Thanks for the reply guys! I really appreciate it. I had some unfortunate damage that ocurred during shipping which I didn't discover until a few days ago. Three screw posts for the bogies onthe left side were broken off and one bogie on each side of the tank had broken suspension arms that go over the spring pot. I was really depressed when I found these problems, but I then began to to think of ways to repair the damage and have now completed not only the repairs (using epoxy for plastic and screw receiving blocks on the inside of the hull), but have now finished cutting off the skirts - that was my originial intention, and painting. There are a few more cosmetic items I want to accomplish, but everything seems to be holding just fine. I did some driving on gravel, dirt and even grass (slow wide turns in the grass) and it did just fine.

I don't care much for the way the radio controls are set up though. Forward and reverse and turret traverse are on the same stick (left), Turret elevation is by the flaps control knob, and left and right turn is on the right stick with no device assigned to the forward and back right stick movement. I am so used to right hand speed control and turning that this is really awkward. That's my next project, to try to get tank movement all on the right stick and turret traverse and elevation on the left. Now that I have actually accomplished afew things with this tank, I am beginning to really enjoy it. Soon, I hope to add a sound module from loyalhanna.com. They have a V-8 with proportional sound and start up. Having a paint marker is a new experience, I had no idea these things were so powerful. The paintballs I'm using don't seem to splat - maybe one out of five, but they will poke holes through mat board. I love the size of this thing as there is a lot of room in the hull - well, actually, not that much, as the Industrial robotics electronics hardware is substantial. I hope I never have to figure out what all that stuff is!

I will avoid snow and cold operation as I can see the potential for real bad results there!