What in the hell was that video about? Goofy.

A Trabis(Trabant) was an East German car. They were everywhere in Germany after the wall came down.

This video is even better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKYYu8AeMt0

Crazy stuff.

I used to own one........bought it right after the wall fell for 50 bucks! Plugs would foul every 100 miles or so, stop, clean them, good for another hundred miles. One good thing about them was they didn't rust, everything made out of plastic. No heater, but the thing ran and ran and ran........

Plastic? Maybe I should make the 1/16th scale one out of paper.

I won't ever run this thing in tall grass again. At least not for a while. It took quite a while to get the grass stains, as well as embedded grass off the road wheel rubber. The idler wheels definitely need some kind of protection. I'm afraid the plastic will be mauled by hard material getting crushed between them and the track.

To make getting into the hull a little easier, I trimmed down the snap tabs on all the light board harness clips. They still snap into place, but it doesn't take an act of congress to get them out. I ended up pulling a wire out of the front light board harness trying to pull it out during cleaning. Luckily, the wire only needed reinserted and crimped into the harnes clip.

Several pictures of an A6 pushed the completetion of the L55 barrel. Since I used the original gun tip for the L44 barrel to include modifying it to reflect the older MRS, I had to make a new tip. Spent the better part of the afternoon wrapping thin plastic sheets around tubing to get the proper dimensions and scratch building the new MRS. Worked great and looks good!

Then, I decided to take it outside for a spin. Not used to the longer length, I had gone to an old hiding spot and tried some long proven manouvers. Only I forgot about the "longer" part of the barrel! Ooops! Tore the new MRS off the end and left a nice scrape down the gun barrel, not surprisingly down the longer portion. All is not lost as it snapped off where the glue joint was and went back on straight.

The longer barrel is a pain in the neck, but sure looks cool. Almost looks like it's getting ready for a jousting match.

Pics. After the Windex and MRS repair and repaint. L55 cannon.

Ron, you m1 tanker never know how to drive Leo have you heard "size does matter"

your leo is beautiful!! it make you a weathering master.

Very nice.

Does take some practice to drive the fast leo, more than once I have jabbed the barrel into a bank!

Tom,

I can pat my head and rub my belly, but I haven't learned how to drive it and operate the turret at the same time.

Eric,

Usually right when I'm going fast and need to turn quickly, the turret turns sideways. Or vice versa.

Might have to do the firing button mod, too. Nothing like having the volume up high, sitting right next to it, and think the gun tube is going to raise then, BOOOM! Even more fun is forgeting which stick controls the elevation, and the thing zips forward all the sudden. [sm=lol.gif]

The final detail parts are going on and the mirrors just didn't make sense. Why put a mirror sticker on it and then put it on the model so no one could see it?

So, I made new mirror mounts out of wire. I cut the old mirror parts up and used the detail parts by drilling holes in them and sliding them over the wire. Then, after drilling holes in the back of the mirrors (brackets) I used the same lacing wire that was used on the turret baskets to fit them to the new posts. While holding the mirrors in the correct position on the posts, I then used CA to lock them on while giving them mobility.

Now, the mirrors not only raise and lower, but are adjustable! And you can even see the mirrored part!

Here are pics of the turret top, open and closed. In the open shot, you can see that the flash unit is not installed. I figured I would save it for if and when I get the battle system. The 'whoopie light' is stowed inside when not in use, which is 99% of the time. Also, the antenna is located up in the front of the turret wrapped around the white piece of plastic and taped to it.

Ron, are you going to use the rotation light? sell to me if you do not. thanks,tom

Tom,

I hope to use it more eventually, but if I don't I will keep you in mind.

nice leopard...

Very nice job on the wiring.

Im either going to play close attention to that picture next time I put mine together, or get the two turret halves to fit better with a hammer.

I think that was an afterthought to Tamiya.

Cap'n, she's a looker!

At one time, I was ready to just duct tape the whole turret together. [:@]

I ended up using a flashlight to look inside the front with it closed to see where the problem was. Wires passing over the battery, as well as some sticking straight up out of the DMD seemed to be the problem. Stuffed the wires in the pocket on top of the DMD and the battery, as well as bending wires coming out of the DMD. Routed the wires around the battery and that did the trick.

The battery to DMD cables are stuffed down the side as is the limit switch cable.

Just a note to anyone building the kit.

If you are having trouble getting the sprocket to line up with the holes in part MH3 check that the washer (ME2) is centered on MJ5. The hole in the washer is larger than the diameter of MJ5, so if you don't pay attention as to how far off of center it is after tightening ME1, it will keep the sprocket from going all the way on part MH3. There is an opening on the inside of the sprocket for the washer and if off center a great deal, it will keep it from going on all the way.

This wasn't an issue when I built it, but after taking the final drive apart after running and cleaning, I couldn't get the sprocket to go back on. Originally, I thought that the end of the assembly was too far into the sprocket and rechecked the spacers and such. Then I looked at the washers and saw that they were way off of center.

Very good paint ! [sm=tongue_smile.gif]

Greetings

Great looking leopard!

Thanks all.

Had a bad outing this afternoon. First, the doghouse (which still isn't glued on ) came apart on a tree root and I lost the small door. Walked all over looking for it and gave up. Then, I had taken off the sprocket horn guide to see if it helped keep the grass from building up on it. It did. But, bad move as it threw the track. Not all the way off, but just enough to where it almost sawed though the next to the last side skirt on each side. It happened when the tank was quite a ways away, so I didn't hear it chewing them up.

I did have some fun, though. And earlier I took a flashlight out into the yard and found the door. Whew.

So, don't leave the sprocket horn guide off. The last skirt was up, so I'm not sure if it would have done the same thing with it down. Not going to take it off again. [&o]

great tank cap [8D] !

[:@] Bad day just got worser!!![:@]

Upon inspection while cleaning the tank, I discovered that 4 suspension arms are cracked. All on the right side (the backwards screw side) with all being cracked in the same area. Guess it's time to buy some type of ABS plastic gap filler. [&o]