Took a break from 3D printed tanks and just like Jarlath, got a TongDe tank (M109 Paladin) from Dean's club order. I don't have the unboxing photos but here is the end result. For some strange reason, I cannot get the TongDe 3.0 board to do servo recoil even though the documents says it does (and I have gotten it to work on the 2.0 one). One reason could be that they have now switch to the BB Recoil units, so they don't need to have servo recoil anymore. I was fully going to use the TongDe board for this tank but couldn't stand the BB recoil so ended up putting in a IBU2 board. 

The tank itself is the usual TongDe later release fare, which is to say excellent. The one thing is that the elevation is design to be quite large and they did not disappoint. Since I have to put in my own recoil, I ended up adding about 2cm to the length of the barrel which makes the already long barrel even longer. Different variation of the M109 has a number of different gun install so this would not be unrealistic in real life. The targeting sight is already set-up for DIY motorized, but I added a simple 360 servo instead. I have also added in barrel smoke using the smoker that came with the tank. The only disappointment is that the decals set is for an Egyptian version of the M109. That was a real head scratcher until I goggle images for M109 and all I get is the Egyptian version so no doubt that is what they did not knowing it is Egyptian ?!?!?!? Very strange. Mine has the Tamiya Light Sand as a base colour so the standard Golf War version.   

BTW, if you have extra dough lying around you can always get the DKLM A6 turret for the M109 and I have no doubt it is as excellent as all of his other turret add-ons (M60A2, Leo2A4, M4A3E8, Challenger etc).

Lastly TongDe electronic supports Tamiya Battle System with a default of 5 lives out of the box. The only thing is that it doesn't have reload time between firing.

Holy elevation Batman!

I did think about one of those as well. TongDe tanks look great...

Hammertime999999999 wrote:

Holy elevation Batman!

Yup and that is what is suppose to be !

Jarlath, Dean still has one for sale I believe. So it is not too late...........  

If you are a fan of the M109s, you would really like it like me.

Very cool vehicle. I do like the MANCAVE sign on the bookcase in the background too. 

Yeah that mancave sign is from a friend and I didn't want it on the wall so just put it on the shelf instead. I am very particular about what goes on the walls.

There goes a perfectly good M109A6

Good job we don't have an operating railroad at the field The insurance company is going to love that claim

Ouch. Surprised it didn't derail the train!

Shoveler74 wrote:

Ouch. Surprised it didn't derail the train!

It actually hit where the fifth wheel is, so didn't hit the cab or the tank itself. Also I think M109 is basically slightly heavier than a M2 so the train engine with momentum still wins I think.

Those locomotives just spun that turret around like it was nothing. Other than a massive ship nothing has the momentum and unstoppable power of a freight train. I always feel sorry for the train crews as there really is nothing they can do in those situations