[johnnyvd]

Time for another project that has been sitting too long under my workbench..
It started all when i wanted to buy a Tamiya Gepard for a colleague of mine..

Before i knew it the seller asked me to build a full option model for him..!

The Tamiya Gepard is known as the Cheetah PRTL in the Netherlands and the owners served on one of these when he was in the army..
Here a picture of one of the models and it's box:



And the model itselves:



This is going to be quite some conversion as we have a lot of stuff that has to move controlled by the Openpanzer! Think about:

- Folding the rear radar up and down
- Start rotating the rear radar
- Let the front radar follow the turret
- Driving, shooting, etc. etc.

For the observant reader, i said "one of the models" because i could not resist buying three of them for myselves... 

[johnnyvd]

First off was ditching the original drive units. These Gepards are vintage stuff and they all have the Tamiya single motor drives with clutch mechanism in them.
I used some torro 5:1 low profile gearboxes that fit very nicely.



I made a 3D printed adapter plate that fits the lower tub of the Gepard, again this will be available for download after the project is finished!
Based on my previous 3D designs i now have a general layout for the acoustic smoker, TCB and i placed the Scout PCB and Opensound PCB in a possible location.

[Baichow]

Very nice, I like your idea using Taigen gearbox with Tamiya tanks.
Have Gepard  sprockets fit perfectly with Taigen 5:1 gearbox drive shafts?

[LukeZ]

Yet another very unique build. This will certainly test the limits of the TCB's functionality, but then again, this is precisely the unusual case it was designed to work with. I will be interested to see what you come up with.

[pandknz]

This looks like a challenging build, I will be following with great interest

[johnnyvd]

So, a little progress on the Gepard.. I started with some small details: the rear radar.
It should be able to rotate on demand and lifted up and down with a servo.

Space is very limited to fit a drive unit, and cost should be not too excessive. So i chose a miniature Geared motor that is easily available from Aliexpress:



The original mounting of the radar is completely opened up (easily done by drilling and an exacto knife) and i decided to enlarge the lower part of the mounting by 3D printing a tight fitting part to mount the drive:



And everything fitted snug and tight:



I will later design a mount in the big rear hatch of the Gepard Turret that wil fit the servo and a geared "transmission" to move the radar up and down.
But first on to the......

[johnnyvd]

Front radar.. Even more challenging i think.. To fit the micro servo i head to open up the complete radar.
Printed a mount inside the radar, it took some passes to get the fitment just right:



Hard to see with the black and lacking contrast, but the servo is mounted inside of the 3D block and this fits the inside of the radar perfectly:


And now with some tuning up and down movement works like a charm! It will follow the gun elevation.

Next up is the rotational movement of the (front)radar it will be following the movement (pan)of the Turret rotation

[pandknz]

nice work!

This will be one good looking and operational model.

[XRAD]

Gepard is one of my favorite models.  Nice work with the 3D.   See if you can build a cool  vibration system and LED lighting to go with it...maybe a off weighted high rpm motor....

[johnnyvd]

Gepard is one of my favorite models.  Nice work with the 3D.   See if you can build a cool  vibration system and LED lighting to go with it...maybe a off weighted high rpm motor....

Thanks for the input!

Dunno about how much the Oerlikon's recoiled. My colleague that served on the Cheetah told me to compare it with a "tank with two Browning .50 cal strapped to the sides" said the practically had no recoil.. They did  put out a lot of smoke like is shown in the video's you posted.. In fact i am now pondering about the seperate loudspeaker and acoustic smoker in the turret.... This would get very complicated...

[johnnyvd]

And a little progress this week.. I did not have that much time, but i managed to design the Rear radar construction..



After printing it it toke some iterations and tweaking, but it now fits great on all four turrets!



The picture above shows the design just prior to the final one.. On the 3D picture you can see the difference.. Brackets to mount it in the big rear hatch are added..

[johnnyvd]

Very nice, I like your idea using Taigen gearbox with Tamiya tanks.
Have Gepard  sprockets fit perfectly with Taigen 5:1 gearbox drive shafts?

The Taigen gearboxes have only one flat side on the shaft while Tamiya Sprockets have two..
I milled a flat side and the shaft diameter is the same and fits perfectly!

[pandknz]

looking good!!

[juanillor]

te sigo con interes yo tengo un gepard tambien

[johnnyvd]

te sigo con interes yo tengo un gepard tambien

Good to hear that you also have a Gepard! Keep watching this thread, when the project finishes i will post the design files!