Brown's King Tiger

[Brown Hawkins]

Thanks Terry. Glad my ramblings helped some. I just posted my Tiger 1 for sale. It became evident during our visit just how much I have to do on the partially assembled tanks and that the third might be years away from any real start. We will see what the response is. I can always leave the T1 where it is until retirement!

[Brown Hawkins]

After much gnashing of teeth and early disappointment I can now say I have the drive and turret motors sorted out! I am now using a JR DSM 12 channel radio that Mark Bennet turned me onto with a 12 channel receiver. I was on the phone with the JR (Spectrum) tech guy for more than an hour on Sunday and he got the tracks mixed on one stick and the turret rotation and gun elevation on the other stick. Now to get the smoke hooked back up and the lights connected. How do you get the turret rotation sound and gun elevation sounds to work when the turret or gun is actually moving? Or does it not sync?

Has anyone had trouble with the gun elevation not elevating as much as is should? I can't get a really high gun elevation as seen in WW2 period films.

I'll see if I can get a video tonight.

Brown

[Peter Rasch-Christensen]

Hello Brown
Im glad your wondering the same as I ??? Is it possibal to get the sound-card working with the movement of the different options...
Regards.
Peter

[Brown Hawkins]

Peter,

I think we are ok without the recorded sounds since you can hear the turret and gun elevation motors when they run. Still it would be nice if the sounds would sync up.

Forum at large,

Does this look right? Or is the round piece installed upside down? And by round piece I mean the part bolted to the turret front.


Thanks,
Brown

[Brown Hawkins]

Basic tank motion video below. Old hat to lots of you guys but it took me the better part of 2 years to get here AND have 5+ channels left in reserve. I purchased 2 servos for the hull MG yesterday. Does anyone have pics of a servo setup for the KT MG? The glacis plate is at a funny angle and there is not much clearance for 4 cables to attach to the MG ball without some filing. The good thing is that the ball doesn't have to move much.

Here's the video link:


You can't see it but the tank is resting on a motorcycle lift mentioned in other threads.

Does anyone have the steps to hook up Steve Winstone's MG LED to the Armortek sound card?

As you can see I need to add the extra track links to the right side of the turret. One of many things tank related yet to finish!

Brown

[yves mouton]

Hello Brown,
The setup for the MG gun is very easy,
this is a picture that Tim B send me to help ( thanks for that Tim )


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If you connect the wires then push the program button in the amplifier module so that your sound cart goes thru
all the sound available. Then your MG gun is programmed in your cart
Ps de MG flash works only on the first MG sound ( fast MG gun ) it donth works on the second sound ( slow fire )
Ps i connect my 2 MG guns together
best regards Yves

[Brown Hawkins]

Thank you Yves for the info. I'll use your post when I get the MG from Steve W.

Here are some other things I've been working on over the last few months:

Finished attaching the extra track links for that Hungarian campaign look:




I forgot to add the track link lock tabs when I first assembled the turret so I disassembled it to bolt those on when I figured out I needed to add lock tabs for the custom added track links. Counter sunk the bolts as needed. I think this mod makes a formidable tank look even more ominous! I'll follow Mark Bennet's mod on the rear of the turret by milling a slight recess for the escape hatch to fit in and take the tab off of the top of the rear plate.

Here is something else I etched a while back, working hatch locks:


Thanks to Per S. and Simon M. for the inspiration on this!
Still don't have the pivot working just right and only made 1 for testing


Changed out most bolts on the rear hull for close-to-scale bolts and made lock tabs as needed:




The scale bolts are much larger than those provided with the kit. It was a little scary to drill out the holes. I was sure I'd make a major goof! The starter rods and angled holes for them still need to be added above as well as finishing the milling and texturing on the exhaust guards. Not sure the bolt sizes are correct for the center hatch above; they might need to be one size smaller than they are. It's always something. Steve W's clamps are just too cool!

More soon,
Brown

[Brown Hawkins]

Received Steve W's MGs last week and have been planning how to make the MG ball move. Because of the odd glacis plate angle and small amount of clearance I'm looking for suggestions or pics of working setups. I can make really small eye bolts (0090) for attaching to the ball and hence to the 2 servos. I really want up/down and side to side movement; it won't take much to achieve full range of motion. The pic below is of the ball in a neutral position where the MG is more or less horizontal. Positions for eyebolts are not straight forward. Also, how do you guys keep the MG and sight level and not flopping all around?


Where is the correct position for the barrel? How far out does it come? To the shoulder that is just showing above the ball?


I guess if I keep the control cables tight the ball with barrel will stay fairly well positioned. There is no way to make guides I can figure out. Still need to hook up the LED and test the sound to flash sync.

Brown

[John Fitzsimons]

Hi Brown,

Where did you get the locking tabs? I will need some of them for my panzer IV.

[Brown Hawkins]

I made them specifically for my KT rear. I'll have to check and see how many I have left over. It was more of an experiment to see how they looked than anything. Send me the dimensions of the ones for your tank and I'll see if these will work. I made 2 sizes, big and bigger. Do feel free to bug me lots about checking the status of these pieces. We welcomed a baby girl into the family 2 weeks ago so I'm going to be even worse on working on the tanks and etching stuff (don't want to be toxic to the baby!). I hope I get a little "me time" next week to inventory things when I'm home helping out with the new addition. I'll email everyone that placed lock washer, etc. orders ages ago to see if they are still interested and then offer what's left to the greater forum. It will be Spring before I do any more etching as it's cold and snowy here these dasys.

Brown

[yves mouton]

Hello Brown,

This is how i did it,
here is a picture



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If you stand at the front of the tank de hole for the MG gun is on the right side
I drill a hole through the ring of the MG ball and 5mm in the ball and put a brass pin to secure
the ball from wobbeling.
I have with this setup just movement from side to side ( not up and down )
Than i tap thread in to the little hole next to the MG hole and put a M3 screw in ( cap screw 30 a 35 mm )
and connect that with a rod to the servo.

Ps there is a post on the tiger 1 topic from a guy Ragnar and he made a up and down movement for the MG
with pictures.
Hope this will help
best regards Yves

[yves mouton]

Hello again Brown,

I found the picture for you in my library



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this is the MG movement up and down left and right ( tiger 1 front plate )
Yves

[Brown Hawkins]

Still working on how to make the MG ball move in the KT. It's not like the T1 in accessibility and the back of the MG ball presents itself at a VERY odd angle for attachment purposes.



The last picture shows a closeup of the back of the MG ball when the MG is level with the ground. It's just because the glacis plate is at such an angle. I mocked the support out of cardboard but the final will be made from aluminum angle pieces. The control bar shown is too short so I'm going to see if the hobby store has a longer one and what linkage options are available. Maybe I can get away without having to custom make too much more, but then probably not.

Stay tuned,

Brown

[Brown Hawkins]

Well, the hobby shop was no help. I'll just have make my own extended linkage arm.

[Brown Hawkins]

I'm just all over the place these days! KT, T-34, KT again, new baby...

Here is a how-to on hooking up the front and rear lights on our tanks from Tim Bowman:

Hi Brown

Here's some images of the switch I use in my vehicles.





I get them from
robotmarketplace.com

take care
Tim

I must admit I bought a simpler, less expensive switch, the pico switch for my setup and it works like a champ. It also only has 2 places to connect wires which works better for me (not as much chance of messing up). Here is the link:
http://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/0-PICOSW1.html

As I was told by Steve W. the head light and tail lights of his making have 12 volt bulbs, but 9 volts works well too and runs them a little less brightly. Just need to get these bad boys attached now!

Thanks again for the help Tim!

I'll plug the JR radio I'm using now. 12 whole channels that let you control just about anything you can think of putting on one of these tanks. Thanks to Mark Bennett again for this radio suggestion. It wasn't cheap but it works so easily and cleanly.

I'll post when I finally get the MGs working. Just have to schedule time for hooking them up.

Brown