Panzer III ausf. N build log

[Vaseline]

Looks like you are correct that it doesnt have a hand cutout, I was mistaken. Unless you wanted to model the hatches interior with locking mechanism, I still think gluing the Henglongs stock hatch is your best bet, if only so you dont have to fashion your own hinge mechanism. Im lazy alright dont judge me. found this its 1/6 scale but yep you appear to be correct the late IIIs and IVs shared the same cupola and hatch http://www.fieldofarmortanks.com/foa...tailed-cupola/

[UltraVargen]

A handy resource that FOA link!

[Vaseline]

A handy resource that FOA link!

Hey Ultra, how is the N coming along?

[UltraVargen]

Hey Ultra, how is the N coming along?

Not so quickly. Busy with work at the moment, and no motivation to work on the N besides. Truth is I'm spending too much time on some PS4 games. But I do have all the parts in including the 6.1 MFU, Servo recoil and smoke. Even a set of schurzen and a bunch of brass to solder a stowage rack. Just need to soldier on when motivation returns.

[UltraVargen]

So with the Easter weekend motivation returned, funny how these things go.

I messed around with the short barrel, servo recoil and barrel smoke and flash. The Heng Long instructions are trash, and I'm not sure if I connected everything right. But I did manage to get all the functions to work. With some modifications to get a short recoil and minor shaving of plastic on the turret pieces it fits remarkably well.

Unfortunately there seems to be something wrong with the servo motor. Often it doesn't work, even when the movement arm isn't connected. Sometimes it only goes halfway. Then after a lot of grumbling on my part, pulling plugs and powering off and on it seems to work again for maybe 1 or 2 shots.

I feel like it's busted somehow. That, of the batteries I'm using are almost out of power (I thought LiIo batteries kept their charge?)

Anyway, this is how it looks. I'll try to shoot a video of the recoil once I get it operational again.

[UltraVargen]

Fixed the servo motor. Apparently some tiny plastic parts inside the actual DC motor had disintegrated. Removed the plastic debris, after which the motor was operational again. I did order some new servo motors to experiment with, as this one seems a bit shoddy. In the video below you can see the return of the barrel isn't completely smooth. Also, sometimes it doesn't return properly.

Smoke takes about 1.5 minutes to warm up, but here's the full video. The last two shots after 1:30 are with the fully charged smoker. I must admit I was happy as a child when I first saw the whole contraption in action.

[Timbo68]

Fixed the servo motor. Apparently some tiny plastic parts inside the actual DC motor had disintegrated. Removed the plastic debris, after which the motor was operational again. I did order some new servo motors to experiment with, as this one seems a bit shoddy. In the video below you can see the return of the barrel isn't completely smooth. Also, sometimes it doesn't return properly.

I've fitted HL recoil units to two tanks. In the first, the servo failed due to disintegration, because the 'throw' of the arm was too great, which resulted in the servo being constantly active after returning the barrel. I fitted a replacement servo, and reduced the throw by making another hole in the circular servo 'arm', and fitting the lever a bit closer to the servo axle. With the second, I didn't wait, and applied the throw mod before I fitted the unit. I also found that washers under both ends of the actuating lever helped with smoothness as the motion was sticky to start with, but that depends on the tolerances of each unit. TBH, the HL recoils aren't really plug and play IMHO, and need a good bit of 'fettling'. Once fettled, they work well. I like the flash in your video - mine happens moments before the smoke so doesn't light it up like yours - I think this is possibly due to the length of my barrels (Tiger1 and Panther) and the distance the smoke has to travel after the air pump is triggered.

[UltraVargen]

I've fitted HL recoil units to two tanks. In the first, the servo failed due to disintegration, because the 'throw' of the arm was too great, which resulted in the servo being constantly active after returning the barrel. I fitted a replacement servo, and reduced the throw by making another hole in the circular servo 'arm', and fitting the lever a bit closer to the servo axle. With the second, I didn't wait, and applied the throw mod before I fitted the unit. I also found that washers under both ends of the actuating lever helped with smoothness as the motion was sticky to start with, but that depends on the tolerances of each unit. TBH, the HL recoils aren't really plug and play IMHO, and need a good bit of 'fettling'. Once fettled, they work well. I like the flash in your video - mine happens moments before the smoke so doesn't light it up like yours - I think this is possibly due to the length of my barrels (Tiger1 and Panther) and the distance the smoke has to travel after the air pump is triggered.

Nice to see someone else having used this unit. Thanks for the compliment. I haven't tried a longer barrel, but I see what you're talking about. Maybe shortening the silicone smoke tube for a barrel's length would work to get the smoke more in sync with your flash?

You are right they aren't plug and play. The disintegrating motors, and the traverse isn't really fine-tuned. Also they set it up for just a single recoil length. I had to make my own servo arm to get the small recoil that I needed. I thing I'll wait on the new servo motors that I've got incoming, and then start finetuning it a bit more.

I also wonder why Heng Long didn't include an extension for the up/down movement of the barrel. It's like they expect you to make your own. I now cut off the rear part of the stock BB-unit, and fixed it to the rear of the recoil unit. But I feel like they should have made this come stock from the factory.

Also, I still have no clue what the little trigger is for that they fitted (similar to the BB-trigger on the stock unit). There's no indication as to what connection it should go, and the unit works perfect without it. So I just removed it.

[Timbo68]

I also wonder why Heng Long didn't include an extension for the up/down movement of the barrel. It's like they expect you to make your own. I now cut off the rear part of the stock BB-unit, and fixed it to the rear of the recoil unit. But I feel like they should have made this come stock from the factory.

Also, I still have no clue what the little trigger is for that they fitted (similar to the BB-trigger on the stock unit). There's no indication as to what connection it should go, and the unit works perfect without it. So I just removed it.

HL seem to have changed the barrel elevation method from the strange lever and unit at the back of the turret to a rather more logical motor at the side, and that uses the channel screwed to the side of the HL recoil unit, so it fitted the Panther without any modification. My Tiger has the older method, so it needed the extension at the back of the unit. (Picture of my rather crude solution involving some brass plate attached).

The microswitch trigger which I think you're referring to activates the HL barrel smoker, via the little PCB which comes with it (I may be wrong, but I'm guessing you don't have that...) as the installation diagram shows. Oddly, protecting that little PCB was one of the more tricky bits of the installation, and most recently I put one in a cut-down Tic-Tac (other mints are available...) box.

I'm looking at your suggestion of shortening the barrel smoke pipe - the risk is that if I make it any shorter, I may pull it out of the barrel when I open the tank hull - and it's a right pain to put back!

[UltraVargen]

HL seem to have changed the barrel elevation method from the strange lever and unit at the back of the turret to a rather more logical motor at the side, and that uses the channel screwed to the side of the HL recoil unit, so it fitted the Panther without any modification. My Tiger has the older method, so it needed the extension at the back of the unit. (Picture of my rather crude solution involving some brass plate attached).

The microswitch trigger which I think you're referring to activates the HL barrel smoker, via the little PCB which comes with it (I may be wrong, but I'm guessing you don't have that...) as the installation diagram shows. Oddly, protecting that little PCB was one of the more tricky bits of the installation, and most recently I put one in a cut-down Tic-Tac (other mints are available...) box.

I'm looking at your suggestion of shortening the barrel smoke pipe - the risk is that if I make it any shorter, I may pull it out of the barrel when I open the tank hull - and it's a right pain to put back!

Aha! I removed the small channel on the side, as I thought it would only be used for servo elevation. But it's interesting to hear Heng Long uses it on their newer Panther. I also see possibilities for when I start working on my still in box Sherman with its tiny turret.

As for the microswitch and PCB: My kit has the PCB, but I didn't use the microswitch. I did experiment with what its function might be, but in the end I had no place to plug in in, and the unit works without it. But this does make me think: Could your smoke delay be caused by the use of the microswitch? I found the Heng Long instructions confusing. Maybe I got lucky because I couldn't figure it out at first? After an hour of messing with the different wires and ports I came to this functional setup: I have the heater unit connected to port B on the PCB and the flash LED to port A. Air pump goes to C as per the instructions. The microswitch is not connected. The power and single LED light go into the MFU as usual. And I jumped the MFU port CN6 where the old BB-trigger would go. It's totally different from the instructions, but it works as can be seen in the video. You have to press G+S each time you start the tank to power up the smoker and air pump (saw that in a video, don't know if it's required for the regular setup of the unit).

Good tip on protecting the PCB by the way. I hadn't thought of that! (me and electronics )

[Timbo68]

Could your smoke delay be caused by the use of the microswitch? I found the Heng Long instructions confusing. Maybe I got lucky because I couldn't figure it out at first? After an hour of messing with the different wires and ports I came to this functional setup: I have the heater unit connected to port B on the PCB and the flash LED to port A. Air pump goes to C as per the instructions. The microswitch is not connected. The power and single LED light go into the MFU as usual. And I jumped the MFU port CN6 where the old BB-trigger would go. It's totally different from the instructions, but it works as can be seen in the video. You have to press G+S each time you start the tank to power up the smoker and air pump (saw that in a video, don't know if it's required for the regular setup of the unit).

Very interesting! Using the microswitch means that my smoke is only activated when the barrel has retracted, whereas your video shows it happening at the instant the barrel starts to retract. I've managed to blow up a 6.0 MFU, so I'm nervous about the connections, but I'd ask - what flash LED are you using? I have a small high intensity LED (white in one, amber in the other - can't decide which is better...). I assume you've wired it to a white JST 2-pin plug for port A - does it need a resistor in series?. What is the 'single LED' you mention, and which port on the MFU? Power is CN5 I guess... I have port CN6 jumped, and G+S is the way I select smoke. I assumed that this switched on the heater, but with that plugged in to port B, is it always on?

So many questions, but this may be a game-changer for realism!

[UltraVargen]

Very interesting! Using the microswitch means that my smoke is only activated when the barrel has retracted, whereas your video shows it happening at the instant the barrel starts to retract. I've managed to blow up a 6.0 MFU, so I'm nervous about the connections, but I'd ask - what flash LED are you using? I have a small high intensity LED (white in one, amber in the other - can't decide which is better...). I assume you've wired it to a white JST 2-pin plug for port A - does it need a resistor in series?. What is the 'single LED' you mention, and which port on the MFU? Power is CN5 I guess... I have port CN6 jumped, and G+S is the way I select smoke. I assumed that this switched on the heater, but with that plugged in to port B, is it always on?

So many questions, but this may be a game-changer for realism!

The LED I'm using is the one that came stock with the HL smoke/flash kit. It's orange, pre-fitted with a JST 2 pin plug and there's no capacitor that I can discern. Funnily enough, when I receiver the kit it was already plugged into port A on the PCB.
The "single LED" wire that I mean is the wire with the dupont plug coming from the PCB. It's not in the HL instruction leaflet. But it's a single red wire that's soldered to the PCB, and goes to LED port 1 on the MFU.
Power on CN5 and CN6 jumped is correct.

G+S activated the heater (press G+S again to turn off). It also seems to activate the functionality of the air pump,

[Timbo68]

The LED I'm using is the one that came stock with the HL smoke/flash kit. It's orange, pre-fitted with a JST 2 pin plug and there's no capacitor that I can discern. Funnily enough, when I receiver the kit it was already plugged into port A on the PCB.
The "single LED" wire that I mean is the wire with the dupont plug coming from the PCB. It's not in the HL instruction leaflet. But it's a single red wire that's soldered to the PCB, and goes to LED port 1 on the MFU.

Ah - we have different versions of the HL smoker - my unit is just barrel smoke, not flash. My flash comes from an LED plugged into LED1 on the 6.1S MFU, and is independent of the PCB smoke unit. I just have the 4 JST sockets as per the HL instructions posted, with no wires actually soldered to the PCB. The operating difference is a fraction of a second, but there maybe another way of triggering the smoke at the same moment as recoil, rather than immediately after it has happened. I wonder if CN6 might be involved somehow. I may experiment - very carefully! Perhaps you could post a pic of your mini PCB to confirm this, as it could be a supplier's custom enhanced unit rather than the 'stock' ones I seem to have...

[UltraVargen]

Ah - we have different versions of the HL smoker - my unit is just barrel smoke, not flash. My flash comes from an LED plugged into LED1 on the 6.1S MFU, and is independent of the PCB smoke unit. I just have the 4 JST sockets as per the HL instructions posted, with no wires actually soldered to the PCB. The operating difference is a fraction of a second, but there maybe another way of triggering the smoke at the same moment as recoil, rather than immediately after it has happened. I wonder if CN6 might be involved somehow. I may experiment - very carefully! Perhaps you could post a pic of your mini PCB to confirm this, as it could be a supplier's custom enhanced unit rather than the 'stock' ones I seem to have...

Ok, the PCB being different explains the confusion I had with the HL instructions that came with the servo recoil unit.
Below is a picture of the one I have. It didn't come with any separate instructions, hench it took a while before I figured it out working from the HL instructions. You can see the single wire coming out of the PCB on in the middle of the left side. The plug below it is for the included LED.
The current on the single wire "triggers" both the flash LED as well as the airpump simultaneously, or so it appears. When that single wire is not connected to the MFU both the LED and the air pump don't work.

[Timbo68]

Below is a picture of the one I have.

There's the answer - it's very different from my 'standard' HL smoker, which has different wiring and the (actually very effective) cylindrical aluminium smoke unit. As it triggers the smoke electronically as opposed to mechanically via a microswitch I think it's probably better overall. The end result differs by a tiny fraction of a second, but I'd like to get hold of one to try if you could let me know where you bought it. I searched Toucan but didn't find it... Also - where does the single wire plug into the MFU?

[UltraVargen]

There's the answer - it's very different from my 'standard' HL smoker, which has different wiring and the (actually very effective) cylindrical aluminium smoke unit. As it triggers the smoke electronically as opposed to mechanically via a microswitch I think it's probably better overall. The end result differs by a tiny fraction of a second, but I'd like to get hold of one to try if you could let me know where you bought it. I searched Toucan but didn't find it... Also - where does the single wire plug into the MFU?

This is the one I bought from Toucan: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005001436222032.html
The single wire goes into LED1 on the MFU.

I basically know this because of this video, as there's no documentation: https://youtu.be/m9qCBoeBrxg

[UltraVargen]

This afternoon's work, made a stowage rack.

[UltraVargen]

So what did I do with the greater part of my Sunday? Making two hinges. Took a lot more time than anticipated. Worth it? I don't know yet.

[SoCalBobS]

Now you'll need sheet metal fenders, so they can flap loosely as you drive around. 😉 Great work!

[UltraVargen]

Now you'll need sheet metal fenders, so they can flap loosely as you drive around. 😉 Great work!

Thanks! That's the intention. I just wonder what I got myself into with this modification.