Greetings Tankers!

Great news! We’ve been put on the waiting list for a table for WWII Weekend in Reading! WWII Weekend at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum is one of the biggest WWII themed gatherings in the US, and we’re thrilled that they would allow us a table and display there.

On with updates:

ENGINEERING:

Beckett had done a phenomenal job on the track tension adjuster, see below. This piece is now fully developed and ready to build. The purpose of the device is to adjust the tension on the track by moving the rear idler cog. Often times an improperly adjusted track can lead to damages that we don’t want to deal with, so kudos for this excellent piece of work.

Seen below is the original design:

And the new:

And for reference, here is where it goes on the tank:

So it’s all very exciting and coming along.

Nate has finalized the conceptual workings for the steering mechanisms and is waiting on correspondence from a couple clutch experts on what material/thickness the clutches should be. Once he gets word back we’ll be able to start designing the steering mechanism with working dimensions and specifications, which means you’ll be able to start seeing it come together!

OTHER NEWS:

So we’ve been seeking out advice from experienced people of all backgrounds from engineers, marketing experts, financial gurus, and historians and the amount of advice and encouragement we’re receiving is fantastic. One of the big pieces of advice that comes back to us repeatedly is that we should have a better feedback system, and create a system where people can donate (already!). So we think maybe it’s time to start a Patreon. Seth has volunteered to lead that effort.

The Patreon account will allow us to invite those who are honest in this endeavor to participate in our conversations via livestream and live chat during scheduled times and will hopefully weed out the detractors. The money donated through the Patreon will be used for transportation, display, research and prototyping costs, all before the actual Fundraiser next year. We’ll have more details as we fine tune the idea, and within the next week or so we’ll invite all of you to participate!

That about wraps it up until April 1, where we’ll have turret, suspension, and final drive details for you along with the Patreon and possibly a Youtube Channel, though that’s still being discussed.

Til next time!

-T.ankmann