I really like my HL Tiger but I find the airsoft gun to be lacking. It's impossible to target practice with it because of the inaccuracy and range. So, with all the customizing going on here, has anyone installed a differnet gun?
I was thinking of making a 22 caliber gun that shoots 20 grain (primer only) Calibri rounds. If your unaware, they are basically 22 rounds with no powder in them, only a primer. They have roughly the same power as a CO2 air rifle. Punch through 1/4" plywood at 30 meters.
Anyone else this crazy on the board? Anyone done it before?

You better check the legality of this with your police department.

Radio controlled firearms are never a good idea.

Sure, that's the easy downer answer and I knew it would pop up right away. I didn't check regs but I can pretty much imagine it is illegal. Then again so is speeding, fireworks, smoking before your 18, and stretching the limits on your tax return. I'm sure you've never done any of these
I was just asking if any of the creative and innovative people on this board have thought about it, done it, or dreamed about it.
After all, I think 99% of people that are interseted in tanks are simply because they have the capacity to blow things up. I spent the night looking through this board, viewing the pics and movies and it looks like you all spend time building/modifying then staging combat action. The more realistic the better. You have to admit that a little bit of fire power and the smell/smoke/recoil that goes with it would be pretty realistic. Much more than a little yellow piece of plastic that shoots about 5 meters and rolls to a stop.
This is not a flame but come on, it would be cool.

Actually most people who enjoy RC tanks like the vehicle itself and the history behind it. The shooting part is more like a gimmick to me. Its neat to have but in the end you wind up driving it more than shooting at things. I have 8 RC tanks and NONE fire a projectile of any kind. I could mount a 9 MM automatic into one but dont want to. To me its more fun seeing it move and go through its environment.

i think an airsoft would be more legal then that .22

I guess different people are into the hobby for different reasons. I also enjoy the history of the vehicles.
Myself, I'm a mechanical engineer and I am constantly designing things. Given my skills in fabrication, design, stress analysis, materials science etc. I like to work on highly functional scale representations. It seems like a doable project.
What really sparked my interest wa a video I saw on youtube of a scale browning. Here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSzshkg9LJ0&eurl=

pretty darn sure this thing is illegal.

not if your a certified gunsmith.

instead of a 22 using primers and raising the "guns are bad" crowd use a c02 powered auto pellet pistol. modify it similar to what they do with paintball guns in the 1/6th scale tanks.

I don't have the link but there was a guy who built a custom M2 Bradley with a homemade chain gun. He said it fired blanks, I thought I saw dirt flying up in the distance though!

Good idea. I started looking at websites and found the R/C ship crown that shoot bb's with CO2. Maybe a safe and sane way to do it. Found this schematic for a CO2 cannon. I'm test foring it in my shop trying to verify it's performance. started laying the thing out ion CAD to see what fits. Completely prelim but as you can see, the Clippard components are wuite small.

There is one example of a tank model that was armed with a (scale) .22 rifle mechanism

http://kowboy1.bananaman.com/modeltank/tiger.htm

Obviously, like the author says, this is very dangerous!

I seem to remember that tomrctanks.com has a video of a KT he fitted with a bb or pellet gun.

Been thinking about this myself for some time. I just tested a bb shot from an aluminum tube using a blower hooked to a small compressor. At 75 psi, the shot ricocheted around my basement for a good ten seconds!

I need a 12 gram adapter to hook up to one of those Clippard valves, the rest should be easy enough. I was considering using the pistol port on the turret as a way to change the 12 gram cartridge without having to take the turret apart to do so.

The feed mechanism may be tricky depending on the method used.

OK, I've spent a little time on this now and I've had some success. I did the same experiment of blowing a bb through a brass tube and found that that could give me the level of power I was looking for. I took apart the airsoft gun and figured out how to meld the two. I took out the weak airsoft spring and inserted a sliding brass tube barrel in there so I could use the original loader. I used the clippard components from the diagram above and made a bracket to hold it together and allow for an elevation servo. The key is to build an accumulator that will supply a good volume of air all at once. Made mine out of copper pipe. I haven't worked in the CO2 bottle and reg so I fire it in my shop on compressed air. It's relatively safe and eye protection is a must.
So here's the kicker. This thing just plain fires. The airsoft bb's are junk and weigh in at just .12g. I got online and ordered .3g aluminum airsoft bb's. My god! I can easily punch through a beer can at 30 feet.
This is just my first level of experimentation. I'll update as I progress.

Paintball makes lots more sense. You can get the guts for a repeating action at Wal Mart.

Here's the online selection - costs less than $200.

They shoot 300fps -- dangerous, but not lethal. They can make a huge red or yellow splat. They are decently accurate over 30 yards or so -- and will shoot close to 90 or so - maybe more. Ammo is equally available. You can see the projectile in flight, yet it is fast and large enough to be impressive. Finally, with appropriate eyewear, you can fight 'em nondestructively against other, like-armed tanks, and clean up with water. You can even go up against the other radio controlled tanker.

You could even mount a lipstick - sized video cam on the tank and require use of the cam only for warfare.

Make the opposing tankers fair targets, too. That's an attack on headquarters.

Those paintballs are more than 1/2 inch in diameter... way too big for a 1/16 scale tank.

lol get a strumtiger :P