RC Tanks Australia Forum

So I guess its about time I started a thread covering my modification attempts on my M41.

The goal here I guess is to create some form of German army M41-G out of my HL M41A3. It won't be perfect, but Im sure I'll create something that is close enough to keep myself happy.

I started with a basic airsoft, non-Smoke and Sound HL M41. I stripped it down into its component parts and in the process broke a shock absorber from the suspension. No great problem as I managed to source a replacement. I plan on replacing the tracks with metal tracks and I guess that means replacing/upgrading a lot of the associated parts to cope with the extra forces involved with the new tracks. In that regard she's also getting steel gearboxes, drive sprockets and while I am at it I may as well prepare for the future and install a track tensioner.



On Wednesday I caught up with Kevin and collected a bunch of new electric goodies. I'm switching to 2.4ghz via the RC2HL and 9X, and am also putting a Mako into the system to pave the way for the IR battles which I know is only a matter of time (should also disable the track recoil nicely too).



Kevin's demonstrations cleared a lot of things up for me and gave me a few new ideas.

As is always the case, 2 steps forward and 1 step back. It seems my RX18 has packed it in. At least, I think its the RX18. The problem is that as you move the throttle lever, the motor pinions start to move, just enough to take up any slack in the gears and then stop, The motor starts whining, but not doing much more until the throttle is extended fully, given a bit of a wiggle, or you stick your fingers in and give the gears a bit of a nudge, at which point the motor/gears start to turn as expected. Its much like the motors are lacking the torque to get things to start moving. But it only happens intermittantly, as occasionally everything operates as expected the moment the throttle is moved.

After messing about with things for a while, as soon as the power was switched on the motor connected to the right side connector would just spin at full speed, and upon checking the RX 18 for dodgy connections I can see a little tiny scorch mark on a part of it...I guess that answers that.

That leaves the question of whether the RX 18 was also to blame for the prior issue with the motors stalling out? I am guess that yes it does, and my letting it happen while I worked on the problem probably caused them to pull too much power leading to the second problem with the visible scorch mark on top.

I am off to Melbourne for a week tomorrow, so when I get back I will replace the burned out rX18 and hopefully everything will be...wait for it...'back on track' (hehehe), unless anyone has another suggestion?

I have started a lot of the cosmetic modifications to the body too, such as building the smoke dischargers, creating the mantlet cover, weld lines, barrel mods for the servo recoil, etc but I might put that in a second post when I get some more photos of all that stuff.

Jan

So here's a brief update and set of pics.

My previous motor issues have been solved with the arrival of a new RX18. It seems that I was correct and that the old one was a bit flakey. Anyway, I dropped in the new chip and everything seems to be running more or less as expected now.

My little photo montage here shows some of the other changes I have been making. Its all pretty standard stuff such as repositioning the APU exhaust to the front, adding weld lines using milliput, lowering the front end of the pioneer tool rack, corecting the angle of the drivers periscopes, and constructing a travel lock for the gun out of styrene, aluminium tubing and the remnants of the pershing travel lock. I have also installed a Henntech track tensioning system as I expect that sooner or later it is going to be a necessity anyway due to the weight of the metal tracks.



Since taking these pics I have progressed quite a bit, so there'll be more to follow soon.

Jan

And after an initial coat of primer, this is where things stand currently...



I am still playing with some resin stowage items (thanks Kevin) and a few other bits and pieces I have built.

The smoke dischargers I have built from styrene and some fine chain. Theres a slight scale issue with them, though given the overall scale issues with the Bulldog I am not sure I will bother to rebuild them or correct it, its not that big of an issue that it really concerns me a lot anyway. My plan is to get a base color coat on before mounting them on the turret sides. There is some decals which need to go behind them as well, which will also probably need to be applied before mounting them.

The APU exhaust I hace connected up using some lace curtain cable with the outer plastic stripped off.

After making a bunch of experiments and tests to come up with a solution for the cloth mantlet cover which would be both flexible enough to drape correctly yet still allow for disassembly and getting inside the turret as needed,I decided that my best solution would be to sculpt the cloth directly onto each of the 3 main turret pieces unsing milliput. Careful sculpting managed to hide the seam between the turret and mantlet relatively well and disguise it as a fold in the cloth, whereas the join around the side I will just have to live with if I can't diguise it as a seam in the fabric. Anyway, I am pretty happy with the result as it should convey the feel of the tank properly, yet still be robust enough that I can get inside to do whatever work I need to without having to be overly cautious about damaging things.



Well, I'll have more updates at some stage soon.

Jan

After a busy couple of months I have finally gotten around back to the M41. At this stage I would consider it pretty much complete.

Painting went ahead in a straight forward manner. I primed with pale grey and preshaded along the recesses and panels with black. Being aware that the weathering stages would affect the final color, I then started with an overall base of Nato green. I modulated the color on the upper surfaces with a slightly lightened shade. Next was application of the decals followed by a wash of burnt umber along the recesses and panels lines. Using a lighter mix of green with a fine brush I applied paint chips to areas of wear being careful not to over do things as I imagine that the real articles would have been relatively well cared for. A 50:50 mix of red brown and dark grey created the bare metal shade that I then applied inside of some of the more heavily worn areas of chipped paint.

At this stage the decals and scratches / paint chips were contrasting quite strongly with the base color, and so I applied a a pale green, followed by a slightly browner toned filter over everything which brought everything back together nicely, and shifted the greener tone of the nato green base coat into a more desaturated olive shade.

There are several old german films in black and white showing the M41's on exersises, and I wanted to emulate the look of these vehicles. With that in mind I used a heavily thinned mix of pale sand, which I built up in several very fine coats to provide a dusty look. I couldn't use pigments due to the handling that the tank will ultimately recieve.

I cut some headlight lenses from clear plastic and added them to the tank at this stage, painting the inside of the IR lenses with black. To create the feel of the vehicles in the old films I then added some fallen leaves to the tank and added some scale branches and foliage (this step is still a work in progress).

Unfortunately I got the lighting wrong while taking the photos which makes things a little brighter than they should be. At some stage I'll take some better ones. Anyway, here's the pics...






The figure is just a modified HL panzer commander figure where I removed the iron cross / Nazi eagles etc. In hindsight the cut of the uniform is different from the post war uniforms in use by the Bundeswehr, but at this point I just wanted things finished and so I didnt bother to change that. I painted the figure with a fine brush trying to recreate the look of the post war splittertarn pattern used at the time.



Aside from some last minute wierdness which my electrics which is now solved and under control, everything has gone exceedingly smoothly and I am quite happy with this build. Next up is the T-55 which is sitting in its box in the corner of the living room.

Jan

I like that the weathering is noticeable but still subtle enough not to overpower the whole look of the tank.

Really nice mods & paint work you've done on this project!

~ Craig ~

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(¯`·._.·´¯`·._ ★ B.A.D.A.S.S. F⊙rce Club F☮under ★ _.·´¯`·._.·´¯)

Nice work, really like the foliage...nice touch.

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Tamiya Tiger 1, Tamiya M4 105 Sherman, Tamiya Jagdpanther G1, ElMod HL Jagdpanther G2, ElMod HL KV-1E, ElMod HL Stug 40 G, HL Panzer III L

Great job......i'm also going to detail my bulldog and u have given me some good idears.
The first pic with regards to converting from am radio to 2.4G .....what is the circuit board called that plugs in between the old and new receiver?
Also can I ask where you bought it?
Can I run a lipo with the original electrics?


Cheers
Scott

Amazing work. I really appreciate your efforts and nice to see. Thanks for sharing.

Great looking modifications Jan!!! It's nice to see something different than another stock M41.