14.2.24

Complete at last.

 The tank will soon have a staring role in a film, small independant film, but some interesting cinematography is planned using models. With that in mind the tank is now being dressed for its role. It has had a few items added that are needed plus a bit of netting camo. I will work on the rest of the dressing over the next few weeks, not demanding from a building point of view but definately good fun.

New sound system has been fitted and is awesome. I have managed to get lots of volume and bass from the speakers at last plus I have worked out how to map loads of sound samples onto the same track to create a very layered sound. I will go into more details about the sound system I build as I start on the Elefant transporter over the next few months.













5.2.24

New tank design is born

 

Thomas's new look. The main turret might be fixed but it now sports three guns all firing 209 blanks.
The main gun is stabilzed which makes it look so much better when driving plus the actuator that operates the gun elevator is mounted in a much better position providing much more power.


Hopefully the track issue has been solved with stronger motor mounts added.

The rear hatch is bolted on at the moment but I might change this hor hinges.













The turret dual gun system is now built and fitted to the tank. The servo that will power the turret rota system is not in yet but that should be a simple job. Fire system works well and when all three gun sounds together, very, very loud. Because the barrel is so short the flash and smoke are awesome, not need to add on FX here.
Sound system has been modified and works very well. I am using a ESS-Dual which has been modified to give me a louder sound and linked with my custom sound board so I can run multiple sounds at once, very cool.
Most of the main painting is done, just some detailing and tidying to do. Internally there is much more room which is great and makes it much easiler to access the main gun system.
Hopefully the tank will be complete in the next few days so I can then move on to the transporter.

2.2.24

Crisis Over

 I have worked flat out over the last two days and built a new turret. Must admit I like it much more than the original plus there is much more room in it for the electronics and extra sound system. Top mounted dual rotating gun is not yet built but the main top section is fabricated. Now all it needs is detail and more paint.











The main gun system is slightly modifed with better fune extration but in essence is the same. The main gun elavator is now much stronger and there is zero wobble in the main gun.
The top section will not rotate. What will rotate is the very top section where there will be dual mounted rotating guns angled at about 45 degrees. Both of these will be fitted with dual 209 Blank system which can be independantly fired. This will give the tank three firing gun all fitted with a blank fireing system. 
The main gun is now also gyro stablised.
I think it will be a few more days then I will be able to move back onto the Elefant transporter.

30.1.24

When it all goes wrong

 So I had to re-think the tank design a bit. The lower drive section is fine, although I had a problem. When putting the tank through its paces over  very rough ground one of the brackets holding one of the motors broke. All that happened was one track went slack but luckily did not come off. The brackets holding the motors have now been given a significant upgrade so that will not happen again. 

Main probelm with the tank was the turret. The drive and lower section worked well and did not have any real issues. The turret on the other hand had some terminal problems.

The first was the bouncing of the turret. This was not due to the bearing as I thoguht but the whole base plate on the turret. The turret was made from recycled metal and the metal used for the base of the turret was no good. The steel was deforming to easily and causing the bouncing, a bit like a spring. Due to the fact that the base was moving so much the drive gear to the turret was moving to much and after a heavy day of ofroad driving the gear system was shot. To make matters worse the turret design was also causing problems with the gun elavation. 

Anyway life would not be fun without problems.

After some thought I decided to scrap the old turret design and come up with something new.


My tank was never based on any one design but I had not really considered a turretless tank.
Once I had seen the Stridsvagn 103 I fell in love with the design. 
This will be my new inspiration.
I have decided to keep the lower base section of my tank but modify it a bit. The gun size will be increased and a new elavation system designed with a built in gyro.
I have also decided to increase the firepower of my tank. At the rear there will be a dual gun system mounted to a mini turret. These two extra guns each fitted with a 209 blank fire system will give the tank some serious firepower and noise. I am going to design the back of the new top section to acommadate a modifies Sense Innovations Air sound system.

This new top section will be made from NEW 2mm Mild steel.





The whole new top section will be bolted to posts welded to the lower body allowing the top section to be removed if needed.







There is so much space with this design inside the new top section.
A single removable pannel will allow access to sound system, smoke unit, fmain fire system and drive gear engager.

So nice working with new steel plate.