philipat

Get the same effect when it's 130 degrees even if it is only 9% humidity. Anything past 115 and you simply sweat regardless of what you're doing and whether you're in the shade. Got the joy of that experience in Iraq. I like the dry, too, but the wife prefers the humidity. So, now I'm stuck. LOL

I haven't encountered that problem. But my only two tanks are the Bulldog and a PzIII. Both still have their battery boxes, as I'm just getting started working on the Bulldog. But the Bulldog has a pretty wide stance; so, I wouldn't expect it to be much of an issue if the battery wasn't centered even if it was driving along the side of a steep incline. But, my PzIII has a much narrower stance; so, Icould imagine that it might limit a little bit the steepness of the hill that you can drive sideways on. But, I can't speak from experience.

RE:the fan...I was thinking more of increasing the air flow around the battery to extend its life.

I would think that 8 points of security (moderate strength) would be better than 4 strong points. I would keep the top and bottom held together better on twising terrain and be easier to separate should you need to. Thanks for the dimensions of the magnets.

Keep the great pics and tips coming!

Panther F

Looks good! I need to get me one of those one of these days.

SCAT PATTON

Looking great squid - I cant wait to shoot some holes in it

RSEA

Squid,

I see your using a Pershing T-06 DMD control unit with a Tiger MF-01 multi-function unit. Wasn't aware that you could mix and match different DMD and MF units together like that. Normally the MF-01 is paired with a T-03 control unit. At least that is what I've found from my research on the subject.

streetsquid

SCATPATTON - Thanks but man I was looking forward to runnin next to your Pz III's not dodgin your shots!

I inquired about buying Darrin's Pz III after Ethan told me he was selling it when we were on our way home after the last battle. So I e-mailed Darrin and he told me you beat me to the punch, you dirty dog!!! (LOL)

Squid

YHR

Very nice rebuild. What do you plan on using for gears. Are you sticking with the stock HL or doing something different?

streetsquid

RSEA,
Actually I'll show my ignorance. I didn't realize the DMD and MFU weren't from the same Tamiya kit until you pointed it out. I bought them sight unseen from an estate sale in Canada a couple years back. The listing was for a Bandai Pz IV with Tamiya Tiger electronics. From the same sale I also bought an old Bandai Stug with Tamiya electronics for another DAK member, so I'm gonna check to see if he ended up with the T-03. If that's the case he and I can just switch em out.

Secondly after reading your post I was gonna throw the compatibilty question out on this forum, but looks like you beat me to the punch. Thank you, I appreciate your willingness to help research this. But it appears as of yet no one really knows weather or not a MF-01 will work with a TS-06. But from what you and Kevin listed it look like Tamiya had intended several different MFU and DMDunits to work interchangably.


So I may just have to exeriment!

Squid

streetsquid

Thanks YHR!
My inital plan was to stick with the all metal gears that came with the Pz IV. But just a couple of days ago I traded another clubmate some painting work for a Pz III. That Pz III has 3-1 reduction gears and has the Asiatam recoil with the L24 75mm mounted. I have not yet cracked open the PzIII but I'm thinking about stealing both the gears and the recoil for this build. This is my favorite tank so I want it to have all the bells and whistles! (LOL)

The Pz III will become the "next project", and my first attempt at an El Mod system. When I say "next" I of course mean after the Sherman is complete, and the two paint jobs I have in the hopper are done, but before the Stug or Jadg.


Oh soo many tanks soo little time!

Squid

YHR

I am kind of between tanks right now. I am waiting on the Mato Sherman to get here, and then I will have a project to work on. Lucklily you got something on the go. My favorite part of this forum is exchanging build and painting threads

philipat

Before you pillage the PzIII, take a look at Bill's site. He was getting a set of steel 3:1 gears that would fit in the various HL tanks. It should be available by now. I have his standard steel gear boxes in my Bulldog. They're heavy but smooth. Break-in was a formality versus a necessity. He's been working on some HL recoiling setups, too. But, I don't know if he has done anything for the PzIV yet.

streetsquid

YHR,
I agree. Currently there is another thread going asking which you like better building or running your tanks. For me that was a toss up, because I enjoy both immensely, I also wrote that the one thing I truly like the most is sharing information, thoughts, and ideas with lots of other people with a common interest. I get that through this forum and battle days alike.

It's a great hobby!

Craig

streetsquid

Hi all,
Work over the last couple of days has been almost non-existent, me mum's in hospital so I've been there a good portion of the last 5-6 days.

But I did attack the louvers on one of the rear engine decks. Looking at pictures and some 3-view drawings I had an idea how I wanted to do the louvers as there are both an external and an internal louver that served to deflect small arms fire, grenades, and shrapnel from entering the engine compartment. These louvers were set in a staggered pattern to optimize air flow, but still afford a fair amount of protection.

I started by removing most of the molded on louver, but left a small piece of each louver where it was molded onto the raised lip. I would use this as an anchor point as well as for location and spacing of the new louvers. The molded louver were too thick, sat too low (almost flush) and were the completely wrong shape. Next I removed the internal louvers (from the bottom side) leaving a clean through hole through the upper hull.

Then using .030 x .125 styrene strip I added new external louvers directly over the attachment points I left. The stock louvers measured .110 wide, so I split the difference and centered the new wider louver.

Then using .060 x .125 styrene strip I constructed a framework that would attach to the bottom side of the upper hull and align with edges of the through hole. Then using more of the .030 x .125 styrene stood on edge I attached the internal louvers to the frame.

Using .032 styrene rod I added the center divider bar to the top edge of the internal louver frame and glued the entire assembly to the bottom side of the upper hull. The internal louvers are offset from the external ones. Once everything was set I went back and added more solvent to ensure all the joints were strong and secure.

For a final touch I went back with a sanding stick and added a slight 30 degree chamfer to the edges of the outside louvers, and then slightly radiused that with a sanding sponge.

I've left the other engine stock until I completed the first one to give you a better idea of what the modification looks like. Sort of a before and after look. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the finished look.

Squid

daisycutter redux

what is the hl stock panzer 4 like in acurracy? in thinking of getting one ,regardless of that ill be watching this thread i love builds/mod threads

streetsquid

daisycutter,
From what I can tell from my research the HL Pz IV mostly looks the part but there are a few inaccuracies. I believe these are mostly caused by molding limitations, structural strength of the part, and/or engineering allowances for the mechanical workings. I can't tell you how well it runs, as I never even put batteries in mine before I tore it apart. From the inception of this project I planned to use Tamiya electronics and to battle the tank.

I'm not one who believes in shelf queens, if I want a model to sit on my shelves and look pretty Tamiya, Dragon/DML, and Tristar all make lots of great looking accurate armor kits in 1/35th and 1/72nd scale. I build the 1/16th scale stuff to run and I run them hard. Whenever we have a new obstacles on the battlefield, I'll be the first to take a shot with one of my tanks! If I break it so what, I built it I'll fix it!

Hen Long has modeled the Pz IV aufs F (1). from what I can see the major areas of concern (inaccurate) are:

The angle of the rear deck is wrong (should angle down slightly)
The Mantlet is too long, the wrong shape and sits too far away from the turret but they had to make it work with the airsoft cannon
The L24 75mm gun is too long and the wrong shape
The rear stowage bin is too tall and sits too high, but it houses the the airsoft cannon so it had to be
The auxilliary muffler is completely missing
So is the Brake cooling air outlet fan cover

There are few other small things (hinge design) but as I said it mostly looks the part. If you paint and weather it, I would bet that 99 out of 100 people would simply say wow a Panzer IV, cool. Sure there are some purest, experts, and rivet counters that might point out a few things but unless you building it for one of them, and they're paying you to do it, I'd say you'd be pretty happy with the way it looks. But then again that's just my humble opinion.

The F1 was just the closest thing I could get and was a reasonable foundation for this conversion (backdate). The only real concession I'm going to have to make is the rear ilder is the later type. I thought about making the earlier version that appeared on the aufs D but it's such an integral part of the working suspension that it really needs to be made out of metal. Besides if I did change that, it would only make sense that I would also make the earlier style road wheels, and of course the wider track.................well you get the idea, I think the suspension is one concession I can live with. (LOL)

Squid

streetsquid

Well gents,
Since my last post I received a few PM's asking me to post a bit more about the internal frame and louvered ribs, and the chamfer/radius edge. So when I set about constructing the second one I took a few more "in progress" pictures. I hope these help

The first picture shows the .030 x .125 styrene stock external louvers attached with solvent. I let this dry thoroughly before trimming and sanding to final size and shape.

The second picture shows the .060 x .125 internal louver frame. Note that along the bottom edge I have relieved a radiused area for an existing mounting boss that holds the traverse unit to the bottom side of the upper hull, directly below the engine gills. The purple marker indicates the placement of the .030 x .125 internal ribs

The third picture shows the width of the chamfer to be added. The chamfer was simply added using a small sanding block, and then slighly softened using a sanding sponge

The fourth picture shows the under side of the hull after the installation of the new louvers. If you notice the grill on the right side of the picture you can see where the louver frame ran into the boss, and therefore needed to be be relieved

The fifth and final picture is a topside image of the new louvered engine decks. I think they'll look fine once they are painted.

I hope this helped at least a little guys!

Squid

daisycutter redux

[sm=thumbs_up.gif] thanks thats what i call a comphensive answer

streetsquid

daisycutter,
My dad always taught me that anything worth doing is worth doing right. So I thought I would give you the best answer I could, besides I had 4 reference books on the Panzer IV variants sitting on my work bench for the backdate project. I just turned a few pages (LOL)

Squid

streetsquid

Hi all,
Worked continued today on the Pz IV's lower hull. This time I slid up front to address some bolt detail on the final drive covers. Hem Long chose to mold some of the bolt heads onto the two part cover, and left others off.

Each cover would require the addition of 9 bolt heads. Rather than just gluing the bolt heads onto the cover's flange I opted to drill holes that the bolt heads would recess into. This would not only make them stronger than a simple butt joint, but make them look more accurate and functional as well.

Using the center cap bolt pattern as a guide I marked the placement of each hole. I center punched the middle of each hole and then used a 3/32" (.09375) drill bit chucked into my pin vice to drill a hole about .060 deep. Then using a "chopper" I cut 18 bolt heads out of Plastruct .080 hex stock. Then dropped them in each hole and secured them with solvent.

Once painted I think this simple detail will actually add a lot.

Squid

sgtcasio

VERY COOL streetsquid thank's for all your great info and picture's I have a HL
Pz IV and you gave me alot of GREAT idea's Thank's

RSEA

Your welcome Squid. I'm surprised that as a relatively new guy to RC tanks I was able to provide you info that you weren't already aware of. I see you said your "next project" will be a Panzer III with an El Mod setup. I have been considering using an El Mod in my Porsche KT, but would kind of prefer to observe a working El Mod tank in person first.. Do you expect to have your Panzer III project completed by October? I might delay my Porsche KT project until next year, and get a KV instead before October.. Not sure though.. Decisions, decisions..

Steve

1sgt

Squid,
Looks fantastic. I can hardly wait to see the finished tank. As for the fine chain, I would recommend looking at Model Railroad chain in HO or N gauge. I think you'll be happy with what you find.

1sgt

YHR

Again very nice, and your attention to detail is astounding. You then pull it all together for a great thread. I can't wait until you crack open the paint!!!!!!!!

bigfiver69

Killer upgrade on the Pzr IV.... can't wait to see it all done.

I'd like to backdate one of these too, into an early Polish of French campaign vehicle in full panzer gray. Your thread really is helpful for whoever wants to upgrade their tank.

Nice job!
Shep

FFR2608

Craig,

Your work is too clean....Take a soldering iron with a pointed tip and go to town. Rough that baby up....I also use it to make weld beads. Give it a try on the inside of the hull. Closest thing to real since you are essentially welding the plastic.

Darrin

streetsquid

sgtcasio,
Thanks for the kind words I'm glad I could help in some way, even if it's just in the form of ideas or motivation. I've wanted to do this build for a long time. Timing is everything, and I finally felt that my skill set has developed to a point where I was comfortable tackling it. But I am a long way from finished, so we'll see how it all pans out!

Squid