Chaffee breakdown and build up time.

[rb67mustang]

Long story short. With five additional wires for the IR receiver and two more for the turret mounted on/off power switch plus the 10 existing wires for servos, flash and IR LED that leaves insufficient "free movement space" in the tiny turret and tiny lower hull this creates a situation where tangled and twisted wires would occur no matter how nicely bundled they may be. It also does not leave sufficient space for the elevation/depression of the breach or movement of the recoil mechanism. This is especially true since the tank is used as a loaner during IR battle events where inexperienced people would not know to limit the number of turns made with the turret.

I totally agree with your reply to my question, Rubicon99. I disassembled my M24 yesterday, and the turret space is severely limited, and there's enough wires coming out of it to Choke a Horse!!!!!!!!! I'm from RI, and there isn't any RC Tank groups near me that get together and have IR battles. I have 4 1/16 scale RC tanks with airsoft guns, and one 21st Century Toys M5 Stuart also with an airsoft gun. My M26 is dual use airsoft/IR, M24 IR only. Then I have the Coolbank M5, and M8 GMC which are sweet quite accurate semi-full feature tanks. Possibly the M5, and M8 could be converted to IR, but they're probably not the best platform for IR.

I completely agree with your reasons/thought and comments about the M24.

And so, I'm more of an airsoft RC tank guy, and at the same time, I'm not interested in using the smoke feature of my RC tanks.

And so, I really liked SoCalBobs's comment about liking to remove batteries to re-charge them. Most of us have extra batteries for our favorite RC tanks, as well. So, the smoke system will be removed to be used for the battery area. I'm planning to cut out the upper hull where the smoker is located with a very thin and fine scroll saw blade. The cut piece will have tabs on the front edge and the back edge with have a couple small rare earth magnets to hold it in place.

So, I'm going to modify my M24 as a WW-II version. I like the 30cal you put on your M24 for the commander, and yes, the 50cal remain on the turret. But since I'm not into IR battle, the LED in the mantlet will be deleted along with the IR sensor plug, The main gun flash LED will stay, and the LED in the mantlet will be deleted. Of course, the mantlet position of the LED is for the gunners scope, and I don't need it.

So, five wires going into the turret will be deleted. I'll mount the slip ring as close to the center of the turrets rotation to solve the wires getting all balled up.

Yeah, I have high hopes for my M24 build/mods, and I'll be starting a thread in a couple of days.

Oh, WW-II decals will be tough to find for an M24. My screen name from RC Groups is Rebel 1. I'm quite happy & surprised the decals has the name Rebels Roost. I'll remove the s, and I'll shorten the ! from R21, and I'll be naming my M24 Rebel 1!!!!!!!!!!!! How Sweet is that???

[rb67mustang]

Slip rings can also create electrical noise that may interfere with the IR battle system.

Thanks again for your reply and comments, I really appreciate it. Maybe one day I can take part in an IR battle to fully experience it first hand. Roger B. from RI. BTW, rb are my initials, and both the 67 Mustang Fastback, and Shelby are my all time favorite cars. Oh how I wish I never sold my candy apple red 4sp, 67 GT350!!! What a big mistake that was.