I just started on my conversion of a 1/18th scale 21st Century M48 Patton tank. As requested I will try to show the steps I've taken to upgrade this to full RC. This is a big tank and should have no problem fitting the necessary RC components. The top and bottom are held together by 5 screws so its quite easy to take apart. I plan on installing either Heng Long gear boxes or my spare gear box from from my Matorro King tiger. Each one will have its pros and cons. I will have to do some internal cutting but nothing that a dremel tool will take care of.

I removed the transmission casings using a knife (there are three plastic connections holding it on) I am planning on cutting down the hull so the drive shaft can slide in place. My first observation is of I use the Hl gear box I will have to use the Pershing gear box as it has a longer drive shaft. The ones in the picture is one from a tiger

opps here are the pics I wanted to add

after some internal cutting I was able to fit (quite nicely the matorro gear box. Now I will have to figure out how to attach the drive sprockets to the drive axel

a good start for an hours work

This is actually an Ultimate Soldier not a 21st Century tank. I hear they are pretty much the same company.

want to see how this turns out[8D]

I was expecting this and can't wait seeing how it progresses!
Didn't you mean to use the Pershing sprocket and tracks?

Yes, I will try to see how the stock sprockets and tracks work by using my Matorro gear box. I still have to order my Pershing sprockets and tracks.

They are one and the same. 21st Century Toys is the manufacturer and Ultimate Soldier is one of its toy lines.

Anyway, this RC conversion of the oft-neglected Patton will be a very unique tank. Keep on it. [sm=thumbup.gif]

I had not realized someone was making a 1/18 Patton... am I the only one who's thinking Blazer Magach 3??[&:]

I know virtually nothing about the Patton other than I wanted to RC this model. It looks like the tak was designed to travel over water or at least through swamps give the shape of the lower chasis

What you have is an M-48A3...a heavilly upgraded M-48 used in Vietnam. Had the diesel V-12 engine and Allsion CD~tranny from the M-60 but retained the 90mm gun. The entire M-48 series had the same lower hull design which appeared in 1953. The upper hull is the same as the M-48A2 with a fuel injected V-12 gas engine and the mufflers under the back to hide the heat signature. Thie rounded off armor was to provide added protection for the crew in deflecting AP rounds..,..(I personally believe we copied the design from the Russian JS-3[&:] ) also the driver was moved to the center and provided with much more armor and a substantially heavier escape hatch. This, due to M-26-46-47 thinner hatches being angled out toward the tracks ,and rolling over a mine caused them to come up through the driver/bog positions.

With the cal 50 mount welded to the cupola, this is a Vietnam tank, so remove the cal 50 barrel from the cupola, as it was never used. The M-1 cupola was a total disaster and absolutely worthless . The cal 50 was laying on the side and was fed by 50 round trays, which, cut the TC's hands and took too long to load into a gun which would ultimately jam after 3-4 or 5 rounds anyway. That's the reason you will see almost every Vietnam duty M-48 with the TC's cal 50 in a mount welded to the cupola and the cupola barrel hole plugged up.

Good luck on the RC~and battle unit.

Sounds like someone knows alot about these tanks Thanks for the info.

lived in them for 25 years and busy with two military museums Always hated that fat, wallowing pig POS~M-48. [:'(]

Lol, yes it definitely had a strange look. So tell me, were they designed to run in the water (given their lower hill design. I was thinking about how I could waterproof it and see how it would run in the water.

The '48s were not designed to run in water, but could ford rivers etc up to driver hatch level. (about 3.5 ft) We crossed korean rivers with M-26/46s, later M-47s and could run slow until the water was washing in the driver-bog hatches. (later dropped excape hatches to drain it all out.[:'(]) M-48s could do the same. The model you have has an exhaust snorkel on the engine deck which provided a deeper fording capability, but I believe this was a USMC part for driving off a landing craft onto beaches and would have required tighter seals on the driver's hatch and periscope mounts.. Never saw any on Army 48s. The form of the hull had nothing to do with water or swampy terrain...only designed for crew protecgtion and deflecting shot rounds.

I can see that. Just that the armor has a rounded slop and not an angled slope like you would see in later WWII tanks

I removed the rear drive sprockets by inserting a knife between the transmission casing and the tank's body. I removed the transmission casing from the drive sprocket by prying it off. I then cut the drive axel to remove the pin. That allowed my to drill out the drive axel so I could insert a brass bushing.

more pics

here are the pics

OK, I have the sprockets attached to the gear box. I hooked it up to a battery and it seemed to have run fine. The true test will be when I get the RC in and run it with turns. I'm optimistic but if it does not work out I can always get my HL tracks/sprockets and drive train

Back to my conversion. I've pretty much have this thing done. Just need to put the turret on to the chassis and the chassis onto the hull. Everything seems to fit well. Unfortunately I do have to take the chassis off the hull to recharge the battery

forgot my pics

Some more pics. As you can see I've installed an airsoft unit. I was able to figure out a system to feed bb's to the gun. The gun elevation unit just fitted into the turret (notice its a smaller one from an HL Panzer III. You will also see that I installed a white LED light from a HL tiger