Hello everyone, I recently purchased the Tongde M24 Chaffee, and I wanted to see what everyone was doing for modifications. I'm a member of two other RC websites, and no one had a thread about the 1/16th M24. I searched online, and I happened to find some photos from Rubicon99's thread at Hobby Squawk. Then I found the thread that SoCalBobs started, and I looked through all the pages of the thread. So, I decided to join H.S. because of the people interested in 1/16th scale RC Tanks. And so, here's the beginning of my build thread.
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The only thing I did with my M24 was to charge the battery, and then I completely stripped it down with the exception of the tracks, suspension, sprockets, and road wheels. I'm from RI, and there isn't an RC tank group and there isn't anyone to do IR battles with. Most of my RC tanks are airsoft, except for the Cool Bank M5, and M8 GMC, and of course, the M24.
I was surprised to find out that the M24's battery had to be charged while in the tank. Yes, the M24 is small, but so are the C.B. M5, and M8, and both of them have an external battery compartment.
After reading SoCalBobs's M24 thread, and reading that he was thinking to remove the smoker to relocate the battery, I decided that would be my 1st, and most difficult mod. I'm an airsoft RC tanker, and I usually don't use the smoke option, so deleting the smoker was a no brainer!!! LOLLLLL!!!!!!!
I carefully decided where to cut the upper hull to make an easily removable cover to remove the battery. I used my DeWalt scroll saw to make the cut out. I drilled a couple of 1/32" holes to insert the scroll saw blade. Then I clamped a piece of 1/4" plywood onto the scroll saw table because the upper hull would hang over the edge to the table.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so here come the photos!!!
Here's the plywood on my scroll saw table.
Here's the scroll saw blade going through the hull so I can make the cutout.
The first cut is across the hull on the pencil line, and down the side, and across the rear edge, and up the other side. Anyone whose ever cut this type of plastic, or ever styrene, knows the friction from the blade causes the removed plastic tends to fuse the cut, but it usually is easily separated afterward. The same fusing phenomenon also happens if an abrasive cutting disc is used. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's not as bad as it sounds.
This image shows the fused plastic in the cut.
Next, we have the new battery opening cut, and then comes a bit of filing the edges, and so on.
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It's amazing how small the blade is I used to cut out this opening. This image shows the blade passing through one of the holes a lifting handle will be glued into.
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The last thing I did yesterday was to cut a couple strips of 1/16" thick styrene sheet to glue to the upper hull at the sides of the opening the new cover would sit on.
Here's a short video,
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I'll post more progress photos tomorrow of the new and finished battery cover.
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Great idea and workmanship! Do you recall the blade size?
The more screws it takes to reassemble a tank, the more likely it is you left something out!Comment
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