cleong

So I have a surplus Tamiya T26E3/M26 Pershing, which I acquired intending to turn it into a Super Pershing or a T29, one of my favorite WoT tanks. However, in the spirit of collecting tanks and avoiding duplication, the Super Pershing looks to be out, and the T29 a bridge too far (or as the case may be, a set of roadwheels too many). I'd briefly looked at it and aside from the roadwheel/hull situation the wider tracks are a question mark and I am not going to pre-pay any scammer trying to print me a 3D turret.

And so with the electronics, I thought of transplanting the whole internals into a suitable Sherman chassis, whether Tamiya or otherwise, that would suit the Ford GAF soundtrack. Which would be the nearest option to work off from? It should ideally have the correct engine deck for the engine type, and fairly easy to mix-and-match available parts on the market.

Another candidate (and still my go-to tank) is an M10 for which I noticed that it uses the Ford GAA (close enough?).

Thoughts please?

RichJohnson

There were M10 tanks with various engines just like the shermans.

The Pershing electronics were most commonly sought after to use in building M4a3e8 tanks. However now with good aftermarket systems, the quality of the HL7.1 and the ability to do servo recoil more easily than the IMHO slow and clunky tamiya recoil, I would just leave the electronics package in the pershing and keep its value intact. They are very rare nowadays and excellent running and IR battling tanks.

And buidling an Ez8 is even easier now with my kit than ever before. Still there are a couple ways to go about building one.

Ziptar

Super Pershing is also one of my favorite WOT tanks, the T26E4 is my 3rd most played tanks, right behind the M10 Wolverine and M22 locust but, I haven't played in years.

Before you give up on the Super Pershing..... You can buy the the STL files for a 3D printable Super Pershing conversion for a Heng Long Pershing on cults3d for $4.00.
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/vari...ing-conversion
Should be pretty easy to adapt it to the Tamiya Pershing I would think.

cleong

My first proper RC tank is an M26 and I’m keeping it intact, and I’d sell the second one complete if there was interest - but there isn’t. And thus some late-night/early-morning brainstorming…

I might do an A3E8, there are older Tamiya Shermans I could buy locally that are not full-option, seeing as I would not use the turret or its electronics. Would I only need the rear deck and turret for that?

RichJohnson

Technically yes. You would need a turret and an a3 hull deck.
At this time, the pershings are out of production and gone.
If you have the kit unbuilt that is money in the bank IMHO.

I also think there are better and easier ways to build an EZ8 than to use outdated tamiya electronics, as good as they are, its just that recoil unit and the shift into gear setting to drive....

What 76mm turret are you thinking about using?

cleong

Andy’s/Takom’s Easy Eight seems to be the lowest hanging fruit for all the details and stowage for now, although I would have to figure out how to mate a turret ring to the new turret, and also worry if the grade of plastic stands up to the rigors of RC

RichJohnson

Well, if you wanted to use a Henglong hull and my turret kit you could put them on a tamiya or you could just use my HVSS kit as well on the henglong
RC Tank Products

Sorry I cant post photos here from any browser on my Android or my pc. Still dont understand why it doesn't work any more, only my work Ipad can post photos.


There is also the option of using a taigen turret and hull and mount it on a tamiya. I have built two this way and am rebuilding another tank for a customer/friend right now.

RichJohnson

Well I thought I would try again, and it never works any more but this time chrome let me do it. The browse my device button worked. OMG Im so happy, I dont know why it worked tonight but it did..
So here are pics of my Taigen hull and turret on a tamiya chassis (sitting on my old army jeep)
And then pics of the EZ8 kit I make of HVSS, fenders and turret for henglong Shermans
Edit, I just noticed I took the pictures on the side that does not have hubcaps over the screws. The kits does, but as a demonstrator that side was left off on purpose.

Max-U52

The taigen turret has the split loader's hatch, but your turret has the single hatch. Did they use both at one time or another, or is one of them wrong?

cleong

I have to say I prefer the look of richjohnson's turret than the Taigen, it visually appears just a smidge smaller but looks right and proportionate while the Taigen seems over scale like the first Mato Sherman turrets

RichJohnson

The Taigen turrets, 75 and 76mm are both slightly oversized, I suspect to compensate for the BB barrel size.
Yeah, I like mine better of course lol. My silent partner Rick Bratt drew the turret up from scale plans along with the HVSS and then I worked with him to make the adjustments to make it fit and run RC well as any operating scale model this small a scale must be fudged a little here and there.

The transition at Chrysler from the split hatch to the oval hatch took place in October '44. I dont recall exactly what month they did at Fisher body and Pressed Steel Car co. (Though PSC only made A1 76 tanks if I recall right)
Then you have the rebuild program after the war where the US Army did its best to completely get rid of any HVSS 75mm sherman and have it converted to a 76mm sherman so its hard to track by serial number now.

Max-U52

Since the E8 I want to model would have been built in the late Spring or early summer of '44 it sounds like I'm all set with the split hatch.

And thanks for the info.

Shorty54

What electronic package for the E8 now to be IR compatible with Tamiya?

Thanks,
Shad

Max-U52

That's a good question. Clark is popular with the IR guys and a lot of them are using the HL 7.0 or 7.1, But to me that's not really fully compatible. It will give and receive hits, but that's all. No separate weight classes, no simulated battle damage, and there's no built-in reload time so I guess the guys just count to themselves until it's time to shoot again.

Rich is building me a Sherman E8 battle tank right now and I'll be using the IBU2 in that. I still have 2 of the IBU2 Pro boards for sale but I don't think anymore IBUs will ever be made.

RichJohnson

Well you can use any clark board, Elmod or a tamiya DMD11 or henglong 7.1 unit with a Legodei IR receiver. The henglong will shoot and receive the Tamiya code and die at 5 hits but does not slow down. So we make the henglong tanks run in the (low power) setting and count to 6 before they can fire. It evens out the playing and works very well untill over half the tanks on the field are henglong 7.1, then you have a bit of a disadvantage.

Shorty54

I have a couple Open Panzer boards, BARC4 boards, Benedinis, Clarks, but I either have issues with room, or just too confusing to get properly working, and then there's the sound building files, trying to record sounds. I just struggle with it all. I quit messing with it for a couple years, came back to see now if anything more plug and play and compact is out, but see nothing. Maybe its time to just sell out totally and be done.

Shad

RichJohnson

Henglong 7.1 is plug and play as is the Tamiya dmd11 if you want a real radio system for a higher cost.
clarks are pretty straight forward. You get the board and program remote and follow the instructions.

tankme

The newer Clarks have better sounds than the older ones. Once you figure out how to program the features, they are pretty easy to manage. I printed out the whole manual and just marked the features I typically change so I can do it in a few minutes.

tankme

Issue with the HL 7.x boards is that they only come with two sound sets now and it's a crap shoot which one you will get unless the site specifies.