Towards the end of 2006 Jim realised that his Tiger chassis was getting a bit tired and he was fed up with being left behind by the faster models so he ordered a new chassis from Mark Spencer of Mark-1-Tank. The new chassis from Mark have an option for more powerfull motors with chain final drive which can run on 24v so Jim opted for these. As he uses his model an awful lot (some say even in his sleep!) Howard offered to re-enforce the chassis as he did with Bryan the Bastard so first the chassis went South for attention at the Uckfield Panzerwerks before returning North to the Tunbridge Wells Panzerwerks for an electrical makeover! At the SE Model Airshow back in September we had need to look inside the Tiger to solve a problem and we couldn't help but smile (gasp?) at the mess inside! Jim's Tiger is one of the oldest models that Mark has sold so it has been added to and modified over a number of years which has left the electrics in a bit of a state. It has had two of Vince Abbott's animatronic dollies fitted, one of Howard's wiggly waggly bow machine guns, a water squirter and at least one change of Electronic Speed Controller! Because of these modifications over a number of years the wiring had got a little out of control and I offered to do an electrical makeover.

A full width metal panel was made to mount all the electronics and modules together with a big box for the animatronics electronics. The panel mounts the two Robbe ESC's (but holes have been drilled and grommets fitted for an upgrade to Electronize ESC's if need be; the Robbe's are an unknown quantity with these motors), the RC Rx, a changeover relay for the Benedini power supply, a main power relay, a servo and microswitch to power the Armorpax flashing MG LED module (which is Y leaded off the Benedini Encoder RX channel and the TBS5 is re-programmed to make the MG sound sample the last sound sample, i.e. full servo deflection. The microswitch also switches the water squirter pump!), a charging socket (which corresponds with the drivers hatch opening) and the controls (which corresponds with the radio operators hatch opening). There are five switches and corresponding LED indicators for main on/off, smoke, water squirter safety, gun safety and dollies. The dolly switch is independent of the main feed so that the dollies can be left running with the model switched off.  The panel has flying leads for power via a 40A maxi blade fuse, auxiliary power for the sound system, two motor leads and a servo lead for the gun. It has a 7 way XLR socket for the connection to the turret, two 2 way connectors for the smoke module and water squirter pump, and the four connectors on the end of the dolly box which go to the two dollies, speaker panel and the wiggly waggly bow MG.

Jim's dollies run off a Wizard 3, from Milford Electronics, animatronics board which was originally mounted in a Tupperware lunch box!!! This had to go, so a suitable metal box was sourced from RS and the Wizard board and associated power supplies were mounted in this together with the Armorpax flashing MG LED module and Benedini TBS5 sound module and amplifier. All these units were connected to the outside world via high quality XLR plugs and sockets also from RS. These are very robust, designed as they are for stage and theatre (constant plugging and unplugging!). Jim's dollies were Vince's Mk1 dollies with a full body and legs with flying leads. These were modified along the lines of Hauptman Humpy with an XLR plug built into his bum! This enables the figure to be removed for storage or if it rains and also provides the physical location in the turret. The dollies mounting brackets were modified for XLR sockets (they used DIN sockets before which aren't really robust enough) and flying leads were made up to plug into the dolly box. The turret had a 7 way XLR plug fitted to connect traverse, elevation and recoil, together with a 12v feed to power the elevation ESC. This doubles to power the flashing lights on the alternative Dalek turret top.

A new twin element smoke generator was made to replace the two single smoke generators and associated plumbing. In my experience, two separate generators are a pain as one always runs out before the other which means you either overfill one or under fill the other! With a single box twin element design if the smoke stops, you just fill it up. Simple. The speaker panel was given a coat of paint and two tweeters were fitted to reproduce the better quality sound samples that the Benedini modules give. This was fitted via brackets at the rear of the chassis.

After all this, the model was assembled and demonstrated before Jim took it away to Mark's for him to paint the chassis. I think he was pleased!!

Here we see the re-enforced chassis with the bigger motors and chain drive.	This is the underneath of the electronics panel with the wiring going in.	The top of the panel with assembly well under way.	A close up of the dolly box.	The dollies resting with their new XLR plugs with socket to plug flying leads.
The finished panel sitting in the chassis...	...and the underneath showing the flying leads.	The charging socket on it's standoff...	...which fits neatly inside the dummy drivers body!	The new twin element smoke generator with associated plumbing which...
...pokes through the rear panel where the exhaust stack tops just plug into the 90 degree bends.	The revised speaker panel with tweeters.	The view down through the turret ring showing from left to right the two 2 way connectors for water squirter and smoke, the four connectors on the dolly box for two dollies, wiggly waggly MG and the speaker panel and on the right a 7 way XLR for the turret connection.	A view underneath the turret showing the flying leads for the dollies and the main turret connector.	The view down through the radio operators hatch showing, for left to right, the dolly switch, gun safety, squirter safety, smoke and main on off switches and LED indicators and the push button for the battery meter.