Re: T035 nearing completion [TANKS]

["Marc en Wendy" <marcmethorst-at-zonnet.nl>]

Grant wrote:

 

>My wife's sister and her family live in Almere, Flevoland....any where near you Marc? 

 

We live in Apeldoorn, about 1 hour east of Almere. If you ever plan to visit them, make sure to bring your tank :-)

 

>it looks like the StuG is a Tank Destroyer....is this correct?? 

 

Correct

 

>Hope you don't mind if I use some of the ideas presented in your construction article.

 

Well, some ideas have been kindly borrowed from other tank builders so feel free!

 

>The Qloader hopper you have constructed looks very interesting.....how's the reliability?? 

 

I only tested it outside the tank and after fine tuning it it looks like it is very reliable.

The advantages are:

- Force feed without use of extra air/CO2 or strain on the batteries

- Hopper can be placed anywhere in the tank, thus providing a low silhouet. I imagine it could even be placed in the hull of a turreted tank, alongside a HP air tank with plastic instead of a braided hose.

- The hopper can take 100 paintballs max. So load them with 40 balls for battle or 100 for fun!

- It's light

 

As with any design there are some disadvantages:

- loading time: every single ball has to be put into the pod, I hope to be able to modify this later

- You have to load 40 balls + the number of paintballs that fit in the hose between the hopper and the marker. After the last ball leaves the hopper, the spring force is zero, meaning the hose will still be filled with balls. Not a huge problem when refilling between battles, but it gives a bit of extra work when unloading after battle.

Actually, the spring still has it's prewind but there is an unwind stopper in the form of a plastic ball, slightly bigger then a paintball that clogs the releasing wheel in the hopper.

- When you have to buy it new it's a bit expensive, but they are regularly advertised on Ebay. Check this auction http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=16047&item=7163081907&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

for 4 pods (the most important parts) and convert them the way I did and it will be a lot cheaper. New, complete sets cost about 75 dollars.

 

>It looks very "high tech".....is it something you developed and constructed yourself or is it a hybrid of an existing paintball loading system?? 

 

I got the pod for free because it was redundant at a paintball shop and made the PVC parts myself.

 

>Looks like the Qloader might be useful in my Hetzer.  Details!!

 

More info on the Qloader (including manuals and maintenance videos) at www.qloader.com

 

>Any assistance would be appreciated!

 

Just ask!

 

Marc