RC Tanks Australia Forum

The full metal Hull for my Leopard 2a6 which I ordered from DKLM arrived yesterday. My apologies I got straight into fitting it out and forgot to take pics of the empty hull.

The hull is cast in a fairly low grade aluminium, and is very solid. It comes with mount holes for DKLMs own gearboxes, or for H/L type gearboxes. I used the 3.1 steel gearboxes and JP400 motors from the original hull I had. These fitted nicely and all mounting holes lined up. There is also a plastic cover for the majority of the hull which covers the torsion bars.

Here is a pic of the basic hull fitted out with an IBU2 Pro, amp, viper volume control Tarr 1 smoker, LiPo battery, and speaker



The rear plate is a separate casting again in aluminium. It has holes for LED rear lights the same as H/L, exhaust ports for the smoker, and on off switch which could also be set up for charging if you wish, and a H/L 9 pin connector I assume to plug a charger into. All fits together nicely. Fit to the upper hull is the same as H/L except only 4 screws are used.




The on off switch and H/L 9 pin connector are behind the 2 boxes one either side of the tow hook. These are spring loaded and fold down to access the switches. The mud flaps on the rear panel are hinged. I added the AFC working tow hook which is very nice.

The torsion bar suspension is very simple, but effective.



I paid extra to have the hull painted. this is done very well, with colours matching the H/L ones, and also matching up the camo pattern. I think this was $8 extra. this can be seen on the bottom of the hull.



The fit to the H/l upper is very good




The wheels did not come painted, and are actually H/L metal wheels with roller bearings. I fitted the wheels I already had painted as these are the same wheels.



The tank seems to sit better on the new suspension. All runs well now it is set up.

This is in my opinion a very good upgrade hull for the H/L leopard, however it is pricey. It corrects a lot of the difficulties with the h?l hull, especially the excessive flex, and spring suspension.

I will be progressing on with this build. Next up I have a set of Tamiya turret baskets to replace the H/L ones.

This tank is now fitted with 3s LiPo battery. I definitely recommend this for modern armour if your control system will handle it. Great performance enhancement all round.

I built and fitted the Tamiya turret baskets yesterday. For those interested I have found the best match for the green on the H/L Leopard 2a6 is Tamiya XF-26 deep green. not quite an exact match, but close enough that under weathering and filters it should look the same.





More to follow

Paul

Good looking hull and good job on the baskets

Gra

_________________
Gra's Heavy Tank Regiment
HL Tiger 1 - El Mod, Tiger 1, K T Porsche turret, Panzer III & IV, Stug G & E, Panther D,
Matorro KT, Jagdtiger and Sturmtiger, HL Sherman and T - 34, A7V (WIP)
Panzergruppe South Member

Since getting the DKLM metal hull I have debating what to do about the misplaced rear lights. In common with H/L, the 4 lights on the rear of the 2A6 are actually where the reflectors are on the real tank. The actual rear lights are the 2 oblongs near the top reflectors on both side.

I decided today to move the lights to the correct position. from the outside to the centre the lights in the leopards rear cluster are indicator/break/rear light. So I drilled the rear light position in each cluster to take a 3mm LED, and then adapted the wiring to light these rather than the 4 existing LEDs.



The old LEDs have been left in place for now, but I have some reflectors on order from AFV, and I will use these when they arrive.

Next I made new lenses to cover the rear light clusters. These where placed on masking tape for painting, and then the backs where given a coat of Tamiya clear red and clear orange as appropriate. Once this had dried the backs where then given a coat of Tamiya chrome silver paint, but leaving the rear light section on each clear for the LED to be seen through.


Once these lenses are dried I will fit them on the rear light clusters using white PVA glue. This goes clear when dry and so is less noticeable.

Paul

The lenses have now dried and been attached to the back of the tank. They have then had black lines added using a fine line permanent pen to represent the gaskets around the lenses, and to mark out the different lights.



Lights on


Lights off


Lights on



Paul

Cool well done

Gra

_________________
Gra's Heavy Tank Regiment
HL Tiger 1 - El Mod, Tiger 1, K T Porsche turret, Panzer III & IV, Stug G & E, Panther D,
Matorro KT, Jagdtiger and Sturmtiger, HL Sherman and T - 34, A7V (WIP)
Panzergruppe South Member