There has been much interest in how I managed to convert this static kit to an R/C model. First off I was fired up to do it as I feel that one of the significant absences in the world of 1/16^th R/C tanks is the T34 and the introduction of this kit offered me the ideal opportunity to rectify the situation. Before going any further I should say that Trumpeter will soon be bringing out a ready to run R/C version of this model that promises to have sound as well as all the motion, I just couldn’t wait. Another point to consider is that many people have already evaluated this kit as a potential for R/C conversion and have not considered it to be a worthwhile exercise due in the main to the use of plastic for all the running gear except the suspension springs. This said everything works and it has individually linked clip together tracks, however the strength of the parts is not up to that of Tamiya, and the thickness of the mouldings are more commensurate with those of a static kit.

Most people have approached the R/C conversion with fitting metal parts and reinforcing in place of the kit supplied parts however, this makes for an expensive job. If you want to got the whole hog there are metal tracks supplied by Kenny Kong. I decided to go as cheap as possible and began by fitting a pair of Bandai Tiger 1 gearboxes. These are available from Japan as spares and are considerably cheaper than Tamiya gearboxes. I mounted them on a shelf of 2mm plasticard built into the rear of the hull. Due to the width of the gearboxes the rear road wheel suspension had to be modified and the gearbox casing cut to fit around the suspension as can be seen. I mounted the gearboxes sloping upwards to allow the battery and speed controller to fit under the motors to maximise use of the space.

The output shafts of the gearboxes were shortened so that the sprocket aligned correctly with the road wheels and the sprockets are fitted to the shafts by drilling the centre of the rear plate to take the 4mm screw to secure them to output shaft, as per the Bandai sprocket. A little superglue was used to prevent the sprocket loosening and rotating on the shaft as there is no key or fitting to prevent rotation. To clear the rear of the gearboxes I had to modify the rear lower back plate of the hull, which now has a piece of 0.5mm plasticard glued over and wrapped around the existing T34 final drive casings across the rear of the tank. The original piece of back plate between the final drive casings was then removed to clear the rear of the gearboxes. This gives a non scale appearance to the rear of the tank but I don’t think it notices to any but the most discerning of rivet counters. Speed control is provided with a single Mtroniks 10 Amp marine ESC giving full proportional speed in forward and reverse.

Steering is achieved by switching off the desired track using a servo and two micro-switches as shown above, this gives control exactly like the early twin clutch Tamiya tanks and was done to avoid the expense of two ESC’s and a mixer. Next turret rotate was fitted using a hacked servo as the gearbox. I now use Atcoms servos for this, they are dirt cheap and dead easy to convert without the need for any soldering or electronic wizardry. The potentiometer in these servos is held in with two "spring apart" plastic clips and attached to the circuit board with wire. With the servo circuit board removed the potentiometer can be unclipped and removed, the circuit board can be refitted with the potentiometer left outside the case as in the picture. The only other modification is to file the mechanical stop off the large gear in the gear train. The servo can be fully reassembled and run. To set up the servo switch on the radio and set the trim tab on the turret turn channel to centre. Next turn the potentiometer until the servo stops rotating.

t will be quite sensitive but nevertheless easy to set. Once done the servo will rotate either way dependent on stick movement. I've done this a few times it now takes me about 5 minutes to convert a servo using only a small Phillips screwdriver and file. From the photo you can see how I fitted a gear reduction and a centre shaft for the turret to rotate on. I find the centre shaft has much less fiction than leaving the turret to rotate on its large perimeter ring. The conversion job was finished by fitting a gun elevation servo into the turret, with its lead going through centre shaft. Running the tank has shown that it performs really well, its main strength being its lightness, almost half the weight of a Tamiya Sherman. I have had no breakages even having run the tank outdoors at the Southern Proving Ground. The tracks have pulled apart a couple of times but they are dead easy to clip back together. I have recently fitted Graupner speed 400 motors in place of those supplied with the Bandai gearboxes which has doubled the speed of the tank. I felt the Bandai motors were too slow but I’m sure that those into scale speed would disagree and say that the tank is too fast now, however I prefer the model to be faster than scale.