I do really hope one of the current up and coming manufacturers come up with a new revised Elefant, best in kit or semi kit form. I'm pleased as punch Asiatam has the tracks, I hope to buy a set as spares.

My apologies to the thread starter, I had no intention of hijacking your post. Again I want to wish you the best on your project; it is always good to see folks follow their creative bent when they build. There seems to be exciting news coming from Asiatam and I hope it helps your efforts.

Unless anyone is having trouble sleeping stop here and go on to the next post...from this point on are just my musings.

I mentioned that the original Imai track is fragile and I feel it is; but not due to age. Imai used fairly large pins for the tracks and making the outer hole( the pins are pressed into the center portions of the track hinge only) large for clearance leaving a very, very thin section. I proved this at a local club day one year when running one of them in a "potting soil" battle ground when one track bound up and a weak link broke....

I know I've mentioned it many times before but when these models were introduced no one seemed much interested.
That's how I got my first one, it sat unsold in a shop until they were going out of business and sold it at a discount, $250
in 1978. For the time they were way expensive, Tamiya's Sherman cost $99. I just assumed they were out of my reach until they were pretty much out of production; I remember back some years before I actually bought my first that I had gotten a product list from a Japanese mail order first selling all manner of AFV kits they had listed the model at $410 which I assume was discounted from what I don't know. I remember seeing one kit in the display window of San Antonio Hobby ( first store location) shop in Mountain View displayed to show the styro trays of parts. Never saw the price they wanted.
But this is all just history. RC armor wasn't very popular in this country in the 1970s, the current crop of tank people are spoiled rotten, spoiled beyond anything I could have imagined.


Jerry