Panzer IV....To RC, or not to RC....

[ostketten]

My local Walmart had an XD 1/18th Panzer IV RC tank in the eastern front three tone (tan, brown, green) camo pattern, that someone had returned to the store minus the radio controller, well...with my superior powers of persuasion I convinced the store manager that a radio controlled toy with no controller was going to be a tough sell....to make a long story short he let me have it for 19.99 with the understanding that it was sold "as is" and the sale was final. OK, no problem says I...when I get the thing home I promptly remove the spring that keeps the cannon barrel permanently elevated, and removed the RC gear that drives the turret rotating ring so now it turns easily by hand. All things considered I think I got a pretty good deal and it's a great looking tank even though most of the hatches don't open. My biggest complaint is that the center hubs for the drive sprockets, road wheels, and return rollers are absent and you can see the steel pins that are there on all the RC tanks like this. To give you an idea of what these hubs should look like, take a look at the spare road wheels just below the turret on the left side of the tank. I was hoping to get you guys to put your thinking caps on and give me some ideas how I could cover those unsightly black steel pins. My quick and easy method would be to simply match the color of the paint on the roadwheels as much as possible, then dab some paint over the center of each wheel, sprocket, and roller. Other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Scott

[tmanthegreat]

My guess for the quickest way to hide the screws & pins on the wheels, as you suggested, would be to pain over them with a tan/brown color that matches the surrounding paint.

As for opening the hatches, you should be able to remove the little "cups" that sit on the underside of the hatches. I haven't looked in my RC Panzer IV yet, but the hatch covers in my RC M113 were screwed in and able to come out quite easily when the screws were removed.

[ostketten]

As for opening the hatches, you should be able to remove the little "cups" that sit on the underside of the hatches. I haven't looked in my RC Panzer IV yet, but the hatch covers in my RC M113 were screwed in and able to come out quite easily when the screws were removed.

Hmmm.. I will definitely have to open her up and take a look see, thanks very much for the tip. I agree, painting is certainly the easiest and possibly the only practical solution, but I was sort of hoping that I might be able to find somewhere some little plastic caps or hubs of a suitable diameter that I could glue in place and then paint over, but I suppose this is not a very realistic expectation on my part...sigh. I mean, these hubs must exist somewhere because they are present on the non-RC version of these Panzer IV models, but I suppose getting hold of any of them is another story. Thanks again for the tip. Ciao

Scott

[Emil Frand]

I have that tank and did get all the hatches open, the driver/gunner hatches are boxed in, I removed the top and took the boxes off, theres 2 screws holding them on. I too removed the ring that makes the gun elevate, though Im keeping mine r/c. wear on the wheels reveals PINK plastic! I got mine new for 30 bucks, the detail is really good but the tracks love to pop off.

[grockwood]

I was planning to use the spare road wheels hubs as a mold to try to make some hubs. There used to be a childrens clay that you could use for molding and shaping and then bake it in an oven. Forgot the name of the product.

[ostketten]

Grock, that's the best idea I have heard so far that would faithfully reproduce the actual hubs themselves. OTOH, it sounds like a lot of work But, I suppose anything worth doing, is worth doing right eh? Thanks for the input.