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I will never know why I woke up one morning and
decided to build a tank, insanity does not run in the family, but I had the
idea of a trial run before I start on a complete scratch build. The basis
for the trial would be the largest and cheapest tank I could find off Ebay,
which no doubt all of you will recognise, and what a piece of junk it really
is. It’s one saving grace is that the scale is pretty accurate.
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Stage 1 – Strip it down to it’s bare bones and find out what can be
salvaged, which was very little. All the electronics, gear box, and tracks
were scrapped. The chassis, cleared of all non essential protrusions, was
then reinforced with 2mm sheet aluminium, on the sides and base, creating a
far more rigid structure.
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Stage2 – The turret received the same amount of gutting, removing a bb gun
from the main gun and replacing it with a 12v water cannon. The gun itself,
was cut down and partly replaced with a brass tube of the correct diameter.
I built a circuit for the machine gun flash and sound including a 7W mono
amp and 4ohm speaker. I built a second circuit for the turret and cupola
motor control, via relays and a voltage regulator, so that I can control
left and right movement of two motors from one channel on my receiver. Gun
elevation was added using a simple servo arrangement.
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Stage 3 - Idler Arms, these were of such flimsy construction to begin with,
that three of them were broken on arrival. After some redesign, I filled the
arms with plastic padding, greatly improving their rigidity and replaced the
plastic axels with 8mm aluminium shafts. I have included nylon washers and
bushings to allow free movement and a nut/bolt assembly for the return
springs
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Stage 4 – I have spent a long time on tracks, no surprise there, testing
mouldable nylon material and high density rubber. However, a chance
encounter with a 21st Cent Stuart at Chatham docks and some
helpful advice from Dave Dibb, of Armorpax (thanks Dave), got me talking
with 21st Century Toys in the States. One month later and I have
some inexpensive $20 tracks that are close enough in size and style without
the heartache of making my own from scratch. I will be machining down the
main pads at some point, as these are presently double the thickness that I
want.
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Stage 5 – The motor assembly consists of 2mm folded sheet aluminium, 4no.
90degree gears from RS and a couple of 12volt 600 motors and planetary
gearboxes stripped out of cheap cordless drills ala Maplins. I have added a
couple of marine esc’s for motor control and a 3 ½ AH 12V lead acid battery
for power. I have a smoker fitted just above the motors, based on the Tank
Club’s design, ensuring that the electronic stay high and dry at all times.
The complete motor assembly position will be adjustable, thereby providing a
track tensioner system.
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Stage 6 – The superstructure, whilst being surprisingly accurate in scale,
was covered with numerous artistic additions, including two dubious looking
missiles and a metal mickey impersonator on the turret. All additions have
been cut off/out and holes filled with plastic card and plastic padding.
Members of the US military and National Guard have been very helpful in
supplying detailed photos and information about there own tanks via a
discussion group in the States! Finer detail is ongoing, but I have applied
a non slip surface on the turret, which whilst not to scale, will suffice
and has the added benefit of hiding imperfections in the surface.
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Stage 7 – As the
project has progressed I have made a few changes to my original design. The
relay circuit for turret and cupola control has been replaced by a dual MAG
speed controller using four micro switches and a servo, and I have also
added a home made voltage regulator to step down from 12 to 6 volts. So it
is now a bit crowded inside the turret. All the wiring has been laid and
loomed, so I'm close to final assembly. I have also fitted a couple of whip
aerials and I'm building a 50cal machine gun in brass and plastic.
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Stage 8 – Back
into the chassis, I have redesigned the drive system utilising two right
angle drill attachments that I found thanks to the Tank Talk Forum. The
smoker is now in place with a slightly longer exhaust and a 4 ohm speaker
for the engine sounds. I have also sited the switches at the back and run
all the wiring, loomed and fixed to the chassis.
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Stage 9 – At the
front end, the battery is now mounted, a 7 amp rather than the original 3
1/2 originally chosen. The speed controllers are waterproof and I have
screwed them down to the aluminium chassis to create an enormous heat sink.
Also a sound board for engine noise, this is currently a Robbe, but I'll
change this to a Trax when I get some funds. Those with good eyesight might
be able to see the additional metalwork for the suspension, this was
required to stop the axles twisting once the spring were fitted.
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| Stage 10 – Finishing the
Superstructure. As you can see, I have painted the superstructure with a
light buff and touch of grey. I eventually found out enough about the
identification markings in order to add appropriate amount of detail. This
was done using a dry transfer system supplied by
www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk which worked quite nicely. The there is
all the little things such as the glazing, a cut up cd jewel case and red
wash on the back worked really well. I also replaced the missing 50 cal with
a scratch built, glass and plastic affair, I still have to paint the ammo
and case before that is finished. There is some steel cable and stakes to
the rear, and for stowage on the bustle I bought a 1/6 th dolly’s Bergen,
cut up the bed roll into quarters, which gave me four 1/12 th scale bed
rolls. I also broke down the Bergen into individual elements to provide some
realistically sized baggage. The three CIP panels on the side and rear of
the turret are brass, loving #*!@# soldered together, they are tied on with
a single stand of copper wire and sprayed up with the rest of the turret.
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One thing I am particularly
pleased with are the boxes of MRE’s and water. A little bit of research with
Google netted me the text, which I re-created on the computer and laser
printed off on the inside surface of a stiff manila envelope. Knife, glue, a
little patience and some deliberate distressing and this is the result. The
water bottle boxes were made by photographing all sides of an actual box and
joining the together with paint shop pro. Inkjet printed on some firm card
and then cut up and glued in a similar fashion to the MRE’s. I did consider
attempting to scratch build a couple of bottles, but decided b*#g@r that for
a game of soldiers |
| On the underside I have built
a circuit to turn the headlights on when moving forward and the break lights
on when it is stopped. The first part is dead simple but It took a fair
amount of head scratching to get the second part right. The problem was
solved by introducing some double pole relays to cut off the flow of power
when the motors are running. I just hope I didn’t loose the circuit diagram
cause I don’t want to design it again for the next project.
One more bit still to come is the camo netting. I have
bought some off a guy in the US via Ebay which I hope will look the part.
This I will roll up and drape around the outside edge of the turret and
bustle to break up some of those hard edges. |
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Stage 11 Tracks Revisited.
Cocked this one up a bit. These are 21st Century Stuart tracks which I have
thinned to suit the scale of the Abrams. The only way to do this is very,
very, very SLOWWWWLYYYY. The plastic is too brittle for even a dremel, so I
ended up with a jig and a hacksaw, cutting back each pad to the desired
height. As they are hollow I have filled them with some body filler. It will
take several passes of filling with sanding in between before I can get the
uniform finish I want prior to painting. All that leaves me with is making
some drive sprockets and painting the chassis, almost finished………Not! |
Final Stage: Well the
sprockets were a series of trial and several errors, all I can suggest
is that a jig will save a lot of heartache. Final painting and detailing
went very quickly, but I still felt something was missing.
Working in 1/12th scale is a pain due to the lack of
available accessories, but with a little research and a bit of luck I
found close to appropriate scale figures.
http://www.spawn.com/toys/categorytype.aspx?categoryid=28
These highly detailed
figures are not really 1/12th scale, more 1/10th,
but if you pick carefully you can get away with it. So, after
decapitating and mounting two of these figures, I had plenty extra bits
to detail the rest of the stowage, such as two pairs of boots, chopped
off from the legs and carefully hollowed out with a dremel.
All in all a very enjoyable project and one I am very pleased with.
Jd
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