M2A1 Medium Tank by SSModel

[SoCalBobS]

(Pictures from the internet.)

I received my 3D printed M2A1 Medium Tank by SSModel yesterday. Six days from order to arrival, from China of course. Very interesting, some pros and cons, mostly pros. First off, it is a static display model produced in resin. I'm hoping to r/c'ize it. The biggest con is that a major part, the back half of the top hull was missing. I contacted SS overnight and they are sending the part.


The print is very well done, no layer lines.


Many parts, including individual track links to be assembled.

The body and the turret are hollow, easing the potential tor r/c'ing it. I placed the forward hull on a Heng Long Sherman chassis. It is the same width, that is good. A word of caution; this is a resin 3DP kit, not a "shake the box and it's done" type. Prior experience in working with resin kits is highly advised.

As always with my threads, everyone is welcome to chip in or ask questions. I'll have to wait for the missing part before going into any more detail.

[tank_me]

The prints look good from what I've seen. Not knowing what kind of resin it is or how brittle it is, I would suggest you might want to epoxy some styrene sheets on the interior of the large panels to give it some more strength and impact resistance. I know you battle your tanks, but this one is probably more for show I'm guessing?

Should be an interesting build.

[SoCalBobS]

Good suggestion, TM. Yes, it is quite brittle. there was a crack in a fender (from shipping?) that enlarged while I was trying to reset it. The resin seems less tough than the. Andramodel conversion kits, but he’s making them specifically for r/c’ing. And yeah, I’ll be putting it on a plastic HL Sherman mainly to drive around not battle. I have some spare HL gearboxes, so it won’t be all plastic.

also, at some point I’ll have to give it a bath, as I can feel a little stickiness. It’s pretty good though, well cured.

[SoCalBobS]

Tank_me, or others; any hints or tips for drilling into resin? Since it's brittle, I'd like to know if there is a best way. Thanks. There are six machine guns on this tank, and I'd like to install LED's if I can make the holes.

[tank_me]

Slowly. :) I recently drilled out the convoy lights on the IS-4. You just don't want to build up too much heat in it while drilling. I would alternate parts while drilling. Drill one a little bit, drill another a little bit, and drill another. Gives the parts time to cool down. Don't really have a better method than that.

[SoCalBobS]

A quick progress pic:


The body will be a perfect fit on a Heng Long Sherman chassis, as tested on a Heng Long/Vandramodel M10 Wolverine kit behind it. The M2 body comes in four parts; 2 pc top hull, 2 pc bottom hull. There is a static wheel set, but I won't be using any of that, in favor of the HL r/c lower hull.

Will it have IR battle capacity? I don't know yet. IF I can devise a turret traverse mechanism and IF I can devise a gun elevation mechanism, then maybe I'll add an IR emitter and receiver. There are no opening hatches in the turret print, so I'd have to cut into the turret to do that.

Will it have six flashing machine guns? IF I can drill the required holes for LED wiring without fracturing the resin, I'll sure try.

[tank_me]

Looking forward to seen what you can do with it.

[SoCalBobS]

Ok, this project went nowhere, but it's a pretty tank nevertheless. The upper hull would have mated with a Heng Long M4, except the gearboxes stood too tall and wouldn't allow the hull to settle down. That was the main problem, but there were enough others that made the conversion non-viable. I'm not faulting the manufacturer in any way, it was just hopefulness on my part. "It would have been glorious!"

Here she sits, ready for paint detailing and highlighting.

[tank_me]

I just looked at this project yesterday thinking, wonder if there was any progress. I guess now I know. I wonder if one of the plastic L49 PDSGB could work for it? Conversions of static kits can be quite a challenge sometimes.

[SoCalBobS]

Yeah, the gearboxes was only one problem. The machine gun sponsons would have to be recast. They weren't made to be able to rotate, with zero tolerance where they fit into the hull - beyond my skill. The turret rotation and gun elevation mechanisms would have to be wholly fabricated, as there isn't a lot of space for a geared mechanism or other system on the inside of the hull. Hatches aren't molded separately, so a fine cutting system would need to be used. Once all of this was resolved, the resin material is pretty brittle, so it wouldn't end up being a robust battler. All of this added up to it not being cost or time effective for my skill level.

I've built r/c conversions of injection molded models, and resin kits intended for r/c use, but this didn't lend itself for that. Ah well.