Tamiya 1/16 RC Panther (resumed after a long hiatus)

[boatman]

No worries Chris
I’m working at the moment so there won’t be any progress for a while. I’m hopeful that at the end of this month the running gear will be finished and the lower hull can be seen running. I’ll try and post a video.
Cheers
Paul

OH A VID that will be great but we still got to wait oh the suspence aaaahhhh
chris

 

[boatman]

HI Paul what you still waitin on them gears for your panzther or are you to busy on other things
chris

 

[tr1ckey66]

HI Paul what you still waitin on them gears for your panzther or are you to busy on other things
chris

Hi Chris
Yes, still waiting on the gearbox upgrade. Decided to completely replace the standard gearboxes with ’ETO Armor’ heavy duty units which have more realistic scale speeds. These should be here in a week or 2 (shipped from the U.S.) and then it’s all systems go!

In the meantime I’ve been planning on sculpting a few figures to go with these large scale armour projects. More on that a little later in the build.
Cheers
Paul

 

[boatman]

Hi Chris
Yes, still waiting on the gearbox upgrade. Decided to completely replace the standard gearboxes with ’ETO Armor’ heavy duty units which have more realistic scale speeds. These should be here in a week or 2 (shipped from the U.S.) and then it’s all systems go!

In the meantime I’ve been planning on sculpting a few figures to go with these large scale armour projects. More on that a little later in the build.
Cheers
Paul

OK Paul lookin forward to this resumeumin hope you are well
chris

 

[tr1ckey66]

This is heavy duty stuff...

Finally my new gearboxes arrived from the states., and what mighty fine pieces of engineering they are too. You can see the comparison in the next shot. The original Tamiya g/boxes on the left and the new ETO Armor units on the right (Armor and not Armour as these are from our American cousins). You can see that, not only are the gears much beefier and arranged linearly, the housing is much more substantial too.



I have to say it wasn't a straight forward swap and I did struggle (a bit) to fit the new g/boxes and Schumo bearings. First up, two new holes needed to be drilled into the aluminium chassis to accommodate the new mounts. Then, four of the original holes need to be filled, I simply secured these with short bolts (the underside is now peppered with loads of bolt heads and 4 more won't make a jot of difference). The left-hand drive shaft was then removed from the new g/box and secured into the chassis. The drive shaft was then threaded through the chassis and reattached to the left-hand drive. All that was left to do now was fit the Schumo bearings on the outside - easy enough, or so I thought... Four hours and a lot of expletive language later I finally had everything in. And here they are...



Time to fire this baby up...
Unfortunately, I think I may have fried my new battery by charging it too fast. When connected to the tank the charge was only sufficient to power the DMD for about 20 mins. In that time I was able to get drive to the wheels and sounds from the speaker (wow, I'd forgotten how loud they are), however more time will be needed to set up the transmitter as the control is not as it should be. I have ordered 4 more batteries (I'm going to power up my Tiger 1 as well) but until these arrive I'm kinda stuck again. That said, I have some time off from Thursday of next week and I should be able to really crack on with this, maybe even finish it!
Till then
Cheers
Paul

 

[boatman]

WOW Paul yes I see what you mean about them gearboxs an motors bein more beefier they look strong enough to haul another tank as well are your tracks metal or plastic ?. An how did you find out about these heavyier motors an gearboxs from the U/S ? an yes when you fit something new into a different unit there is always complacatations but it looks as though to me anyway that you flew through fittin them in with a few little blue words in the air. But you done it that's the main thing I think you are like me you will doggley stick at it come what may until its up to what you exspect it to be an your satisfaction is satitisfied as if im not happy with something out it comes an a better idea is fitted as if you don't it will only come back to haunt you later in the build when its more difficult to put right. An regards your batt charger hasn't it got a cut off sencer down to trickle charge like mine as im surprised that you cooked the batts so more exspence on new batts then but if you got to have them well so be it as the model is no good without a good power pack is it but very well done on fittin them in im sure your panzer will go an look awesome
all best chris

 

[boatman]

HI again Paul I have been studyin your pics of your wirein an this is just me but id advise you to cut off them ole white tamyia plastic plugs an replace them with gold bullet connetors because they will not handle a heavy current an will weld togeather through heat up of the current passin through through them as I an several of my friends have found out an we cut them off as when a electric motors strains to produce more power which your tank motors particularly your new heayier motors will do they will draw more current from your batts as on my ships the current can rise up to 30 to 40 amps passin through the circuit as on my ship E.S.C it may draw up to 30 or more amps an its rated at 60 amps so it will have a 40 amp in line fuse fitted to protect it an also its water cooled an have you in your tank got a inline fuse fitted to protect against overload of the systems. As ive seen models catch fire an its a very exspensive time then replacing all what blew all because a 50p fuse was not fitted in the system anyway that's up to you on that but im speaking from what ive seen an had happen to me ps I had two of these plastic tamyia plugs fitted into my hull joint on my USS NIMITZ an I only used it once at full power when sailin her on the pond AN WHEN WE CAME TO PART HER IN TWO WE COULD NOT BUGDE IT AN HAD TO USE A SCREW DRIVER TO LEVER THE HULL IN TWO AS THEM PLUGS HAD WELDED THEMSELVE TOGEATHER DUE TO HOW MUCH CURRENT WAS PASSIN THROUGHT THEM so I had to drill them out an then I fitted heavy duty 60 amp gold plugs then no more trouble BUT AS I SAID Paul its up to you
chris

 

[MikeC]

This is heavy duty stuff...

Finally my new gearboxes arrived from the states., and what mighty fine pieces of engineering they are too. You can see the comparison in the next shot. The original Tamiya g/boxes on the left and the new ETO Armor units on the right (Armor and not Armour as these are from our American cousins). You can see that, not only are the gears much beefier and arranged linearly, the housing is much more substantial too.

View attachment 373250

I have to say it wasn't a straight forward swap and I did struggle (a bit) to fit the new g/boxes and Schumo bearings. First up, two new holes needed to be drilled into the aluminium chassis to accommodate the new mounts. Then, four of the original holes need to be filled, I simply secured these with short bolts (the underside is now peppered with loads of bolt heads and 4 more won't make a jot of difference). The left-hand drive shaft was then removed from the new g/box and secured into the chassis. The drive shaft was then threaded through the chassis and reattached to the left-hand drive. All that was left to do now was fit the Schumo bearings on the outside - easy enough, or so I thought... Four hours and a lot of expletive language later I finally had everything in. And here they are...

View attachment 373251

Time to fire this baby up...
Unfortunately, I think I may have fried my new battery by charging it too fast. When connected to the tank the charge was only sufficient to power the DMD for about 20 mins. In that time I was able to get drive to the wheels and sounds from the speaker (wow, I'd forgotten how loud they are), however more time will be needed to set up the transmitter as the control is not as it should be. I have ordered 4 more batteries (I'm going to power up my Tiger 1 as well) but until these arrive I'm kinda stuck again. That said, I have some time off from Thursday of next week and I should be able to really crack on with this, maybe even finish it!
Till then
Cheers
Paul

Not a problem on the fried battery, the mushroom cloud missed the house.... remember more haste - less speed. Still looking great,
Mike.

 

[Steven000]

Nice progress on the gearbox and electronics Paul, very cool project
Steven

 

[tr1ckey66]

Thanks guys
With regards to the battery - I used a new charger and didn’t set it up properly. I unfortunately charged the battery (4500mah) at 8amps! And not the 4.5A max I should have. I won’t make the same mistake again. I’m also considering using 2 batteries instead of just the one to extend run time.

Chris: I’ve used the Tamiya connectors on my Tiger with no problems so far. I will look into uprating the connectors if necessary but my first priority is to get the Panther running and paired with the transmitter.

Speaking of the Tiger. I’ve just got back from the Halifax show where I entered 3 models in the competition . I got a commendation for my Tiger 1 and a ‘Highly Commended’ for my Galland 109 (which some may remember from this forum).

I’m free to work on the Panther from Thursday of next week and I’m hoping to make some real progress. With a push I may even finish it over the next 3-4 weeks. Thanks again for the kind words it’s much appreciated.
Paul

 

[boatman]

Chris: I’ve used the Tamiya connectors on my Tiger with no problems so far. I will look into uprating the connectors if necessary but my first priority is to get the Panther running and paired with the transmitter

OK Paul leave it at that then perhaps your tanks don't take as much power as my ships as I have big batts in the ships to give plenty of running time

Speaking of the Tiger. I’ve just got back from the Halifax show where I entered 3 models in the competition . I got a commendation for my Tiger 1 and a ‘Highly Commended’commendation for my Galland 109 (which some may remember from this forum).

Paul congrats on commendation an Highly Commended’ very well done from me an glad you had a good day take any pics ?
chris

 

[tr1ckey66]

Chris: I’ve used the Tamiya connectors on my Tiger with no problems so far. I will look into uprating the connectors if necessary but my first priority is to get the Panther running and paired with the transmitter

OK Paul leave it at that then perhaps your tanks don't take as much power as my ships as I have big batts in the ships to give plenty of running time

Speaking of the Tiger. I’ve just got back from the Halifax show where I entered 3 models in the competition . I got a commendation for my Tiger 1 and a ‘Highly Commended’commendation for my Galland 109 (which some may remember from this forum).

Paul congrats on commendation an Highly Commended’ very well done from me an glad you had a good day take any pics ?
chris
[/QUOTE]
It was a bit of a last minute decision to go and I didn’t take my camera. I took these pics of the commendations but that’s it I’m afraid. The competition was really good and there were some excellent models on display. I was very impressed with the junior entries too, excellent stuff.

Sorry about the quality - these were quick pics on my phone...

 

[tr1ckey66]

Electronics sorted!
Finally managed to sort out the electronics on my big cat last week. Through a process of elimination I tracked down the cause of the connection fault to the receiver crystals. These I replaced and... 'bingo', I was back in biz!
After tweaking the set up slightly to my control tastes, the RC now functions as I want it to - All track movement controlled with the right stick, turret rotation left stick (horizontal movement), turret elevation left stick (vertical movement). With left trim pushed left/right I control the main gun and MG.

I've since moved on to building the road wheels. These required painting before I could fit the tyres. I haven't fitted the inner road wheel tyres yet as these still require their rims to be painted with metallic steel paint to simulate their wear on the guide horns of the track.

The wheels were primed first, then given base coat of Dunkelgelb base. After the base coat had dried I then applied a deep shade to the backs of the wheels and a flashed shade to the outside faces. The effect is subtle (in natural light, stood here) and is pretty much what I wanted to achieve. My approach to the painting on this tank will be to give it a subtle modulated style. Anything too dramatic will look really odd because (unlike static displays) this RC model does not have a fixed source of light. I can be pretty confident however on light falling on this tank from above, and therefore vertical fades and shading on the under surfaces is more of what I'm going for.



The difference in shade is best highlighted (forgive the pun) in the above shot where you can see the reverse of the inner wheels (shade) compared with that of the front (flashed). The base colour is somewhere in between the two.
The paint I'm using for the Panther is from the Model Color range which I find gives a beautiful finish when thinned and airbrushed. I also find the pots to be less fiddly and messy than the dropper (Mig/Vallejo) type.
I've elected to use a new product (to me) for the simulation of the steel rims. I'm going to use AK Interactive's Metal Paint which is a buffable wax paint. I’ll let you know how I get on with these and show the results in the next post.

That's it for now
Cheers
Paul

 

[scottie3158]

Paul,
Apologies I have completely missed this up till now. just had a catch up from the beginning. Great work so far. I will now keep an eye out for the next instalments.

 

[tr1ckey66]

Paul,
Apologies I have completely missed this up till now. just had a catch up from the beginning. Great work so far. I will now keep an eye out for the next instalments.

Thanks Paul, this will be a slow burner but i hope, in the end, it will all be worth it.
Cheers
P

 

[Steven000]

Good to hear you fixed the crystals Paul, nice progress on the wheels
Steven

 

[boatman]

GREAT to hear that the panzther will soon be running Paul great stuff
chris

 

[Bortig the Viking]

Electronics sorted!
Finally managed to sort out the electronics on my big cat last week. Through a process of elimination I tracked down the cause of the connection fault to the receiver crystals. These I replaced and... 'bingo', I was back in biz!
After tweaking the set up slightly to my control tastes, the RC now functions as I want it to - All track movement controlled with the right stick, turret rotation left stick (horizontal movement), turret elevation left stick (vertical movement). With left trim pushed left/right I control the main gun and MG.

I've since moved on to building the road wheels. These required painting before I could fit the tyres. I haven't fitted the inner road wheel tyres yet as these still require their rims to be painted with metallic steel paint to simulate their wear on the guide horns of the track.View attachment 376119
View attachment 376121
The wheels were primed first, then given base coat of Dunkelgelb base. After the base coat had dried I then applied a deep shade to the backs of the wheels and a flashed shade to the outside faces. The effect is subtle (in natural light, stood here) and is pretty much what I wanted to achieve. My approach to the painting on this tank will be to give it a subtle modulated style. Anything too dramatic will look really odd because (unlike static displays) this RC model does not have a fixed source of light. I can be pretty confident however on light falling on this tank from above, and therefore vertical fades and shading on the under surfaces is more of what I'm going for.

View attachment 376122

The difference in shade is best highlighted (forgive the pun) in the above shot where you can see the reverse of the inner wheels (shade) compared with that of the front (flashed). The base colour is somewhere in between the two.
The paint I'm using for the Panther is from the Model Color range which I find gives a beautiful finish when thinned and airbrushed. I also find the pots to be less fiddly and messy than the dropper (Mig/Vallejo) type.
I've elected to use a new product (to me) for the simulation of the steel rims. I'm going to use AK Interactive's Metal Paint which is a buffable wax paint. I let you know how I get on with these and show the results in the next post.

That's it for now
Cheers
Paul

Hope you get on with AK Interactive metal paint better than I did, tried the brass, left it for 24 hours went to buff it and it all came off and I only used light pressure.

 

[tr1ckey66]

Hope you get on with AK Interactive metal paint better than I did, tried the brass, left it for 24 hours went to buff it and it all came off and I only used light pressure.

Mmmm, that’s not promising. I have seen some online reviews with demos and the paint seemed fine. I do have my doubts though. Your experience does not fill me with confidence.
Cheers
Paul

 

[Steve Jones]

Just popped in to see how thngs are going Paul. Nice to see the wet stuff on the model. Congratulations on your competition success's. Richly deserved. Thanks for sharing

Steve