a enamel paint that I put on so I will see how it goes.

sgtparker01

Update:

made a little progress, just doing small things right now, waiting for some metal drive sprockets to come in, will be getting more upgrades as I go.

rescue119

Did u strip the factory paint off first? What did you use?

sgtparker01

I just roughed up the factory paint before applying the first coat. I ended up applying two coats of sand with in and hour, then let it dry for about 48 hours before applying the clear coat. The clear coat darken it a little but not bad. still like it better then the factory paint.

Crius

So nobody else wants to do one of these paint jobs?

sgtparker01

That sure looks good, I may try doing my winter camo idea on my next project. Thinking about getting a tiger 1. I will have to upgrade my airbrush that i have to a gravity fed instead of the one I have.