1/16 Tongde M24 Chaffee Modifications

[rb67mustang]

I shortened the tube & gun barrel, and here's a short video.

I still didn't have much room for the LED wires. So, I removed the corner from the gun pivot post, and I widened the slit where the wires will be routed, and I even used a round needle file to make a groove on the side of the gun pivot post. I'm happy that there's room for the machine gun modification to work.

[rb67mustang]

I glued the mantlet machine gun assembly into place, and it looks straight and parallel with the main gun. All I have to do now is to glue the LED in Place and route the wire so it's not in the way of anything, and maybe even attach the wire onto the side of the gun body. That will get gone after all the wires from the slipring are connected to the LED's and servos in the turret.

Here's the second video I mentioned.

More progress to follow!!!

[Rubicon99]

I shortened the tube & gun barrel, and here's a short video.

I still didn't have much room for the LED wires. So, I removed the corner from the gun pivot post, and I widened the slit where the wires will be routed, and I even used a round needle file to make a groove on the side of the gun pivot post. I'm happy that there's room for the machine gun modification to work.

Just an FYI. The mantlet is set up for pivot point bearings. I see that you do not have anything yet. They are the same size as those used in the wheels.

[rb67mustang]

Rubicon99, thank you for checking out my build. Thank very much for letting me know the gun body should have bearings. I mickey moused it, and the mantlet no longer is a sloppy fit.

[rb67mustang]

I appreciate and I thank everyone who has taken the time to view my build to watch me cut and modify a new RC Tank. I really enjoy scratch building, and making modifications. I still have a few changes to make on the outside of the turret. We all know the Chaffee entered WW-II late, and it saw action in the Korean War. I'm looking at WW-II images of the Chaffee to make the final changes during it's short service in WW-II.

[rb67mustang]

Today was a do nothing day. I paid the bills and went food shopping. I had destroyed the main gun flash LED as I tried to remove it. I planned to turn down the oversized muzzle ring, and I didn't want the wire in the gun barrel. And like most RC Tanks, the M24's LED's were painted over. It was easy enough to clean the paint off of the head light and tail lights, but the gun flash LED was tough to clean.

So, I looked on Motion RC thinking to find the flash LED with the cord, but all they had were replacement LED bulbs. So, knowing I'm not going to do IR Battle, I searched Evil Bay, and I found what I wanted at a good price, so I ordered two of them for less than the cost of one LED at Motion RC. I also got some short servo extensions so I can solder female ends on the turret end of the slip ring. The two LED's in my turret will also have male connectors soldered to them with the female connector soldered to the slip ring wires.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/297609581757?var=594988062792

[rb67mustang]

First, I'd like to say I hope everyone had a Happy Fathers Day, mine was great!!!

It's been a while since I posted some progress on my build. I'm not geared up to do soldering especially on small wires. I took my time, and the slipring wiring harness came out ok except I crossed two wires on the turret side of CH2 (Gun Elevation), it was an easy fix. The Mantlet LED is temperamental, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. After the two issues I ran into, I realize that continuity testing should be done instead of traditional assembled/wired testing; it's quick & easy, and possible mistakes are found and corrected. But, the Mantlet MG LED's continuity test was OK, and the LED tests OK as well, yet sometimes it doesn't work!!! OK, enough talk!!!



I was able to switch the wire connector end with the type I had in stock; it saved me from soldering a new end onto the wire making it a neater fix.


Here's a short video of the beginning of the slipring wiring job. This wiring progress took place on June 7th.

[rb67mustang]

The slipring wiring progress progressed slowly as I mentioned. The slipring wiring harness was completed on June 11th.



Here's a video about the slipring, and what I'll be doing to the turret after everything is working properly. At this point, I didn't know I had a couple miss matched wires on servo CH2.

[rb67mustang]

Next up was live testing of all the turret functions. This is when I realized I had a couple of issues with the wiring. CH2 Servo wire was an easy fix. The testing was performed on June 16th.



There a lot of wires inside this small turret, but everything fits without any difficulty to the proper functions of the turret.



This videos explains the slipring wiring, as well as what I'm planning to finish the turret.

Here's a couple videos of the testing.

So, this is it for now. I'll assemble the turret and perform another live test, and share how it goes when I have the time,