I like the look of that.

I will be following this one with great interest 

You didn't even play withit before tearing it apart!!!!    

Oh I did too, waving it through the air like a toy airplane yelling 'WOOSH' in the office :p

I'll probably start on the steering setup this week.

Were you able to find anything for the steering yet?

I haven't had a change to get to hobby to look for anything, main because it over a half an hour to get there.  

I got brave and decided to attempt my first ever brass & soldering work. A quick youtube tutorial and away I went.

This is the result.

Now that's that's getting creative 

Very cool looking Jordan
soldering on brass is actually kind of fun i did my intake vents on my old Panzer III that way

Thanks guys  I'm having a lot of good fun with this one, hehe, so far it's looking to be a great little terror

Anyhoo, I'm pretty well finished with the driving aspect of the sprockets. I had to remove them from the hull (what a pain..!), split them, sand off the non-functioning drive teeth / rollers, and then drill & file for 2 days so that the teeth of a Panzer 3/4 track fit inside them, much like how a T-34 drive works.

It all came together, as you can see in the pictures, when I started using a small square file. At first I'd go straight through, all the way around the wheel. Then I'd go through at an angle, for example if I started at the '12 oclock' position, I'd exit through the 5 oclock, and 7 oclock positions. This gave it some internal angles and works perfectly with the tracks. A few times around, and all is well.

Derek I can lend you my magic square file.. hehe. 

,

 what are you going to use for steering a servo
i have been wondering what kind to go with but i have been experimenting with rc cars maybe using the steering off of them this is one using HL electronics, sorry i have to fix my camera not sure what mode it's on looks like drunk mode...lol

Strato50 wrote:

Derek I can lend you my magic square file.. hehe. 

Thanks Jordan, I won't be starting mine until I get back from my trip to the East Coast.

Have you tried them with the tracks yet? Is it a good fit?

Well I dont have much to mount them on but yes, I've run the tracks through the wheels just holding it between my fingers and gave it a spin. They mesh surprisingly well and the teeth don't slip out.

I'm considering building some sort of basic track tensioner for the last wheel, as tension will play a big part of keeping the tracks nice and smooth.

Small update...

Derek and I had ordered a pair of VS Tank gearboxes from rctoybay, and have basically been waiting patiently for 2 months...

I emailed them yesterday asking whats up, and they very casually stated "Oh, those items are still out of stock, would you like to continue waiting or get a refund..?"

...pardon? Out of stock? Since BEFORE we ordered them they have been, and still are, clearly listed as IN STOCK. What the hell?

I'm rarely angered over online toy purchases.. but common... that's crappy business practice and they would have happily held onto my (our) money until I said something...!!

><

sorry to hear that

I for the record when I say this is not to be sarcastic but .......you my friend are one master crafts man for this superb job

SO!!..

I got 4x of the micro gear motors from Servo City to use in these monsters.

2 out of the 4 motors in my package JUST DONT WORK. No response to power at all. Wow.

Having really sh*tty luck with these things... I'm amazed at this cr*p... ><

Anyhoo.. the story continues... dealing with Servo City now to fix this...

Sigh...

Did some work on the steering arrangement. So far so good, these pivoting servo connectors came in real handy. 

Won't the protruding bolt head snag something when driving off road?

Probably yes, but it's only about 1/4 below the front bumper and higher up above ground level than I thought.. I think it'll be ok.

Got some parts today... and boy am I happy! A few reasons... these VsTank Tiger gearboxes were $20 a piece, INCLUDING shipping...! Courtesy of the VsTank "Club". All I had to do was sign up, and I have a huge number of parts with good prices... 

Anyhoo, it fits dang snugly in the halftrack's hull. I had to trim away a bunch of material to install it but it's actually the correct width more or less. The road wheels were removed to install the gearbox and will go back right ontop of it. The road wheels are all 1 piece in a sort of side plate.

Also the motors already have the same connectors as Clark uses for their boards.. woohoo!

It looks like a good fit Jordan. Can't wait to get started on mine.  

It is Derek! I cut the plastic hull in such a way that as things are now, it manages to hold the transmission in place without glue or anything. Of course I'll later epoxy it and probably reinforce with some styrene but it's nice to have it 'line replaceable' should things break.

Also the sprocket offset is a bit wide. I can either trim the gearbox ends to bring them closer to the hull, or just reattach the road wheels a few millimeters outward. I'm leaning towards widening the road wheels.. should give better turning & less rollovers *COUGHFRANKCOUGH*

Wider is always better on the field.

Are you bring it on Sunday so I can take some notes.  

It'll be there, no flash photography though..

You might be amazed but it's 2am the same "day" as our meet, I'm still awake & at work, BUILDING A HALF-TRACK! Woohoo

Anyhoo, some progress. I changed my mind and decided to 'even out' the width of the drive sprockets. I had to grind down the final drive shaft a bit, and also the outside collar of the transmission unit, which brought the drive sprocket closer to the hull by about 1/8". They are now even. 

I glued some thick styrene sheets in between the road-wheel plates and the hull, the same width on each side. Now the wheels are a bit further from the hull. This gives the wider track more clearance and also lines up the drive sprockets with the road wheels! I'm very happy with how this is going.