Tanks for the memories - 56002 Leopard A4 Restoration

[acprc 1573]

Well something very different from me but welcome to another build/restoration thread. Recently I have been picking up and restoring a few Tamiya 1/16 scale Tanks. This is the second of 4 that I have to restore. The first, a Flakpanzer Gepard is too far down the build to document it but I thought this one would make a good candidate from the beginning.

So this is kit number 56002 or RT-1602 and was first released in July 1977. It really is at the forefront of Tamiya RC with the first 58 series car the Porsche 934 coming out 5 or so months earlier. 

I picked this one up in Japan and have been collecting a few parts to get it started.

The main parts of the tank I have

The base chassis

 

and some spares parts I have found to add back the details that are missing

I have also picked up a vintage period Futaba transmitter, receiver and servos to go back in the tank

So the plan is to strip the chassis down, Ultrasonic the gearbox and get that all neat and tidy again. Strip the wheels off and rejuvenate or replace the road rubbers accordingly. Quite a few have perished but the restoration will include original and reproductions.

The top deck and turret will need some plastic repairs, filling, sanding and obviously a repaint. This will be done in stages as I build up the bits that are missing. There are also then some extra modern reproduction brass parts that will be used to make the Leopard look better and also complete it. Obvious things that are missing are the IR search target light and hatches.

The tank will be converted to 7.2v for ease of battery availability and it may get a modern MSC. I do like the idea of using the old microswitch system though.

Will be a fairly long one as I need to finish the Gepard but stay tuned for more.

[matisse 1697]

Bringing out the big guns eh? I shell look forward to keeping track of your progress…..

[acprc 1573]

18 minutes ago, matisse said:

Bringing out the big guns eh? I shell look forward to keeping track of your progress…..

Oh dear, I think the thread is only going one way after that

[acprc 1573]

Started stripping the chassis down this morning. Got the tracks off, motor out, switch off and then the gearbox out.

Gearbox was pretty dirty but was going in the Ultrasonic.

but came out well after an hour at 60 degrees. Even found another turret part that was obviously stuck in the gearbox somewhere.

Nice and clean now. Will be dried and then re-lubricated using a teflon dry lube spray.

[acprc 1573]

So, with the gearbox out the rest of the chassis was stripped down to be cleaned. The motor and mount, switch etc all taken off.

The chassis itself was pretty greasy which wasn't a surprise given the state of the gearbox assembly.

As It looked when stripped down

The metal chassis was then given a two stage clean. First was brake cleaner and a brush to remove the grease inside and then a hot soapy wash. 

Came out ok I think. Just some old sticky pads to get off with some glue remover.

The rubber road wheels are all perished so I will need to order 24 reproduction ones! Not cheap at nearly 3 euros each. The motor will have the wires removed and then be cleaned and new wires fitted. The switch will be replaced as I have some new ones in stock.

I also got my DSPIAE mini reciprocating sander in from Aliexpress. These are very handy for removing old glue etc on the plastic hull and turret parts prior to painting. More to come on that but here is a picture. USB powered it charges in no time and uses small self adhesive sanding squares.

[acprc 1573]

So with the chassis clean I set about getting it painted. Tamiya originally specified Olive Drab in the 1977 manual however the real tank would of been Gelboliv or Yellow Olive. With modern paint I can just purchase airbrush colour already done.

First job was to get everything primed. Here I am using Vallejo grey primer

and then some shadowing applied with black paint. This will make the top olive coat darker in places.

While that was drying I came across an incomplete Leopard 1 in Japan and purchased it

Now this might sound a bit crazy but I paid just £48 for the chassis and it has a wealth of parts. Firstly it has provided a complete set of good roadwheel rubbers. At nearly 3 euros each for reproductions this is an instant saving as you need 32 for each tank! The chassis also had a few missing plastic parts from the rear deck and the turret and also lots of the control parts for the steering etc. Whats left will be sold off. I am expecting to make my money back on the part that are left. A set of tracks, gearbox, clutch etc.

The chassis also has some parts for my King Tiger restoration (torsion bars)

Road wheels went through the ultrasonic, will then be dried, treated with Gummi Pflege and then a very small bit of rubber grease applied before refitting

 

Chassis has just had two coats of Yellow Olive and then will be sprayed with matt varnish to seal in the colour.

The turret has been started and slowly filling cracks and sanding etc. More to come soon

 

[acprc 1573]

A bit more progress

Rubber tyres were dried and then sprayed with Gummi Pfledge and then wiped dry

and fitted to the road wheels. Chassis Yellow Olive also came out ok

The sprockets all look good and the front idler wheel that has to be moved to get the idler shaft out

Took the rear sprocket centre caps off the donor chassis and got them primed. Will be yellow olive before the end of the day.

Just before I am typing this up I have started getting the gearbox back in. Got the motor to clean up now and get some new wires on it then it can be fitted.

More to come

[acprc 1573]

So a bit more done on the Leopard.

Got the gearbox fitted into the tank, the motor cleaned up and fitted to the gearbox

Rewired the motor with new wire and added some heatshrink on the original switch.

Fitted the rest of the sprockets and idler wheels then added the metal tracks

Got the top coat done on the centre caps and they have just been fitted using hot glue. I use hot glue instead of modelling glue as it will hold the caps in place but they can be removed if needed.

A work trip to China for a week will stop things for about 10 days however planning to get the rest of the tank wired up so I can test that it runs ok.

[acprc 1573]

So after a week away its back on the Leopard. In the background I have been working on some of the upper hull. Reattaching missing parts and sorting out damage.

The rear plate is coming along but I am missing the complete barrel lock. I will use a nickel replacement to finish it off

The turret has and is needing lots of work. It had a large crack down the roof and lots of parts missing. Lots still to do but slowly getting there

The tank uses an old switch controlled by a servo for forward and reverse. I have a new one so I will tidy it up and fit it back into the tank

However, as this tank will eventually be sold I am going to fit a period Futaba ESC. I also have the switch plate for the tank so it can be mounted nicely. The new owner will get much better control with the ESC fitted.

B

But, the ESC needs a wire repair and new rubber connectors on the motor connectors

 

Bit more progress over this weekend and we may see the tank fire up.

[acprc 1573]

Did a few more things.

Added motor connectors to the motor wires I replaced and connected them up to the ESC. The original kit instructions tell you to join them and then heatshrink the wires but for ease of future maintenance I used modern motor connectors.

and then I charged up a battery pack, set up the throttle only on the vintage Futaba transmitter and this was the result!

IMG_1044.MOV

 

I then continued to work on the top deck adding things like the rear grill

Off work now for a week so more to follow soon.

[acprc 1573]

Did a bit more work. A few pieces were missing from the tank and part are hard to come by so decided to 3D print them.

The first was one of the top halves of the loaders hatch. Mocked it up in Tinkercad

3D printed it and gave it a smear of Tamiya fine filler

The next part was the searchlight, again mocked up in Tinkercad

3D printed and glued together

Both items given some primer to see how they look

Little more filler then some top coat I think.

The missing periscope cage that is pretty hard to make arrived from Germany in Nickel and some lovely shackles and mounts that will also go on the tank

Primed and added shadow to the rear bulkhead. this will now get topcoat

and a nice new decal set (reproduction) arrived

This week I am hoping to get the turret in primer once all the parts are glued on, the shackles mounted and then the top deck in primer.

Progress

[Collin 2068]

@acprc Hi. Can you recommend any black filler to retosre light scratches on Tamiya ABS parts? Best would be something which does not need any afterwork, so it gives already a glossy surface.

[acprc 1573]

20 hours ago, Collin said:

@acprc Hi. Can you recommend any black filler to restore light scratches on Tamiya ABS parts? Best would be something which does not need any afterwork, so it gives already a glossy surface.

I'm not aware of a black filler that wouldn't need any afterwork. Milliput make a black epoxy putty but Milliput tends to be for molding items or filling larger voids.There are a number of black fillers around, especially automotive types but how they dry or what afterwork they need would need to be tested. I can see why you might need it though to repair or make older ABS parts look good.

[Collin 2068]

Hi and happy Xmas. I am already doin around with black miliput and it is good so far but takes a lot of patiente to do thin layers. I will also try some crystal 2k resin afterward. Finally I know why I never threw away any broken parts. They are great to test the strategy.

Btw did you ever dried to make a ABS-aceton paste?

[acprc 1573]

On 12/25/2024 at 4:34 PM, Collin said:

Hi and happy Xmas. I am already doin around with black miliput and it is good so far but takes a lot of patiente to do thin layers. I will also try some crystal 2k resin afterward. Finally I know why I never threw away any broken parts. They are great to test the strategy.

Btw did you ever dried to make a ABS-aceton paste?

I havent tried anything with ABS apart from using plumbers pipe glue. This melts ABS really well and maybe there is some benefit using it to fill cracks etc. I have never tried though. Maybe you can melt scrap ABS with it and use that as a filler?

[urban warrior 666]

I guess that's what's called "sprue-goo". Haven't even tried it myself yet. But I believe there are several Videos on YT available. Acetone is one of the possible "solutions". But anything that will dissolve ABS, PS and PMMA will work. The plastic in Tamiya kits (RC car hardbodies and tanks) is mostly polystyrene (PS). You find ABS mostly as hardware or architectural model building supplies. Standard glue for plastic model building will not bond PS to ABS. Been there done that. One sure solvent was "Plastic Weld" made by Plastruct. But since they changed the recipe in the past it's no longer as good. You may look for Trichlormethane. This was the original formula of Plastic Weld in the heydays.

[Collin 2068]

On 12/27/2024 at 8:09 AM, urban warrior said:

I guess that's what's called "sprue-goo". Haven't even tried it myself yet. But I believe there are several Videos on YT available. Acetone is one of the possible "solutions". But anything that will dissolve ABS, PS and PMMA will work. The plastic in Tamiya kits (RC car hardbodies and tanks) is mostly polystyrene (PS). You find ABS mostly as hardware or architectural model building supplies. Standard glue for plastic model building will not bond PS to ABS. Been there done that. One sure solvent was "Plastic Weld" made by Plastruct. But since they changed the recipe in the past it's no longer as good. You may look for Trichlormethane. This was the original formula of Plastic Weld in the heydays.

Yes this is what I meant. Funny, I have put the rest of a abs tree into acetone for 2 weeks and the pieces did nothing but got plastic granulat when you press them, but far far away from a paste.
Will try the Tamiya glue as a base. Will search for Trichlormethane, thanks for that hint.

@acprc Sorry for hijacking your tank thread but it just came perfectly for my ongoing project.

 

[acprc 1573]

On 12/28/2024 at 9:43 PM, Collin said:

 

@acprc Sorry for hijacking your tank thread but it just came perfectly for my ongoing project.

 

Not a problem

[acprc 1573]

So, a few more Tank related bits of progress.

Got the top deck to a point I could add a coat of primer

and then a second coat of primer followed by some black shading

If you are wondering what benefit the black has look at the wheels below. The one on the left is red oxide primer then German yellow on top. The one on the right is red oxide primer, black shading then German yellow. Hopefully you can see the difference.

Lastly the turret had its first coat of green