As you may or may not have noticed at Aquino... My eldest broke my Panzer IV's turret skirt armour, Schürzen (dastardly Evil children!).
It also stopped working for them with no explanation... (I had thought that I may have fried the Clark board in it). It had the magnetic upper hull mods, but still had the bottom access battery box. Since it was in for repair... Time for a Big Mike, reworking!

Ripped out pretty much everything except the motors. I did however drill through and bolt down one motor base as it was extremely easy to flex (stripped motor screw to lower hull).
Cut out the battery box, except for the front most panel. Put in the fire wall using the remaining portion of the battery box.
Added in a 3/8 square tube hull brace to the front firewall.
Glued the old battery cover in place, and resin filled the entire rear compartment to a roughly flush level.
Adding in a wood base for the clark board and acts as a battery stop.
Reused the old speaker in the exact same location.
Side mounted the receiver (Through holes along side posts to allow passage)
Added a fan above the Clark FET's, powered by the receiver
Secondary brace/battery guide and new power switch
Did I mention Wiring cleanup?


So the general overview of the finished PZ IV lower hull.


The wooden base for the Clark. Double sided tape on the bottom of the HL MFU case half (Surrounding the Clark)


Receiver and antenna placement in the lower hull


The Fan above the FET's. I checked the board after and everything worked... Maybe the old power switch failed?


Wiring clean up in lower hull. Yes those are crimped connectors, in case I have to remove the switch... Soldering in such a small tight space would be a Pita!


Side shot showing the overall height of the components in the lower. There is an additional 15+mm above the lower hull edge internally, so lots of space vertically...


Shot from the front. Could only fit one motor Heat Sink on, but it will have to do.

Next... Upper hull work....

Since the hatches and magnets were already in place, I decided to remove some looseness in the wires and correct opening and closing smoothness..


Upper hull in place with front hatches removed for re-install later.


Rear hatches re-installed and curing the CA...


Other side of tank.


Clean up of the upper hull. Build up of the 8 pin connector and added the red JST connector for the elevation motor (Opposed to the two single Futaba pins on the rear 3 x 3 board).


Rotation unit only had 2 mounting screws due to the deck removal for the hatches, so I fabricated a nice study lip and bolted it in place with a 2mm bolt.


New location for the 8 pin connector board. Off to the side and a LOT of spare cable for upper hull service.


High Temp Glue Gun = Nice tight wiring on the hull.


Showing the stacked plastic buildup to ensure clearance from the rotation gear ring. Don't want any chewed wires...


Rearward image. Battery installed and 50% hooked up. Lots of clearance for a rotating turret.


Now showing a forwards image of the turret ring in place. Fan over the Clark FETs.


Front Hatches awaiting curing of CA


I'm not bothering with painting the inside of the hatches...


All front hatches open...

Nice job on all the hatches Big Mike !

I cannot take credit... They were mounted when I bought the tank. I just remounted the upper deck ones.

Hmmm where did you get the PzIV from ?

Jughead, early last year.

Nevermind. The turret has Tamiya space armour fitted to it right ? Pretty sure I sold the top to him. Very few Heng Long's have it retro fitted with all open hatches......

This is the tank.

Yeah that's my baby. Metal headlights, metal tools, metal hatches, conically correct metal barrel with Tamiya space armour on the turret. I spent more money on the add-ons than the tank itself.

I'm in the habit of getting a tank from you and re-wiring it now