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It is with great thanks that I thank Steve Tyng and the Maryland Attack Group.
Heidi started as an idea that I got after watching my first tank battle in 2006. Amazed by the fun that the group was having and the fact that I was no-longer a semi-pro paint ball player, I instantly wanted to join in the fun. After talking to the guys, I decided that a Tiger 1 was the ticket. Both Frank and Steve made offers to help me design and build a tank. Having lived in Waldorf, I decided to take Steve up on his offer to build a tank.
Heidi stated out as a plan for Steve to design a line of tanks. We spent a couple long marathon sessions in his workshop building our beast. Between the sessions, I had home work assignments to complete. I never had used a router, never laid fiberglass, never wired up speed controllers or built anything of this complexity. Steve was a great mentor.
Heidi has a plywood lower hull with fiberglass laid on the outside. The upper hull is plywood. The turret is a composite of very thin plywood/cork/plywood – a Steve Tyng design. The road wheels were cut on a power mitre saw using a “Tyng” jig. The axles are bolts and are screwed into angle aluminum located on both the inside and outside of the lower hull. The road wheels have vacuum cleaner drive belts on them (find a friend that fixes them or explain to a service center owner what you are using them for, if not you will spend a lot of money – thanks to my friend who is a Electolux salesman) She runs 2 of Steve’s M1 motors at 24 volts controlled by a Robot Solutions ESC. The tracks are the Interlock tracks – They work great, but you do loose some traction in the wet – too slick – they need cleats. I am considering that option, but I have been too busy to worry about that this year. I also am using two radio receivers – one for the hull and one for the turret.
The Turret houses my old Automag Paintball marker. I run compressed air. NOTE – if you want to use an Automag, you must run it on AIR, not CO2. (unless you want to modify your CO2 tanks.) Automags work great on Air, take care of them and they will shoot all day, but if you decide not to, it will be your worst enemy. I build up my own feed tray design and use a car door lock servo to fire the Automag.
Heidi did ok on her first day of battle. I did blow my ESC for my turret motor, due to my turret ring become loose and wedging out of place. This caused me to have a blow the ESC. I still had Elevation, and fire control, along with the ability to drive. But in the end, I blew the controller and still need to conduct my repair for the 2007 season.
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