RC Tank Warfare - A New Part of the Hobby for Me

It just takes one person to start a chain reaction.

Friend Keith decided to pick up a 1/16th scale Tiger I tank. After all the "hey, ain't that cool" and "wow!" etc., and finding YouTube videos of the little buggers in action, our little band of brothers have decided to build their very own battlefield.

Site owner Ricky, putting up part of his land for the play area, orders himself a M-41 Walker Bulldog American tank. Keith goes off and builds himself a bridge and not to be outdone, Ricky builds another, different kind of bridge.

Others pitch in to sculpt the land, dig out a river channel, etc. All the while waiting on their own model tanks to come in - or waiting on the next paycheck to go and order one for themselves. With this post, you can see the size of the future battlefield as well as the two bridges mentioned above. There are plans for a small scale airfield to go along with the main runways that are used for radio control model airplane flight.

The site is located northwest of Lubbock, Texas; just off of the Clovis Highway. I have suggested the following name: Taylor Field Tankers Association (TFTA). That is still 'un' official as of right now. A whole lot of digging and building needs to take place before TFTA is ready to host a battle event. But plans are afoot for something to take place in 2011.

Here are some links that I have been collecting for the past week and a half now..

1. Wonder Hobby(http://www.wonderhobby.com/116rctanks.html).

2. Tank Town at Bomber Field (http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_6239792/anchors_6909641/mpage_2/key_/anchor/tm.htm#6909641).

3. two thanks for the price of one (http://matomart.com/prodview.php?p=674).

TX Tanks on YouTube-

A- Texas Armor Association (http://www.texasarmor.com/).

1. Bomberfield Tank Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq7cOwLh1_Y).

2. RC Tank IR Tank Battle 1 16th scale(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw5EzUVYf48).

3. TX Armor February Tank Battle. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg-fKtMlNbg).

4. TX Armor battle prep(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npmUJDJO3nc).

5. rctankwars.com(http://rctankwars.com/).

Another note is that we would need to make sure to make the tank hulls water tight to allow for limited river crossing. Check the instructions with each tank I guess. Found a YouTube video of a M-41 crossing a stream. Looks to be about half inch to one inch deep.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diWn58r1nrk) and

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpvKGxkbhM).

Some more neat tank videos & websites...

6. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3OfNcBJxD0).

7. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66XziWdtq3c).

8. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsdU_4mUP08).

9. Fire trucks in German(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHugEVdfFhw).

10. ebpage with links(http://jbwid.com/idxrctank.htm).

11. Frontline models(http://www.frontline-models.com/rcarmorclubsusa.htm).

12. RCTankwarfare forum - out of England

(http://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=5471).

13. hobbyhavoc.com . (http://www.hobbyhavoc.com/forum/index.php?

PHPSESSID=2aea7c483656c4a801b69b052af21634&action=forum#4).

UPDATE (October 1, 2010): Well, I pulled the trigger today and order my own M-41 Walker Bulldog tank. This one will just be the basic tank. I'll have to upgrade it later with the metal treads, etc.

UPDATE 2 (October 6, 2010): The UPS truck dropped off the package today (2 days ahead of schedule). Way to go http://www.xenonproject.com/ (the folks I bought my tank from). Charging the battery tonight and after work tomorrow, will give it a driving test.

UPDATE 3 (October 18, 2010): Well, order with caution from Xenon Project people! This past weekend, had to crack the tank hull to look at its inner workings. The tank was pulling to the right all the time-making it hard to drive. The ad that I responded to stated that I would be getting metal gear drive. When I checked - it was plastic gears! Thus they engaged in false advertising in my case. The smoke and sounds were not all that important to me when I bought it to begin with. Now going to have to see about what recourse I might have available.

___

Ref. Tank model images taken from RaidenTech.com website to illustrate the two models mention in the post.