Turrets facing: Glue down, leave loose, other?

[HHaase]

I've been digging back through my meagre collection of micro-armor, and buying some more, as it looks like I finally have some local opponents. I've also been digging through the Panzer War rules (gives me more money for miniatures). Now, the turret facing section of the rules got me thinking. How am I going to manage this, if all my turrets have been glued down already?

At first I thought about popping them all off, and leaving them loose. But then handling becomes a problem. What do you guys usually do for representing this part of the rules?

I'm half-way considering using some small stainless cap-screws, some washers, and making the turrets able to rotate but fixed to the hulls still. Would 4-40 threading be small enough, or do I need to track down smaller?

-Hans

[voltigeur]

A real cheap solution is to buy the white board tack putty. It stays soft and gives you a soft glue for the turret. I think it loses its tackiness over time (couple of years) but hey be glad you don't have to bust track and replace torsion bars on your micro armor. If they were real you would spend 3 days of maintenance for every war game!

I spend 3 or 4 dollars for this stuff only used 10% of it and did an entire regiment fo Soviet T80's. Just haven't gotten around to doing my other units.

[Mk 1]

A real cheap solution is to buy the white board tack putty. It stays soft and gives you a soft glue for the turret.

I have tried a few techniques:

1 ) Leave 'em loose. I've lost more than a few turrets over the years. But its been a lot of years, and only a bit more than a few turrets. Not too high of a price to pay.

2 ) Glue 'em down. Don't like it. Even if the rules don't require turret facings (as Mobius' PanzerWar rules do). I like to be able to rotate my turrets. Still, even now, the smallest vehicles, like my T-60s, will often get their turrets glued.

3 ) White glue "plug". Put a gob of white glue (standards school glue, Elmer's is the leading brand in the US) on the turret peg. Put it on the tank. In 20 - 30 minutes, give the turret a full rotation in both directions. You wear off the glue on the peg, but leave a blob on the end, and it does a modest job of holding the turret in place. Not fool proof by any means -- I wind up having to do it twice or three times to the results I want on as many as 20% of my tanks. Doesn't work at all on small turrets with extra fragile guns (see the exception in #2 above).

4 ) Tacky glue. Much as Volt suggests, but in my case with Tacky Glue rather than poster tack. Just do an online search for Tacky Glue and the brand: Aleena's. Costs about $1.25 or $1.50 for a bottle that will last you the rest of your natural life (OK, don't know how long it will really last, but long!). This was suggested to me by Chris (Thunder on this forum), and I have found it to work very well. Better than my approach 3 above, and well enough for the little turrets (as described in approach 2).

Other approaches I've experimented wtih:

5 ) Glue a paper or card "plug" on the end of the turret peg. Much like #2 above, but harder to achieve. Never got good enough at it to make it worthwhile.

Other approaches that have been described and recommended here:

6 ) Pin-heads. Why use a screw? Just clip off the heads of pins with about 1mm of pin left -- coud be flat heads or even the little round ball heads. Use a thumb drill (or even carefully just use a thumbtack) to put a small hole in the turret peg. Put the turret on, put a drop of super glue on the cut pin, and push it into the turret peg. Voila, the turret is permanently affixed, but rotates freely. Too fiddly for me, though. I'd get the super glue on my fat fingers, and wind up glued to my tanks.

7 ) Magnets. Glue a small cylindrical magnet on the end of the turret peg. Put a larger magnet (proper facing of the polls is important!) either on the underside of the hull, or on the base you mount the vehicle to. Strong grip, easy turning. The PREMIUM solution. Way too fliddly for me. But sure would appreciate it if someone else did the work.

If you search waaayyy back through the topics on the forum (maybe about 2 or 3 years back?) you will find a detailed "How-to" thread on the magnets.

[HHaase]

I thought about the magnets as well, I had used them for a few Warhammer 40k projects in the past, but I'm concerned with storage. Those rare-earth magnets are STRONG, and I can only imagine the big "Ball 'O Tanks" I'd find the next time I open up my storage boxes.

The pin idea also went through my head, but CA glues seem to be my nemisis. If things are out of alignment, or not where I want to be glued, it seems to stick immediately and permanently. But when I have it all lined up just pefect, the stuff never sticks.

At least with a tap and drill, I know I can make it work. Even if it is doing things the hard way.

The poster-tack does seem like a good interim idea though..... hmmmmmm

-Hans

[Paul B]

For now I drill a hole in the center of the turret peg. I insert a piece of steel paper clip into the hole. Trim it so it is flush. CA glue the piece in the hole, then glue a large magnet in the hull.

[chrisswim]

All my WW2 turres are glued.
I do mosly play and focus on modern micro armor. I glue all my APC/AIFV/AA turrets. Glue most of my arty turrets. and some of my MBT turrets. If I do not glue MBT turrets, I can double stack the hulls in the 'tank traps' and triple/quadruple stack turrets, allows me to deploy more, with a force that has redundency and is quite robust. My opponents do not like it, but that is the way it is.....

I have used the white boad tack putty or poster putty recently, on battletech turrets and it works, and appears to be working on MBT turrets for micro armor.

voltigeur Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 5:44 pm Post subject:

"A real cheap solution is to buy the white board tack putty. It stays soft and gives you a soft glue for the turret. "

Stay away from itincghq glue, even though he claims it is better., more expensive for sure.

[Thunder]

I like the Panzer Wars rules and I don't see a problem playing it with glued turrets. Just make a house rule so that any tank with a turret can fire anywhere. It won't hurt the game play. I think Mein Panzer takes this approach.

The above methods sound good, but this is the quick and lazy solution.

[Peter_Fitz]

I always glue my turrets now; it's less trouble that way. If using a set of rules in which turret facing is actually an issue, I just use markers to indicate the actual facing -- painted matchsticks work fine, though I also have a few small flat plastic arrows that I got from somewhere (cocktail decorations? I have no idea).

[Mk 1]

I always glue my turrets now; it's less trouble that way. If using a set of rules in which turret facing is actually an issue, I just use markers to indicate the actual facing --

That's kind of the point I've come to, except for me it would be written this way:

I always glue my turrets now; it's less trouble that way. If using a set of rules in which turret facing is actually an issue, I can still turn the turrets, as the glue I use remains tacky rather than drying fully.

I do like to have turnable turrets. The majority of my (hundreds and hundreds of) tanks over the (few dozens of) years have not had their turrets affixed in any way. But alas, turrets wind up getting lost, and barrels are more likely to get bent if the turrets fall off and flop around. So I've come to the practice of gluing them in some manner.

Even the tacky glue does not give as much mobility to the turrets as I would like. But it is a good compromise between convenience (gluing and not worrying about them) and mobility (can be turned if/when needed).

[8ball]

I posted a topic a couple of years back titled something like "Rotating Turrets and Removable Bases." I described how I use rare-earth magnets for this purpose. Search back a couple of years.

Not only are rotating turrest cool looking, since they are not fixed to the body of the tank, if you bump the barrel the turret is more likely to move, and the barrel less likely to bend.

[LJERONIMO]

I KNOW THIS IS AND OLD SUBJECT BUT...CAN ANYONE PUT SOME PICTURES OF THE WAY OF DOING ALL THESE TRICKS????

[Oberst]

In over 25 years I have never glued my turrets, and I have never lost one (luck??? most likely). I keep all my tanks in Tank Traps (Panzer Keepers). And those are kept in 20mil ammo cans, flare cans, or reg. ammo cans. Each can has a flag on it of the nation of the armour that is kept in that can. So if the tank is not on a battle field, then it is in its tank trap. I wish that GHQ would sell tank traps. The bunker box is nice, but is too tall for 90% of my storage needs. I like the look on the field when the turrets are pointed at what’s about to become scrap metal, instead of all the turrets pointed forward. But that’s just me, and each to his own.

[Timothy OConnor]

Glue them down.

They're too delicate and fiddly to leave loose. If you leave them loose they:

- will be damaged

- will be lost

- will fall off while playing so you spend time putting them back on instead of playing