Well, all is not well in r/c tank land tonight. Finally unboxed my HL Pz III tonight. Charged my batteries for nearly six hours. Switched on everything and the tank wouldnt go. If I stand on top of the tank it will work 70% of the time. I thought it might have been interference from things inside so I took it outside (without shoes on in 27F, thats like nearly -3C for you northern guys ) and it still didnt run correctly. I dont have the right tools here tonight, but tomorrow I'm gonna tear it down and check out the board to see what the connections look like. Its just about got to be a bad connection/wire/ soldering job somewhere. If yall got any other ideas im open for that as well. I did put on the external antenna as well.

Perhaps you have already looked at this but I thought I'd toss an obvious one in here (don't ask me how I know )

Before going any further with this, has the external wire antenna been fitted?

It sounds like the way they act without the antenna

What version did you get? Did it come with a smoker?

It might be the crystals plugs. Try pulling them out and and placing them back in, just don't mix them up.
The one for the tank is usually located by the battery and the other is located below the sticks of the controller with a cap on it.

Give this a try first, some times the crystal are just loose.

If that don't work, open it up and take a look. As a tip, I always take a picture of the inside, so when I start pulling it a part I'll have a refencne for later.

By the way it sounds it could be the antenna, it might be a loose connection.

Don't worry too much this things are usually fixable.

I had the same issue with my donor Panzer III tank for my indiana jones project.

The culprit was a loose wire off the VOLUME CONTROL... i guess it completes a circuit somewhere.

I re-soldered it, and everything was fine.

Checked everything out. Did tighten the screw on the upper hull to the antenna terminal slightly. No broken welds, looked pretty good. Discharged the battery and am recharging overnight. (7-8hrs) I'll give it another try tomorrow.

My 2 cents worth .My problem was the transmitter batteries that I got from the Kwikie Mart . turned out they were 5 years old .

I think I figured it out. After another attempt with a fully charged battery today it still didnt work. Only the starting function would work sometimes. As I said before the inside of the tank looked fine so this time I opened the controller. There was absolutely nothing connected to the external antenna! Nothing. So, im going to improvise a fix and see if this does it. Stay tuned...

Im dumber than I look folks,....Im embarressed to say I didnt get the antenna all the way connected.....sigh. Move along, nothing to see here! lol

Yay fully operational Panzer III!!

I think you'll totally enjoy it. The main "weak point" is the idler wheel, being held on by plastic CAN be an issue, but it actually is not bad.

You're the proud owner of a very good tank with a lot of upgrade options, and choices for specialization

Well glad you have it working .. now go shoot the cat...

Started tearing down my PzIII tonight to get it ready for paint. Does a guy want to take the bogey wheels off to paint it or I was thinking of taping up the rubber on it and painting it?

It might be easier to tape them over. The wheels are sort of a pain to take off at first, and require a drop of glue to hold them together afterwards!!

The most "missing" wheels on the battlefield are Panzer 3s

This is the camo paint per Stinger in the Flat light brown. Looks really good. The one spot of glossy there is a touch up

Looks good! Do you have cameo scheme in mind or will this be a DAK unit?

I do have a camo scheme in mind, however, if I botch it then I was just doing a DAK scheme! Lol The tank I wish to replicate is a replica that is on the show circuit. A desert ish camo with 213 for hull id #s in red. I don't have a pict handy on my iPad otherwise I'd post the pict for u.

I love that camo paint, it works wonders.

My Sherman is the same colour

CJ781 wrote:

I do have a camo scheme in mind, however, if I botch it then I was just doing a DAK scheme! Lol The tank I wish to replicate is a replica that is on the show circuit. A desert ish camo with 213 for hull id #s in red. I don't have a pict handy on my iPad otherwise I'd post the pict for u.

Is it this one?

This is the one. I hope its not above my abilities. I will probably try on something else first and then do the PzIII.

On a different note I now have a KV-1 coming my way that I won on ebay. HL Super metal version. I won the bid by $.10! I'm sure the other guy was pissed!

I like the como. Any idea where the picture was taken?

I hate to be the one that sounds like a dick, but thats a recreation Panzer 3, if you didn't already know! I forget what its based on but I think it's russian. Note the only 5 road wheels

Still, it LOOKS awesome, and RUNS awesome, I say go with it, your P3 will look sweet.

good eye

It's based off a british FV432, there are a few conversions! Oh if I had $100k... I'd build one too

Strato50 wrote:

It's based off a british FV432, there are a few conversions! Oh if I had $100k... I'd build one too

100k? It is not enough.

Yes i did know it was a replica, I had read somewhere that it was. I've looked at buying a real tank, if I could use it to pick corn with I'd buy one as they cost the same as the combine I just bought!

Still really like that pattern...