Martellus

Well, all it took for me to get into this again was, oddly enough, the end of Danville / the AAF field. Being around new and old faces and tanks reenergized me like nothing before.

The landscape and the websites have changed, and I am trying to take it all in but still have a number of questions. If you can answer any of them it would be much appreciated.

1. Hooben - they seem to have improved and not improved at the same time. 3D printed models seem not worth touching, the mkIV seems something I want to get into, and the T-55 has a new release.
I threw together my wannabe t-44 project and drove it for all of 4 or so minutes total this weekend before the gearbox totally siezed up and became unusable. A not unexpected result, I gave up on trying to fix that thing and decided to just run it as long as I could.

2. What has changed in the new T-55 release? Is the construction the same? Have the gearboxes been improved? Is the plastic still as terrible?
I am considering starting anew for that project as well as possibly getting a second for another build if it is decent.

3. Clark - their English website is gone and DAK is a distributor now. What happened to the small boards? I remember seeing some panzer 38t and FT17 builds using them. Is there an alternative available? I am looking at doing a small tank build.

4. What is the state of all the other aftermarket boards? IBU seems to still exist, I remember Bendini sound being hot back in the day, I saw the Beier boards which sound amazing but the lack of Tamiya compatibility is killer. Anyone else?

Is there any other standout tech improvements I should know about? I saw the newer gun smoke units etc, but otherwise the smokers seem about the same.

5. I know I have seen methods of inducing whole hull recoil (aka the whole tank recoils as opposed to it scooting back and forward). Anyone remember what posts?

6. Finally.. it feels like activity has moved elsewhere. Is a bunch of this on FB groups now or something? I certainly prefer the forum format.

Also, does anyone know the best way to contact Daryll? I had been talking to him about some stuff at Danville but I wanted to ask him about some specifics on another build of his.

tankme

1. Hooben...what can I say. I own a couple. Customer service is still bad depending on who you talk to. It seems they help some people and others they don't. The Mk IV seems to be well received by most that have it; although, most say it is designed without maintenance taken into consideration. As in it's hard to fix things once it's built. Other Hooben releases are still pretty well detailed, but they still have long wait times and fragile plastic in most cases. Spare parts are still pretty non-existent except tracks.

2. The new T55 release was in like 2016. They basically fixed some of the crappy molds that plagued the first kit. Plastic is still the same, but I've used Plastruct in the orange bottle with success on it. Thread is here about the improvements: DKLM RC: Hooben T-55 Re-Release

3. Clark Website: Welcome to CLARK MODEL Lots of board options now. TK50 is one I prefer for tanks at the moment.

4. IBU hasn't been able to produce any new boards as far as I know due to price increases after Covid. Benedini is still around. The Beier boards have battle capability, but it's only compatible with the old HL or the Taigen standard - not Tamiya.

6. Activity here has slowed. Some are using the Hobby Squawk forum now. I'm still on the RC Tank Warfare site which has more traffic than here.

Martellus

LOL I was the first post on that thread. Completely forgot. Changes aren't as much as I like, but still sound good, thanks for the information

Clark models website just comes up as a 404 when I try to load it. Is it just an issue on my end?

I checked on the RC warfare site a couple times but it seemed to mostly pertain to overseas stuff - is there more of a US crowd there now?
Thanks for the information on the other site too, always struggled to keep attention over multiple sites but I guess I need to.

I see the open panzer project is dead now too, shame. And that interesting Russian board that I presume is stopped due to global events. At least IBU is still around. I need to compile and look at all the boards again. Does anyone make a compact board that can still take custom sounds?

tankme

Just hit the website I have linked in my response with no issues.

The Open Panzer project isn't dead, dead, but he won't be making anymore boards. It lives on with people's custom projects.

Kim Olsen is using an OP design on his board. Review of it here: https://radindustries.wordpress.com/...m-olsens-mtcu/

Don't remember any Russian board so it's probably dead and even if it wasn't, the US has cut off most trade relations with Russia due to the Ukraine war. Not like we could order one anyway in the US.

The IBU website is up, but board availability is pretty much zero unless you buy used at this point.

Crius

The IBU2 is pretty much gone for good, the IBU Ultimate is its successor, but a lot of guys don't like that you can not disable the momentum feature like you could with the IBU2. No one has heard from Ivano for quite some time so there's no telling if there will ever be any more IBUs of any kind made.

I recently had a batch of IBU2s for sale, and I still have two IBU2 Pro boards for $160 each, and TPA amps for them at $20 each, but I do give a 15% discount for RCU members.

Things here at RCU have definitely slowed down. RCTW is still around and I think they have more U.S. members than they used to, but it's still a little boys' club with tyrannical moderators that seem to love banning Yanks, and yes, they banned me, too, because I wouldn't lick Herman Bix's boots. I call 'em like I see 'em and that didn't go over well, so I only post here now, though I've heard there are a few groups on facebook.

Martellus

Yeah, something weird is going on with the site. Had to pull it up on another browser, didn't work on phone or pc otherwise. Thanks

Confirms to me the TK30 series is discontinued though, sadly. Shame it seems like board availability is worse than it was when I stopped.

Do you have any idea what the market price is for a Tamiya 1a4 RC? I was looking into getting a chassis for a project, and I never trust ebay listing prices naturally

edit: been away from this post so long I missed the other reply.

I don't pay attention to forum or other politics so I can't comment on the moderators or anything of RCTU. I just happened to find here first and got accustomed. I hate trying to keep track of a number of websites for the same subject and usually end up dropping most when I do.

Thanks for the information, I need to look at the specifics for IBU again. Shame about the momentum on IBU Ultimate. Could it be adjusted at least?

Crius

If you send me a PM with an email address I can email you the IBU2 manual (pdf), which has all the specs included. Unfortunately I can't help with the IBU Ultimate. I've heard there is some adjustability to the momentum, but I do know it can not be totally disabled, which is why I never bought one. Ever since Kevin quit making the Asp the IBU2 has been my go to board, and I have several projects that I have boards set aside for. One of those projects (if I live that long) is to build a pair of heavy battle tanks, a King Tiger and a JS-2. I've collected most of the parts and have both tanks (both IR versions to start, which should help) so now I just have to get off my duff and get it done, but there are a few projects in line before them, like a 1/6 M5 Stuart that I'll run totally on the IBU since it can use a 3s lipo, and I have a couple non-tank projects, like improving the Mercedes Benz 540K (in 1/6) and also a 1/6 M3 scout car. So many projects, so little time.

Michal_Kaczorowski

Ad 3. Nobody mentioned Elmod which is sill arround with their current FusionX board. I have Beier which have fantastic sound but have issues e.g. with proper servo elevation.

If you want simple, small board for small tank, there is 35rctank ( P3 + P4) I have it in my FT-17

Martellus

True, I hadn't considered elmod. What are its advantages over IBU? The 35th board is neat, but like Beier, the lack of battle support for Tamiya kills it.

As much as I wish a new battle standard would emerge, I really want everything I make to be battle capable, practical or not.

Thanks Crius, I had found the manual on their website and was reading it already though. Seems a solid choice.

dgsselkirk

WAYYYYYYY more action on FB now. Tons of pages and pretty much constant activity on some of them I do like forum for finding posts too but FB seems to be where the action is...

Max-U52

Hey Dean, Why don't you give us a link to your 2 favorite Facebook forums? I'd definitely like to check those out.

Michal_Kaczorowski

There are plenty of FB pages (most of the times same people post on all of them) like:
World RC Tank Community
https://www.facebook.com/groups/rctanks

RC 1/16 Tank Club
https://www.facebook.com/groups/688596537939632

RC Tanks WW2 Western Allies
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2620807651514979

Ostfront RC Tanks
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2367313353541815

ForgeBearTanks
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1120988748024649

1/16 RC Sherman Tank builders
https://www.facebook.com/groups/566857317387497

and many, many more...

Facebook pages are great bu for build reports regional forums are better, like
UK
https://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/
Germany
https://www.heng-long-panzerforum.com/index.php
Poland
RCTANK.PL forum modelarskie czo?gi RC ? Strona g?ówna forum
etc

Crius

Thanks, Dean, those all look good, the first two being the largest, and I like the look of the two German forums, but I hesitate to join a forum that's not primarily English speaking. Google translations aren't always the best so it can be easy to be misunderstood, especially for a sarcastic smartass like me.

I didn't know Dave had a page like that, I guess when it comes to the world of the internet I need to get out more.

Is it just me, or have the emojis disappeared? I got the one above by typing the colon and parenthesis, but the box of selections has disappeared from my screen, even if I go advanced. But I've noticed some weird stuff going on lately, like clicking on one thing and getting sent somewhere else. I hope they're not doing another software update, we seems to lose stuff every time they do one of those.

dgsselkirk

I didn't post them but thanks Michael! Those are what I would have posted. There are also quite a few club pages which are good for people looking in their region...

Max-U52

Oops. I'd correct the original post but it seems we can't edit posts anymore.

Thank you, Michal.