Not to hijack this thread but I have a Tiger II and M-26 made by Tamiya, both have issues with the turret rotation and skipping / stall. No wires binding and I have tried to adjust the gearing a few times but have the same results, I do not see any teeth stripped or stressed?

That's a normal issue with Tamiya, they have cammed gears in their rotation and elevation to protect against damage to the motor or gearbox. It's an easy fix, you can disassemble the gearbox and replace the cam gear with a solid one or just glue the cam itself and replace.

I'd make sure there are no other areas in the turret ring or roller bearing that isn't causing drag. It doesn't take much for a wire to get a tug and make it skip. The other things to check are outside obstructions like the mantlet hitting something if the gun is fully declined (or the back of the recoil unit if fully elevated) or poorly balanced turret. I turned my Tiger I into an initial so I removed the turret storage basket. The result was a front heavy turret holding up that big 88. The JS-2 needed a handful of steel BBs in the turret rear to counter that huge cannon.

That gear has a clutch set up. Take it apart and clean all the oil and/or grease from it and CA or epoxy the small gear to the larger gear. Or... just get the Tamiya 6-speed gear set ITEM72005**1200 (my personal suggestion) and use the blue gear(s) from the kit.

I do believe there are 3 to 4 gears in there, enough to fix maybe 2 tanks with the elevation and turret rotation. :)






Jeff

It's here.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982131

And so is this.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982132

And so it begins. I will start another thread when I start the build, but I will continue this one for questions that arise, especially about PE.

Congrats!

By far my favorite box. ;)

You will not be disappointed!!! The Tamiya Tiger I is an easy build and great runner. Very forgiving. It was my first full option r/c tank. It still runs great and is still on it's first set of gear boxes. TheCommander can vouch for this, as long as you keep them clean they will last a long time.

The tank modelbau ones actually bolt on with scales nuts and bolts so are super robust!

I finally was able to open the Tiger this morning. For those that are not familiar with the new 84273 full option kit, here are some highlights.

First, there is a supplemental instruction booklet that gives both painting and option instructions for four different tanks. These are

Tank number 131, 1st Co, sPzAbt 504, Tunisia, Spring of 1943
Tank number 142, 1st Co, sPzAbt 504, Tunisia, Spring of 1943
Tank number S33, 8th Co, 2nd SS Panzer Rgt, Russia, Summer 1943
Tank number II, sPzAbt 503 HQ, Russia, January 1943

The first two have early production parts, and the second two have late production parts. I am still learning about the differences between early and late production versions of the Tiger, but this seems like a nice move by Tamiya to include parts for different versions.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982253

This new kit does include the K sprue, so if I chicken out on the PE hatch details, they are included. The new kit also includes a metal barrel and PE grilles. Does anyone know how accurate the Tamiya metal barrel is? Having these parts on the Leo, it makes me very happy they are included with the Tiger now, too.

Next, I will go through the manual step by step and start figuring out what I want to replace with metal pats and PE.

So, stay tuned. I will certainly have more questions.

Steve

OK, so I have been looking through the offerings from ETO and Matomart (again).

Most of what I see can wait until I get to the upper hull and turret.

The two things that I see for the lower hull are the chassis brace and the idler upgrade. Are either of these two add-ons/upgrades necessary/nice/will make the tank run better?

If so, which one(s), and what are the recommendations for which one to go with, as I know there is more than one option for both of these upgrades?

Thanks again for all the help,

Steve

From where I stand, there are no needed upgrades to a Tamiya. I understand the desire for bearings over the bushings, even though the actual wheel speed isn't that great to cause an issue (again, mine is over 10 years old, still rolling strong with the bronze bushings).

Anything else is completely superfluous, the Tiger is a well engineered kit. If you were building a WSN T-34 or HL, I would definetly recommended bracing and upgrading idlers since the kit parts are junk, but that's not the case in the Tiger.

I you want to spend the cash, it won't hurt, but short of switching out or gluing the clutch gear in the rotation and elevation, you'll have years of trouble free with what you have in the box.

If you are building the Tiger to drive occasionally, I agree with ausf My Tiger is about as old as his, and was run in numerous battles stock, out of the box. The only upgrades it got were the transmission geardown to reduce the top speed, and a track tensioner (added later). I also glued the slipper clutch for the Turret Rotation and replaced the Gun Elevation device with a servo. I HATE the "rubber chicken" look of the main gun bouncing up and down!

Depending upon the level of exterior detail, this tank should be easy to upgrade after initial assembly.



From the FAQ thread, I think these comments still apply

TIGER I: (built plus feedback)
No Major Issues -
1) The Track Tensioner could be better - 2) Keep an eye on you track through out the day. The tracks can jump on the idler wheel - 3) Fabricate your own Tension system, or purchase an aftermarket tensioner (Daryl Tuners upgrade).
1) Main Gun Barrel Seam - 2) May cause recoil issues - 3) Careful sanding, filling, and painting of the seam,or replace with metal barrel.
* 1) Gear Box Brace - 2) Helps reduce gearbox and chassis flex. Metal Tracks cause more stress - 3) Fabricate your own or purchase after market (pcomm1)

If you pictures of any of the above let me know.

Good luck.

Steve,
Enjoy your Tiger 1 build, I can vouch for ETO parts as that is where I bought most of mine for my build, except for the Impact gearboxes and tracks.
Here is a link to my Tiger 1 build, http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-t...me-coming.html I installed most of the upgrade parts available for the Tamiya at the time, except for the PE. Since I battle with mine I avoided adding PE as most of the parts are very thin without much strength. I would suggest you search the forum here and check out some of the many Tiger 1 build threads. You will acquire a lot of expertise from some great builders on the forum, just like I did.
Have fun and post lots of pictures.

Steve

Thanks again ausf and ksoc. It looks like I will leave the lower part stock for now and make any changes as needed, after it has been run for a while. I will probably look into the transmission geardown at some point, but the cost seems pretty high for what you get. Is there someplace besides ETO where one can be obtained for less but still be high quality?

ksoc- do you have any pictures of the servo conversion you did for the main gun elevation? I would love to see some pictures, in case that is something that I want to do in the future. I can imagine having the main gun bounce around when elevation is changed looks kind of silly.

ausf- thanks for the link to your Web site. I have looked through much of it and have it bookmarked, as there is a ton of good information there. I only wish you still made the bending tool. I would buy one of those in a second. The design is genius.

Thanks for the link to your build Shark27. The modifications you made to get the smoke generator to work were very well thought out. I used to be a car audio geek in my younger days, so the speaker modification really peaked my interest, and I may do something similar just to get higher quality drivers and a better enclosure in there. I also like that you placed the speakers beneath the open grilles, so the sound is not having to pass through plastic.

What did you use for sound deadening material in the box you made?

I will definitely search for more Tiger builds, as I have time.

Steve

OK, now on to a couple of questions on upgrade parts and research material.

I have been looking at more metal upgrade parts on both ETO and Matomart. For now, I am interested in things like the tow shackles, driver's hatch hinges, Bosch headlights, and grab handles. I am sure the parts ETO sells are very well made, but I wanted to see if anyone out there has any experience with the Matomart parts. They are not made from brass (looks to be brass) like the parts sold by ETO, but they are also much cheaper. I was just wondering if it would be a mistake to go cheap with the Matmart parts (Assuming they will fit the Tamiya kit). If ETO is the way to go, I have no problem spending the money. It will just slow down the build a little, as I picked up a second project this weekend, and it seems that none of my projects come cheap.

Second, does anyone have any recommendation for books to get when modelling a Tiger? I have seen a couple mentioned, but I cannot remember the names right now. I am no scratch builder, so super details created by me are not on table, but seeing what is not quite right with the kit might help me decide on what upgrades to go for. All the shiny metal on ETO makes it hard not to want everything.

Steve

Steve Sharkey is a great guy.... Trust whatever he tells you and he is probably the nearest RCU Tanker to you as well. He has been a few places and Seen a few Tigers too. Your tank choice has many supporters and Jeff (both of them), Tom, Gregg, Scot..... and many others are fantastic tank builders.

Get a Florida tank club going soon too. There are many FLA tankers just lurking on RCU who haven't found their voice.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982911http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982912http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982917http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982913http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982914http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982915http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1982916

Steve,

Attached is a picture of the inside of my Tiger's turret. I just attached the servo to the metal cross-brace with silicone (Goop).

He is a link to a H.E.A.T. Club forum that explains how to get it all to work with the Tamiya system.

http://heatarmor.com/joomla/index.ph...d=92&Itemid=29

They used the ratcheted stick for the main gun. I prefer the stock config for that being the throttle. If you are not using a ratcheted stick, you will need a Camera Position Controller (CPC) so the gun will not center itself every time you let go of the stick. Available from Dionysus

http://www.dionysusdesign.com/produc...a7d9f816d41d6d

alternative - having trouble logging onto Dionysus Designs

http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-16...ller-V2/Detail

You and me both brother. We did 5 production runs of the Fenderbender and each one got more expensive with more of a hassle, it just wasn't worth it.

Stay tuned, the website will be moving towards 1/16 armor only soon. ;)

That looks like a really great experience Commander. I will have to look up the Bovington tank museum and enjoy what I can via the Web.

I see that they are having another Tiger Day in May. <sigh>

Thanks for the links and the pictures ksoc.

When the time comes, I will have to order one of those Camera Position Controllers from Randy over at RC Dude, grab a servo and Y cable from the parts bin and have a go at it.

Steve

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that you can see both of "thecommander's" hands in photos where he is not standing next to tank, but if he is next to a tank one hand is always fondling the tanks? Just saying!!!!:cool: Ok, I would be fondling the tanks too!!! There I said it!!!:p

What is the general consensus on gearing down the Tiger? I know the parts are kind of spendy, but if it is worth it, I will do it.

Steve

You're going to get a bunch of different opinions on this, but for me, I've never had an issue with it climbing or turning in any instance or surface. If it's purely for the sake of scale speed, that can be handled with your sticks. If you really want to get scale like momentum and inertia, throw in a Turnigy chip between your RX and DMD. It'll put you at a disadvantage in battle, but will certainly act more like a tank.

Thanks for the idea ausf. I had read about the Turnigy chip when building my Leo, but never looked much into it. With the other possible use for recoil, I went ahead and ordered four of them.


I also ordered one of the camera controllers to play with and see if I want o use a servo for elevation. I may not, but thirteen dollars is worth it to play around.