Well I got this off Ebay for a great deal and it showed up as in the first pic. The previous owner took meticulous care in building it and dropping another $500 into upgrading the suspension, tracks, recoil, and lots of metal detail parts.

I just had to detail it really, but with the previous owner doing such a great job, I was determined to do the best I could.
I went for the 503rd battalion Ardennes scheme. I didn't number it because I couldn't figure out what tank Knispel Kurt commanded.

So I started by applying Squadron green putty for the zimmerit. I actually laid each line seperately just like I imagined the real deal was laid up. It's to scale so that's like 220 columns of zimmerit, or 12 hours of work! Man, what a pain.
Then it took another 12 hours to airbrush and finish off the remaining detail parts.
Then it took another 12 hours to weather and rust it. I actually applied a rust kit you can get at any craft store before I painted the camo. I laid on more rust on top of the camo paint where it made sense.
When I applied the rust catalyst, it created genuine rust on top of the paint but even below the paint just like a real metal tank.
It takes a lot of catalyst to seep through the paint, but look at the wheels, they look pretty real to me.
I matte clearcoated the whole thing after to keep rust from getting everywhere.

After, I wasted 4 hours re-configuring the internal components. Tried 2 batt packs, but it's too much of a squeeze, so I went back to 1 batt pack.

Internally I added heatsink/fans on each motor. I plan to build a smoke unit for the exhaust, I'll show the inside when I get the smoker done.

So after 40 hours of work and enough chemical exposure to take 5 years off my life, I'm happy with the looks, but I can't get the guns to fire! HELP!!

The previous owner knows what he's doing but I haven't heard back from him.
He soldered 2 fire buttons to the Futaba Skysport T4YF board.
I have all the trim tabs neutral in the center but when I press the right red button it makes the tank drive forward.
When I press the black left button, it drives the tank backward.
I tried every combo of moving the trim tabs and hitting the buttons, but the tank just drives and moves its turret around.
I had the MF01 do a self check and it makes the guns flash.
Can anyone with a similar radio give me the procedures to fire the guns?
I wasn't doing so, but can this tank shoot and drive at the same time?

Anyways, I can't wait to get out to the next SCAT battle day and put it to the test.

Cheers, Tak

Very nice!! The Zimmerit looks good. I hope to own one of those big cats someday.

Great looking tank. Here are both of mine. My guns don't have firing capability, so I can't help you there. I think you might want to do some rewiring so the sticks would control tank movement, not the buttons.

Tak,

I had a similar problem with my T4YF and fire buttons on my Tam T1. I installed the fire buttons myself. Afterwards, I got the machine gun to work, but not the main gun. Pushing the main gun button only made the motor noise rev up. My problem was that I had the receiver wired wrong. I had the left stick on my tx controlling forward and right/left turn whilst the right stick controlled elevation and traverse. In a fit of desperate research, I re-read the assembly instructions, and noticed that the controls in my tx were backwards (i.e. the left stick controls forward /reverse and left/right traverse, and the right controlled the elevation and right/left turn) from those in the manual. I swapped the plugs around on the rx, and then the fire button worked fine.

For internal wiring in the tx, I was able to get a picture from a RC tank club in Colorado's website. The article detailed how to do it, and had pictures. I can't seem to find the website, but I'll look around and post if I find it.

Hope this helps!

Jeff

Very nice looking KT. That's the "Cat" tank on my next want list, along with the new Panter. Which to get first? oh discissions, discissions,
discissions!