twoplanekid

We will be holding our 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Tank Battle day Saturday March 1[SUP]st[/SUP] in the Champaign Aviation Museum at Grimes Field in Urbana,Ohio. If you live near Urbana, please join us for a fun day of tanking. If you live further away, spend a day with us and then a day at the National Museum of the US Air Force located a short 50 minute drive from Urbana. We need your help as many of us are a little short on tank experience.

For this first event, I wish that we could do as the Australian Moreton Bay RC Tank club is doing -> (( I'm please to say that I will be there with some new products and radio gear for those interested. New products include: Pantherturm (not that new but I doubt many would have seen in action), Panzerfaust,Sirvoe, MAKO4, Taipan, Remora and Manta, Cobra, plus the latest version of tankER9X in combination with the FrSky system which allows:16 channel operation(yes 16 channel operation on the 9X)Model matching and Telemetry ))

I do have a MAKO2 and MAKO TE to show and the Super Smoker II,RBU Battle Unit, Universal daughter Board from Radio Control Custom Tanks. I hope to have a Clark TK22 to show if the Distributor and I can work out a deal. As I am a Taigen dealer, I will have most of their products on display.

As far as IR battling, it all depends on what people bring to the event. I know that many will battle using the Taigen system. Hopefully others will be here to show everyone how to battle using the Tamiya and other systems. There will be a tank driving course and games. Tables will be setup to display your equipment. The movie Kelly’s Heroes will be playing all day.

CAP kids from Marysville will be here in the morning to look at planes and watch us battle. The local RC club will be in attendance and help with the event. So, please consider this event in your plans for the 1[SUP]st[/SUP]of March. I promise that it will be warm inside the hanger and you will have good food to eat at the Airport Café, a short walk away.

Hope to see you in Urbana to talk about and have fun with RC tanks,

Rick

http://www.champaignaviationmuseum.org/

Imex-Erik

Sounds like a great idea! I wish I could go but I'll be in GA on the 1st

NASAFAN101

Hello Rick,
I was wondering if you can tell me more about this, I have a few friends in the Dayton area, that are thing about coming out??
Thanks,
Nikki

twoplanekid

As I am down in Florida for a week, I hate to think about returning to Ohio even for a tank event. The tank battle day at Grimes Field is free to all. Many pilots fly to Urbana for the food at the Airport Café while others come to visit the two aircraft museums on the field. We tankers can experience both of these plus tank battles all day that will take place at the Champaign Aviation Museum. I am expecting tankers from the surrounding states to attend this event and show us their tanks. I will have tanks for rent for $5 as a donation to the local RC flying club. We will have a forum on the World of Tanks. If everyone is happy with this battle day, we may do it again in Urbana.

twoplanekid

As I was in Florida last week, I missed my front page spread in the local paper on Thursday. The article was for the most part close to being correct. Now, I am hoping the tank community will make every effort to come to Urbana for the tank battle day this Saturday and show the public how it’s done.

twoplanekid

I am about ready for bed. So, I will let the pictures do the talking. I hope to have video up in a few days. Everyone had great fun with the tanks but it has been a long 24 hours for me.

YHR

Well done Rick. A great effort on your part to spread the joy of our hobby.

Thanks

twoplanekid

Here is a brief post action report on the tank battle that took place in Urbana on Saturday. Of the seven Taigen tanks that I took to the event to let people use, several sustained damage and while others preformed remarkably well. All were new out of the box and most were in action for a total of about three hours.

I really like the two metal Tiger 1 tanks. One is the early production and the other mid or late. As happened in the real war, both sustained drive gear problems that eventually made them immobile. The original gear metal is too soft for these heavy tanks. If I sell more in the future, I will upgrade them all to steel gears of some kind.

I love the winter paint scheme on the Panzer IV. It has the metal tracks and should have a metal track drive gear sprocket . The plastic one on this tank failed towards the end of the day.

The panther G tanks performed well other than the gun flash stopped working on one and the recoil on the other. I haven’t had time to find the cause of these two failures.

The two armor units that held together for the whole battle were the metal StuG III and the Jagdpanther. With the StuG, it helps to be light and have metal drive wheels and tracks. TheJagdpanter is also light and is built to new designs. I sold the one demo Jagdpanther and another NIB box to people who were impressed by its performance.

I hope this evaluation helps other to make choices and to upgrade components that are prone to fail in battle. Most of you have many more hours of battling than I experienced last Saturday. So, please take my observations as one who has only a little experience in the word of tanks.

herrmill

All you needed was a couple broken down Elefants & you could replayed the Battle of Kursk.

Yea,pot metal gears won't cut it.

Rustytrax

I would add that a strong contributor to the failure of the stock gearing is the tank recoil effect. Eliminating it or reducing it to near nil will go a long way into longevity. I have battled the all metal taigen tiger at Danville for two events and (knock on wood) have not had any issues. Try getting a clarke board in there or similar to stop that recoil.

StuN

Looks like it was a great event with first rate preparatory publicity. Rarely does our hobby get that kind of press in advance or afterward which I'm sure would contribute to more public interest and recognition. Nicely done to site it at a local museum, and to tie donations into the RC flying club.

Stu N
NORDPAC XO
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