[dorsai]

Here's a shot featuring home built German half track
which was built by same guys who also built a German
tank a few years ago. Click photo to view more photos.

Tankco Sdkfz 250/1




Enjoy!

[hardboy]

Very nice.

[pbkingofok28]

Wow!! That's damn cool!

[Chaoticredneck]

thats awesome

[ColoradoPride]

excellent

[dorsai]

For those of you, like me, who find the idea of having
scale tanks taking part in your events, as opposed to
something built from scraps, check out these two clips.

Tank is owned by a guy named Lee. His YouTube ID
is 'zipedadoo' and he's based out in Arizona.

Parade -


Test drive;



Enjoy!

[DuckTape Dude]

Homemade tracked vehicles? They look pretty sweet, but I wonder how reliable they are. Tracked designs seem rather complex for a home project.

[CNCRouterman]

Lee's rig uses a conveyor belt based track. His rig is ST# 07. The main structural part is some pretty thick industrial conveyor material with a tensile strength greater than the tank weighs. The first iteration found the road wheels to be subject to accelerated wear, and he did a bit of redesign there. If memory serves, the guide teeth on the track eroded the inner wheels pretty quick, and I think he added some taper to the guide teeth.

The track segments are made of plywood, probably the type used for concrete forms. The tread pattern is produced by additional material, in this case plastic lumber, cut to shape and attached with bolts or machine screws and nuts. As long as the drive sprocket is made carefully so it engages several lugs more or less evenly, the stress on each plywood track segment (which is bolted to the conveyor material) is not too bad. Only a couple of these tanks have had enough hours on them to count for much, but the oldest of the bunch seems to work just fine in the harsh "outback" of Australia. Some of the builders go whole hog and use steel track segments, and a couple are steel links, steel connectors, and phenolic or industrial plastic track pads. Durability depends a lot on the builder and the use.

Richard used the running gear off a small Dozer to build his FT-17. Lots of steel in that rig. ST# 04
Richard also started a second tank, a Russian BT2, but I think the project was stalled for a bit due to needing to build a bridge ?!

Michel, our French contingent, has a very sweet AMX-40 (ST#10) that uses a conveyor belt track system. His has been reliable, and is capable of full neutral turns. Michel uses the Mantra IV drive train, which is fairly easy to build, and does not require exotic equipment or tooling. Just a way to drill, cut, measure (preferably before the cutting or drilling) and weld. Power is a 13 hp Honda motor. It will go about 18 kph or so in high. Very mobile. Way to nice to take to a paintball field though.

Lowell's M60 Patton is also conveyor based tracks, and is Paintball ready. His tank is ST#11 and is based in Frankfort KY.

One MAJOR upside to using conveyor material is a very smooth running surface for the road wheels. Much better than using grouser tracks from a skid steer. Much better than most full steel versions.

[dorsai]

Eric,

Thanks for providing all those details. I was aware of the guy who
first started building these scaledd down tanks, but I wasn't aware
there were so many of them out there.

I've already bee in contact with Lee, regards to bringing his out to D-Day,
but it looks like cost of fuel is going to keep his parked, at least this year.
Hope he's able to come without the tank, if only so he can provide the rest
of you scale builders with a first hand account.

[BlackAngelSS]

like Eric said there are a ton of cool builds on scaledtanks.com. type in scaledtanks on youtube and you get some nice vids also.

there is no reason that the paintball players in Russia should have better tanks than us in the US. Even if you dont make a fully tracked vehicle it isn't very hard to build a quality replica on a pre built platform.I'll be making a post shortly on my panzer 4 project. just gotta get some paint on what's done so far and take some pics. this build will be a great example on how to make a very nice replica paintball tank on a tight budget

also a 'Paintball tank" doesn't always have to be a scale replica to be cool or effective of course. but some more realistic quality tanks out there would be awesome

[phate098]

These guys have some pretty awesome stuff in the works, and will build anything on commision check out there website

[dorsai]

TANCO's latest project. Just 20K and you'll have yourself
a great looking "kettenkrad" replica!!

Enjoy!