Jump to content
  • Join our community

    Sign-up for free and join our friendly community to chat and share all things R/C!

Tami's M41A3 bulldog Light Tank ( W.I.P )


Tamiyacowboy

Recommended Posts

Well ,this time i have stowed the Boats, Quadcopters, and motorbikes for a while, and become a TANK Nerd. 

 

Born in 71 and shipped out to Anzak troop ( singapore ) when a tike, so i have been around military things a fair bit of my childhood.

i used to watch tanks rumble down the road and mount transporters, and hear storys from my father (ex army ) about fixing bust tanks and the likes.

 

i blame AJ and John for this mid life crisis, i mean grown men and tanks lol. 

 

Anyways, Unboxing video ? Meh youtube has many.

Modding, OH YES its My area of tinkering the mechanical side and electronic side.

 

But where i come into my own is paint work and replication in small. so expect real wooden ammo crates/boxes

and the likes.

 

The WORDING WIP, it means Work In Progress, it could be finished but may take a long time.

there are a handful other chassis designs that took the M41 ( think of an M24 chaffie on steroids )

and tank commanders well they just like us modded out there machines to cope. down to adding murals to the turrets

and even so far as adding home made side skirts.

 

The Walker M41 first see action in the korea war and in Nam , they done well against the T class opponents.

but they drank fuel. in the end a third revision was made up the A3 , it was a M41 tank given a fuel injection system 

to allow better use of the power. they also came with 500bph compared to that of the 110bph in the M24 chaffie

the light tank they replaced.

 

 

SO down to the model itself, its plastic but not that very cheap medical stuff tend to be used, it has some meat but

could do with extra if you get my drift, the road wheels are a main focus, like a set of floppy dogs ears. 

the rest of the tank is well a TANK , it makes a hpi savage look like a tonka toy.

and boy does it shout detail, i mean i could go on for another paragraph but the detail is bang on.
Some niggles like the front peri's for the driver point skywards and NOT forward. nothing some miliputty and a craft knife cannot solve.

 

well time to go and take a picture maybe and put together this .50cal, and some side railings, maybe a fuel can or two.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

that was fairly easy, well not really but the plastic parts friction fit together with enough manly

grunting. 

 

all but a couple parts fitted lovely push fitted flush and tight. 

 

I found one semi major problem, a rear busted headlamp , i thought it a bit weird building up the rear booty

and when i had finished , i noticed the tail light was like not there, well it was just hanging from wire., so i need to de-cap the top plate

so i can get to the meat n potatoes. 

 

shed load of pictures to pop up, but am shattered at the mo. all of them are Pre-Fitted images showing detail front /side/rear/ top

track n wheel.

 

pictures soon to follow

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

i tried to study the M41 , but im a bit noobish on the old wars.

i liked cowboys and indians for like yrs, was end of school i learnt about the wars. 

 

hardest part is trying to think like they would, what would they have used ready to hand

as in parts and spare to botch up better guns etc etc. 

 

there is one little gripe i have. I aint got no RECOIL on my gun, its a solid mantel fitting.

so i need to find a recoil unit and then hack away the front mantel to allow sliding action.

 

The front canvas was used in cold/wet climates to keep the crew compartment dry when it rained / snowed

thats going to be the hardest to fake up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aye John its a classic TANKY shape , i look at a sherman and dairylea triangle spreads come to mind lol.

 

sadly the .50cal is wrong, the ammo feed box sits to far back and should be more forwards of its location.

the .50 cal alt/dec fork does not fit correct to the 50 cals body peg holes.

mind you in full battle i wouldnt be hanging the gun up there, it would be stowed away. 

 

100% upgrades are, metal sprocket drives, metal tracks, and set of nice flange bearing 4:1 gearboxes.

i would like to drive them maybe with some cheap crawler motors, should be able to crawl upto 46 degree incline and more 

with that torque and bite hold the motors will give, its then just down to track grip/bite.

 

 

First thing i done, was make a cuppa, 

the second thing i did, it involved a craft knife, soft soft material like stuff,

some slight pain but i made something lol. i botched together a gopro like type camera holder stand like

thingamybob to stand the notso gopro on. bit of balsa some crafty knife whittling and i made a little 

balsa plug to fill the commanders plug area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will have a bulldog myself sooner or later. It's all part of the fun improving a tank. BTW one thing to be aware of with the metal tracks available is that the Taigen ones are much stronger and made from better materials than the Heng Long. Lot heavier too which makes them hang right.

I'll be trying these in my Torro Tiger 1, however they won't work with the standard unit in the tank because of the amps.

http://www.hayaltd.co.uk/Heng_Long_Taigen_King_Kong_Motor__2_pcs/p191100_12659225.aspx

Chinese dealer with a UK warehouse with delivery in a couple of days.

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

retracting barrel is a key mod.

 

may have to upgrade board to remove the bad wtf jumpback when the round is hammered home.

maybe if possible just tone down the jumpback so it produces more a rear shock compression than lurching.

 

 

HANDSET, im easy with 27mhz and or 2.4ghz, but 8x aa batterys to power the control is well steep.

so i think it really needs a tinker with, a lipo meter fitted inside, and the ability to run a lipo.

nodoubt a crude 27mhz setup with little millihenry boost coils and likes fitted.

but will it run a lipo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah...the HL 'track recoil' is pretty vile. Looks doubly odd when you rotate the turret 90'........

 

Lots of addon boards remove the effect, and you can get a plugin that just does that. HL and Taigen both do recoil units...and add on ones allow you to use a servo to simulate barrel recoil ( which is what I have on mine ) which goes forward slower than it rams back on firing. Also has an LED in the barrel to flash. Mechanically it's very simple once you get the electrical side sorted

Link to comment
Share on other sites

STICKERS. 

 

So, i dont want these heng long things. rather some more true to like applications. 

 

BUT saying that these heng long stickers are good things, BUT there is a knack of putting them on.

Normally we would cut them out close to as good as we can and shove them on. well NOT SO wit the

tank stickers. 

 

cut your stickers out and place them onto the tank, NOW grab a pencil with a domed top.

use the dome top to work the sticker itself onto the plastic, rub it down like you do kiddies transfers.

but only the sticker bit itself, ie the numbers/lettering.

 

now caerfully peel back the clear plastic, if i am right and you used enough pencil beef pressure

your sticker aka the lettering and numbering should be left applied to the tank, but those horrid

clear sticker parts gone and banished. NO more peeling stickers, these ones are dry transfer stickers !!!

 

Now i would say this is true for ALL heng long stickers (originals)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will have to place pictures up tomorrow if i can. 

 

have started to hardmod the front drivers viewing shields, on the model tank they are 

raised above the drivers hatch and point skywards. i popped one back out of its fitting and took a craft knife to it.

 

now this was a risky thing to do, if you mess it up your knackered, so ONLY try this MOD if your a decent

bodge artist like myself or can get spare replacements. 

 

i have a couple images i will add to the post  showing what areas need removing and how they should be shaped.

and a final image showing how they are seated to be level with the front hatch lid,and facing fore, not at the sky.

 

Edit: The hard modding starts ......... 

 

SO this first image shows you an original front drivers shield to the left , and the hacked version to the right.

some fair amount of plastic needs to be removed.

 

second - third images show the profile of the new unit to the old, you can see there is NO TABBING, so these parts

need to be PERMA fixed in place, superglue or whatever bonding agent you use yourself.

for final touch ups and gapping you can use the good old milliputty to fill and sand back to a plush finish or gibe that welded seam look.

 

the final Image shows the new drivers shield / viewing in place, you can see how the originals sat way above the hatch lid

and pointed to the sky. my revised set now mimic the true M41 - A1-A2-A3 viewshields. 

i have two fitted and seated as a dummy run, and shall finish the last two in the morning, then show a finished hatch unit.

 

 

8J9WOJN.jpg

 

zGLI6DQ.jpg

 

sWSs04Y.jpg

 

tmYmn8J.jpg

Edited by Tamiyacowboy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wasn't sure what you meant about the view ports ... but those pics show it clearly. Lord knows where they got the pics from to mould their ones from! Looks like someone had pulled the vision ports right out and they assumed that was the normal place! Got to love the Chinese.

 

Going to look loads better once you are done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys. 

 

i got three finished last night, but the old hands started playing up,

they got to cold to work with and safely, so i stopped for the night. 

 

each one is hand cut, then hand carved down to rough fitting

then final sanded to seat in place. Its the one area the walker falls down on.

the poor drivers view shields, pentaprism view ports i could understand at that type of angle.

but an incoming round would blow them right off and penetrate the crew area.

and the driver is not locked into the hatch.

 

Next is gluing them all up to place. it require a sewing needle/pin - superglue

and a very steady hand. i am in cardio clinic tomorrow so i expect them to be fully installed by weekend.

 

Current worked hours on bulldog is 2hrs.

current running time of tank 0hrs.

 

tank has not been started, tested as of yet either .

Edited by Tamiyacowboy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well i bashed on as good as i could. its taken two cups of warm tea.

some careful planning and lots off pre imagination to see the items finished.

 

remember that last image above, the ugly looking drivers viewing shields. now our drivers hatch kinda

lifts up and rotates, but doing this means it would jam against those view ports that are slighlty shaped wrong. 

 

well now i give you the finished item, all four ports have been cut to an angle , shaved and sanded.

then micro dabs of superglue to get them into place. the tops of the ports should slope a little

so they have been fitted none flush to the top lip, some milliputty, will be added way down the line,

to fill out and add a slight camber to those tops, and fill in the gaps .

 

3Ugqz0j.jpg

 

OhEazj6.jpg

 

 

 

I also popped some batterys into the handset, at first nothing , no power light.

you had to put batterys in so they sat like /\ then pushed them each down while watching to see if the power light came on.

 

the handsets just dont like AA - or nihm AA batterys, the battery fins block the batterys touching each other.

so if you find your handset not working with batterys installed, try the above method at seating them. when you get that light to go red on the handset.

you will then understand why you may want to remove the splitting runners in the battery handset tray. the vertical seperation fins are to thick

to allow the batterys to make contact.

 

But all works, the sound its just noise and loud to, i did not prime the smoker, and couldnt work out why the gun wouldnt fire,

i mean who adds an on off switch to a gun lol, turret rotation is annoying to me and that wierd up /down turret thing.

its like my endpoints are way of screw. so yeah i NEED 2.4ghz and namely my DX6I.

 

 

Lighting, hmmm led's are fairly bulky and those front lamps are very tiny, so i am thinking SMD lighting.

using an old brushed micro motor for its epoxy coated tiny thin wire. thin enough not to act as a heat element

but thin enough to be hidden as weld lines , the SMD are tiny so will fit inside the housing easy. 

the thin wires soldered direct to the SMD led and a tiny dab of rubber glue to face it fore. ?

good idea do you think ?  using a hole punch to punch out some clear discs to glue in place.

slotted and blacked out

Edited by Tamiyacowboy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks guys n ladys ( we may have some reading , one never knows) 

 

it was annoying for me, BUT to a young lads eyes / none military person its a tank

the old styled view ports had a more modern style, they looked kind of out of place,

but not in a quirky way. 

 

but a bulldog is a 50-70s tank and needed the 60's style porting done.

 

one thing that would have been nice was the gun stowage on the rear. it was a lump of metal with an arm

that kept the barrel stowed pointing rear and locked in, more like a barrel rest. 

My exhaust pipe was to loose and to long even when cut down to fit it would still drop down at the body section.

so i took frame C and cut it up to make a new exhuasting pipe, but used a lug to make sure it kept raised above the deck

and in place. i will reveal it at another time, or you may notice it in futher images i post.

Edited by Tamiyacowboy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...