My 1/16th Scale RC Tanks. Rebuilding, repainting, and getting back into the game!

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Hey guys. I hijacked Pete (Booger's) amazing Prowler build to mention an RC tank I bought that came decidedly broken, and how that was going to lead to the purchase of all the things needed to build models again. This is eventually going to lead to a 1/32 Corsair, but for now, I'm focusing on fixing the three RC tanks I have that were in rough shape. A Tamiya 1/16th M26 Pershing I built in 05, and Mato M4A1 I bought in like 07 and the Taigen M4A3 76W that I recently bought used, and came in parts.

 

Here's a shot of the three. 

 

 

 This is how the M4A3 76 came.  I'll start with the A3. 

 

It's worse than it looks, I had to replace a driveshaft on one side, the turret wiring harness and the upper hull. I bought it on Ebay, and the seller refunded enough to cover all the parts and fixing it was pretty fun. RC tanks have come a LONG way since I built the M26.

 

As bad as the damage looks, this M4A3 is, well, built like a tank. The metal hull and suspension showed no damage of any kind to the actual structure and I drove it around all broken like that.

All fixed. 

 

 

I hate this paint scheme. The gun should not have a muzzle break. and all the hatch handles are just bars. So, I bought some OD paint in a tone I like, decals, and plan to take this thing all the way apart again, repaint it, remove the brake, and put on a thread protector. Replace the bow machine gun with a proper looking one. Put in a proper co-ax barrel, and move the LED for the machine gun to the proper side, and then grind off all the nub handles and add brass ones. 

 

I have vacation next week and will be doing it over the vacay. 

 

This is a really great tank by ready to run RC standards. It looks right, the suspension works right, but Taigen used the OLD Tamiya M4A3 in 1/35 as their base, and just scaled it up, so it has recessed welds! In the Scale Model world, they were still releasing kits like this in the early 2000s, but it was a well known problem with everyone's Shermans Tamiya, Dragon, Italeria, etc.  It blows my mind such a well known flaw made it into an RC tank developed after 2010.  I'm not going to fix them on this tank...  

 

Anyway, enough for now, I post later on the M4A1 and M26. The A1 being a really junky RC tank, I am using as a test bed for paint alternatives, and I ended up trying house paint on it. The M26 is just old, beat up, broken, and has a about 7 different shades of OD on it...   All this really got me back into building models again. I already have a 1/32 Tamiya Zero, the one with working landing gear, its been sitting for nearly 20 years! lol.  

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by JeepsGunsTanks
Forgot a Cao

[dodgem37]

Looking forward to it.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[LSP_K2]

Cool. I'd love to have a big ol' Pershing.

[gerry1]

I need one of these.  I have a deer problem in my front yard.  Something with high velocity.

[JeepsGunsTanks]

So I decided to use the not great Mato M4A1 as a paint test bed. I also used some spares from the M4A3 and M26 to put things back on like Hull lift rings.  I had to make half a hatch, since I lost part of the split loaders hatch.  I just cut a chunk out of the busted up hull from the M4A3 and used files to fit it. This was before I went on got the Dremel from storage. I figured fixing this up was practice.   

 

I got some new batteries and tried this one. It drove around, but the turret was totally dead.  I pulled the turret apart and found some loose wires. I swapped the turret drive motor with the one from the other tanks broken hull and that got the turret rotating. They do not really sell spares for this tank anymore so getting the airsoft gun to work for now is a no go.  The worst part of this tank is the ugly dark green color.  

 

As you can see in this picture, it was very dusty. 

 

When I started looking into paints, Model Masters, my preferred Olive Drab is gone.  Tamiya is to dark for my tastes, so I got some AK in a can to try. Then I ran into a YouTube Channel by oddball759mm, and he suggested house paint. So I bought a sample can of house paint that looked good, and sprayed it on the tank. 

 

Unfortunately I took no pictures when it went from clean, and repair to painting. 

 

I bought decals for the M4A3, and it came with decals for three tanks. I have not messed with decals for years so I decided to take the most interesting set I was not going to use and apply them to this tank. 

 

 

Tracks back on and some practice weather! 

 

 

I actually like how the house paint came out on this tank. My only problem with it, it's not super durable, this is probably my fault, as I cleaned the hull with scentless wet wipes, and didn't primer it.  I have a good primer ready to go for the good tank. By less durable, I mean you can scrape it off with your fingernail if you really work at it.   I'm using the AK Olive in spray cans on the Pershing.  It's amazing how much a semi decent paint job and decals can make a less than great model look better. 

 

I used my Paasche airbrush to spray it and thinned it with 15% water.   

 

I'll be doing a post on the M26 next.   

Edited March 3, 2022 by JeepsGunsTanks
Playing card with boobies from the 1940s in one image in background

[JeepsGunsTanks]

The Tamiya M26 Pershing in 1/16th Scale is pretty neat kit.  I bought it back in 2005. Building it got me back into doing 1/35 Armor.  It comes with the Tamiya control unit, and you can turn the headlights on and off. It has start up engine noise, and idles, the engine revs with the stick as you add power. It has machine gun noises, and the bow machine gun flashes as does the main gun. This is all pretty standard fair on the ready to run tanks you can get now, but the Tamiya stuff is still better. It took me about a week to build, two or three hours a night.  

 

Building this back then was harder than it would be now, because you can get much better batteries, in a smaller package now.  Modern Radios are so much better, I'm considering buying a cheap 2.4g controller and receiver and replacing the old Futaba radio.  So, if you ever buy a Tamiya RC tank kit, the weakest link in many of them is this tiny spring clutch in the turret drive. It so weak, any drag on the turret causes to disengage, and the more this happens the weaker it gets. They put this clutch in so you can rotate the turret to the cutouts to remove it. I glued the clutch together, and just have a mark on the turret, so I can rotate it to the cutouts before the battery dies. The turret hole is the fastest way to get to the battery. To get it all the way out, you need to remove 4 screws and the upper hull. 

 

This tank is fairly heavily detailed for an RC tank, and lots of little stuff breaks off with use. This tank has gone through 3 moves, and 8 years in a storage unit in a partially crushed box. I lost a few bits, but nothing I wasn't able to source from the Chinese copy of this, the Heng Long M26. You can buy parts trees from the Heng Long tank on a bunch of websites. 

 

Dusty hull, turret off. You can see the controller and how right it is in there. 

 

The gun came loose, and the Mantlet broke off.

closer shot of the gun setup, you can see a tiny hole above the black gear. That's the screw hole for the screw, the only screw that holds the gun in. I thought it was long gone, but I flipped the lower hull over and shook it, and the little screw fell out. That was a score.

 

I look into the hull. 

 

I didn't realize how late it is, so I will continue the Pershing tomorrow. I've got to be up at 5AM! 

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by JeepsGunsTanks

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Ok, so once I got it all cleaned up, and all the little bits collected, I got them back on. I had to drill holes, and pin a few things in place.  I got the paint and decals on. 

You can see the gun system back together here. Got the little screw in place with a dab of Loctite. 

 

Cleaned up hull

Cleaned up turret with some of the parts to go back on. 

The parts pile

Rear hull with the bits back on. This is where most of the Heng Long replacement parts went, since I needed the tow cable, travel lock and phone box. I also needed the travel lock, and its a shame I lost the the original, it was a very nice part, with metal hinges. 

Gun back in, a hatch handle made, a lever made up for the M2 machine gun mount. Antenna back on, its got a little spring in there, so it flexes. 

Front view, you can see the light Guards and headlight back on, the hull towing lugs back in. Those light guards are super fragile. 

 

Out in the Sun for paint. 

We are having a very nice weather in North Bay Area California, so painting outside is no issue.  I'm spraying it with AK 1025 Olive drab in a spray can. It took two four ounce cans. 

 

 

More to come. 

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Thanks! It's been a lot of fun too, well, other than crawling around looking for the parts that I drop lol. 

 

More Pershing.  The AK paint went on real nice. 

This seems like a touch lighter than old Model Master Olive Drab.  I don't mind, I really not not like the dark Olive Drabs, they are drab, depressing and hide all the tanks details!  So I went right to the decals. They were a copy of the stuff that came with the tank, but not nearly the quality. The Pedinghouse decals that went on the M4A1 were much nicer. 

the lighting really changes shot to shot and so do the color. The M4A1 is the one I painted with house paint. 

 

 

So now the clears. I find it amusing, seemingly nothing has changed, with clear coats and decals. Well, maybe not nothing, I'm just using a gloss clear coat spray paint instead of the hard to find Future Floor Wax. Even though I found an full bottle with some of my hobby stuff. It's probably fine, I'm sure.  What really hasn't changed, is no one makes a decent clear flat other than the defunct Testors.  Flat seems to be very light satin to every paint maker...  I also should have taken the time to really trim the decals as close as I could. 

Anyway here we go with the clears. 

 

 

Tracks back on for the flat clears. 

I did a function check... and everything but the gun recoil works. When the recoil unit is plugged in, the gun just slowly cycles back and forth... So right now thats not plugged in. Tamiya recoil units are generic I think, so if its broken I can probably get another one. 

The two gas cans have 15 plus year old Model Master OD on them for comparison.  In the picture above I put the spare tracks on, I made a little pin to hold the hold down in place. I also hit the view ports with black and the antenna spring. 

 

So these projects overlap, and I'm on Vacation, so I have a lot of time on my hands. So I started pulling the M4A3 76 apart for paint on mods. I wanted to paint the base of the main gun silver, so as I was doing that, I would use the same brush to start the dry brush process on the Pershing. I love weather stuff. This Pershing will be pretty beat up looking by the end!

 

 

So now, the Pershing is close to done,  I'm going to switch back to the M4A3, that I wasn't going to pull all the way apart, to paint. That I ended up pulling just about all the way apart for paint. 

 

Preview of that... 

 

 

More to come.... 

 

 

[Barry]

The rework on the Pershing turned out Great!

 

Barry

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Thanks Barry!  It came out way better than I expected. 

 

So the Taigen Sherman was used, and was not packed very well, and came very damaged. I ended up replacing the trannys, even though the Taigen sent me a new driveshaft for the bent one. I bring this up, because it leads to why I took it all the way apart. All I had planned on doing was pulling the tracks, road wheels and turret.  While removing the tracks I notices three of the boggie units were loose, including with the ones mounting screws under the gear boxes. 

 

I got some detail parts for the turret, so it had to come apart,  and once the bogies were loose, and I had to basically take it all the way apart anyway, I went for it. I'm not sure if it's typical, or because the tank saw a lot of abuse in shipping, but there were a lot of loose screws. So now when I go back through and put it back together, Loctite will be used.  I am planning on buying an Taigen M4A3 75 in kit form, to make it look like an Marine tank on Iwo Jima, like the running Battlefield Vegas has. I'm going to get their T-34-85 too, and eventually, maybe a Panther of some type. So, I like the product, but I'd remove and Loctite any import screws on a new one! 

 

Ok, so, since I had a delay, and had to push back priming, I had a whole evening with time on my hands, so I decided to grind off all the nubs handles and put real hatch handles on. Bending hatch handles in a way that they are consistent is hard. Also drilling holes to the proper depth, hard...   

 

A look into the hull. I removed the smoke unit. Mostly because the Ford GAA was not overly smokey, and, because the oil you put in the smoker gets everywhere and I don't like it. You can see the two mounting holes in the hull floor where it was. I'm going to put the speaker there when I put it all back together. 

This is the underside of the upper hull.  One modification that had to be done in here was prying out the hull machine gun so one with a proper M1919 barrel can put in its place. The Led will slip right into the back of the new one. 

Here a view of the turret, with the bottom removed so I could get into the mantlet area.  The reason is because I got a nice little M1919 stub, to mount into the Gun Shield, and you have to swap the LED, since the machine gun LED is on the wrong side on the stock tank.  I wanted to paint the base of the barrel silver too, and that kicked off the weather on the Pershing.

 

You can see the machine gun stub in place here. 

Once the turret stuff was gone I put it back together, and decided the hull needed hatch handles. 

Dremel tool was a must have... 

Then, I'm looking at the turret, and decide I can't live with nubs on the turret.  Now the Dremel really got a work out. This was not easy.

I drilled by hand a little hole in the antenna mount for a antenna, and I did it with a pin vice, and it took forever, so I used the Dremel again. It worked two well and I may have poked through on a hatch once or twice...    For the plastic hull, I used the pin vice. Everything is a lesson! 

 

My Primer choice, got good reviews, says it sticks to anything, and its good with plastic. I thinned it with about 15 to 20% water, and it sprayed fine. 

 

 

This is basically where I'm at right now. I'm going to go spray a final coat of primer right now, and real paint tomorrow.  More to come. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Minor update. 

Primer looking good. Sticking well, went on nice and thin, not hurting detail. Has no smell. Cleans with water. So far I like.  

 

The  bogies still need a little work, so I'll do hit them again in the morning. I'm really torn if I want replace the rear hull lift rings, they look terrible, I have a set of metal ones... 

So, pretty much the only thing I lost from the Pershing I miss, is the really nice M2 .50 Cal and mount that came with it. It was like a little kit on its own, had an opening feed tray and was a really a great add on, to bring the M26 to life.  I managed to find the mount and cradle, but the gun is still missing. So I decided to buy an Aber detail set and try and add it to the crappy M2 that came with the M4A3. I got a spare, with all the replacement parts. 

 

Anyway, the Aber M2 kit has been a challenge. 

I annealed the brass sheet before I started, so it wasn't springy, but man, even seeing the little parts, I need reading glasses damnit.  

Anyway, all that's left, is the rear sight, that actually has the working flip up setup, and then getting the charging handle to stick...  Next time I'm just buying the gun and mount from Shapeways lol. 

 

 

 

 

[dodgem37]

Good show.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Ok, todays progress. 

I finished priming this morning and started the color coat this afternoon. Got two light coats on. Also got the infernal M2 as far as I am going to take it...There are photo etch parts I can't manage to grab with very fine tweezers. I watch a video that said you can use grease marker, sharpen to a paint, use the point to pick up the little part, an the crazy glue pulls it off the grease marker. 

 

So a few mistakes were made. I forgot to mask off the flash unit and the head and taillights. No biggy, I'll pull the flash unit and clean it. And for the head and tail lights, on the fronts I'm just going to clean a slot on each. 

 

An interesting tidbit about the headlights. The US Army of WWII was not a night fighting Army. They rarely even drove combat equipment behind the lines at night. This meant in many cases they did not maintain the headlights. I think it was the 3rd AD, when they had to do a night movement, many of the tanks couldn't get their lights to work.  This, somewhat, is my justification for not worrying about getting the headlights to work on the Pershing...

 

Here is the M2 with all the brass I can get on it. 

This pain in the rear will remain on the Pershing once painted, and I'll remove it if drive it around. A cat fart might sent parts flying everywhere... finding the gaurd for the front sight, had me on my hands and knees for 15 minutes. 

 

So far, the house paint is going on much nicer over this primer. Unlike on the M4A1, it is sticking well.

 

I should finish up the main paint tomorrow, probably do the decals Friday. I think I'll put the bogies back on before final paint. Then I can touch up any dings and scratches. 

 

More to come.  

 

 

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Quick update. I got the decals on, a little weather done and the gloss clear. 

 

The big Thunderbolt decals were a pain. There were mishaps, maybe even a section of turret repainted...   Also, to much red Loctite is bad... 

 

I'll do the dull coat next afternoon. 

 

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Had a rough work week and didn't have the time or energy to deal with the tanks last week.  I did get the dull coats on. Today, I got the internals more or less the way I want them in the hull, and the tracks back on. I also did a little of the detail painting.  Some soot on the muzzles, the spare track links painted and I installed the bow gun. 

 

Of the mistakes made, when I put the wheels back in the boggie units. I didn't sand clean the contact points on the boggies where the wheels touched so there was a little drag. I decided to take them apart and fix that, and the red Loctite I used, resulted in one spun off axle head. No biggie, the boggie comes apart so I can put a big set of pliers and get it out.  I installed the problem boggie in the back so its easy to get too, when I do get the new screw. Its broke in a way, the tank will work fine, so no hurry either. Red Loctite probably overkill. 

 

There was also a little problem with the decals. One went on crooked, broke, and then wouldn't come off. getting it off resulted in paint with little bits of white decal and scratches down to the primer in a few spots.  So I masked off the hull and touched the turret up. I'm getting pretty good with a dual action airbrush. Luckily I still had enough spare stars, this was no big deal just a delay. 

 

I found a flat clear I like. It's not perfect, but its close enough, I don't know if I can trust my memory of what Testors flat clear looked like. It was 30 plus years in the past. I won't complain about getting old, since I know I'm not old compared to most of you. . I was using Rustoleum Dead flat clear, and it was not dead flat, or truely clear since it change the paint color slightly on the Pershing and M4A1, and it also died before it was empty. You could tell there was paint in the can, but no pressure to get it out.  I ended up going with MRHobby's Mr.Super Clear Matt. I really like it.  I used about half of a 170ML spray can. 

 

Right after the MrHobby went on. 

 

Tracks back on, a little detail painting here and there. 

 

 

Paiting the tools is going to be a pain. There is no getting them off intact. The cheap one they all came off, they were just held on with pegs, but this one they are firmly glued. 

 

Now all three tanks are basically at the same point. So when I weather one, I can do the same thing to all three. 

 

I do still have to take the turret on the M4A3 76 back apart, either the wiring harness or the flash and recoil unit died while I was messing with it. I have spares for everything, all the electronic parts for these tanks are pretty cheap, the big metal parts are the costly bits. Now the paint has a bunch of clear coats on it, I'm not overly concerned about marring the paint when I take it apart. 

 

If I were to do it all again, I would not rush things. I wanted to get as much done on our yearly vacation as I could, and rushed the paint a bit. I think considering what I used. several days between coats would probably result in the most durable paint. 

 

With 3D Printing, and places like Shapeways, you can use the basic Sherman hull from several companies and built and M7 Priest, or even a working M32 recovery vehicle. There are also some very advanced third party digital controllers that have connectors for all the stuff in these tanks that give you a lot more options and channels to work with. 

The M32 is a bit much for me, but I would be all over a working Dozer kit for the Sherman.