Hi There,

I finally decided to go into model tanking and I've ordered a nice Tamiya Leo 2a6.
Now I want to buy some upgrades for it and among these are metal tracks, but when searching the net for the tracks I found quite a few different suppliers.
Can you help me decide which one is the best?

Basicly I've now got Backyard armor and kenny kong.
Is there a difference between the tracks they both supply regadring quility?

With kind regards,

Pim

p.s.

What is the difference between anti wear grease, ceramic grease and Molybendum Grease from tamiya and which one is the best to use in my tank's gearbox?
Tamiya basicly gives only one discription for all the 3 of these different grease.

Try Karen at the AAF in Danville Virginia, she has a great deal of stock and upgrade parts for Tamiya tanks. And i believe they are staritng too carry the HL line also. Any body have a link handy cant find mine.

Hello, Metal tracks may not be a good idea for the Tamiya 2A6 as these will stress the complex gearbox, plastic chassis, idler wheels and return rollers (which are glued to the chassis, not held by screws). Besides, the stock tracks are pretty well made and reliable, hence the lack of upgrade options. The Tamiya Leo is complex and well-engineered and not much can be done beyond what the kit already provides. Have fun.

If you're ready to pour cash into the Leo, here's a vendor. I've never used their stuff, but it looks well made.

www.afv-model.com

If you upgrade to metal tracks, I suggest you install a chassis brace kit, metal return roller support pylons, and install some ball bearings on the roadwheels. I run metal tracks on mine, and it makes it true heavy metal. The gearbox handles the metal just fine with no upgrades. It's the strongest stock design gearbox out there in 1/16. Another nice upgrade is more powerful motors. I haven't done it, but hear it is very worth while. AFV sells the brace kit, so does tank zone. AFV sells the upgraded rollers and support pylons.

Another cool thing is to install a mg. AFV sells these.

Other vendors would be etoarmor.com in Krimea, and Axels out of Germany.

Leo is a pretty state of the art tank. The two main upgrades needed are a better idler system and metal suspension arms. Several vendors have them, including etoarmour.com, whose computer is in Krimea and warehouse is in central USA. There are also various cosmetic upgrades available including metal replacements for some of the more exposed plastic parts such as steps and mirror brackets. When in doubt over the quality of a particular part, do ask, if need be in a PM on this system.
I have not built a Leo personally, but from what I have read patience and attention to detail is needed. There are several mods some of the builders have made, includine a hinged front plate and modifying the compartment hinge over the DMD to open, giving access to the electronics selection board. Just remember to plan and think ahead during the build, as you should on any build.
Who here can provide photos of the modified turret hatch for the electronics and hinged front plate? Sticks in my mind that doll house hinges were used for that project.

tanks for all the replys,

basicly what I had in mind for upgrades are the following:
Metal tracks
Inproved idler system <- I already bought that one to chek out the service of afv-model.com
metal swing arms
better bushings for the swing arms
And I put a bearing in everything


I'll probably do some home improvement ont the chassis brace and return rollers.
And I've read that the battery pack on top is to heavy so I want to move it to the lower hull

More advice is always welcome and when it arrives I'll keep you posted with info and pics.

Happy holidays,

Pim

Sev,

That would be Eric from the tank club South East Armor Division in Georgia, USA. He posts on RCU using the handle "Heavy as Lead". He's modded his Leo better than any I've seen.

Thanks, Jeff. Knew I'd seen it somewhere. I'll email him and get his photos if he don't reply to this lad soon. Me, eventually I gotta get a Leo too. Got to have something to ignite all the T55's coming.

The tank still has to be deliverd (can be a few weak depending on the holidays and the customs departent).
But stil I've bought some add ons already.

Just a few minutes ago I bought the gun barrel stabilizer, maybe not the best thing to buy already but it was cheap.
And yesterday I bought the metal swing arms, I also figured out that I need 32pcs of 5x8x2.5 and 44pcs of 8x12x3.5 bearings.
But I wonder whitch ones to get, the metal shielded ones never really work for me (the metal shielding reguarly comes loos after some bashing) but those are the cheap ones coming from some stores as a set, The better ones I use on my trucks are the shielded dura trax ones, but those are freaking expensive in the numbers used for the tank.

Well, the big box has arrived, and so have the metal swing arms.







So as everyone does I ripped open the box and began exploring. I soon figured out that I needed a few soring boxes and because I also needed special glue for the ABS the kit is made of a trip to the local hardware store was in order.

I already had downloaded the manual form the internet to do some prior study in how the kit would come together, so as soon as every nut and bolt was sorted I began in building the gear box.

This gear box still puzzels me a bit, It uses two motor, bot only one for driving and the other for steering, But.... they can also work together for more power.
The gearbox housing was a bit warped so I hope this won't cause trouble in the future, but I thing that it will be alright when it is fixed in the hull.







The manifest for building this kit is wel written, but in the first building steps I found some starnge things.
Firstly the tell you the pinion gear shouldn't stick out more than 14mm from the motor huising, but when you put it into the gearbox the gears are misallinged.
Therefore I made theis distance about 16mm, making sure everything fits properly, The other odd thing is hou they want you to put the housing together.
They want you to put the lower and upper half together, and THEN fit to motors inside. Sure this is possible, but why not put the motors in before putting the two halves together. That way you can make sure all the gears fit the way the should and it is less troublesome.