This is my first post, good to be here. I'm new to the current state of 1/16 but dabbled in some of the earlier generations (HL Panther [sold quickly], WSN T-34 [still have this, no one wanted it]) from almost 10 years ago. So I'm new to this hobby but not to RC or modeling.
I recently bought a HL King Tiger (metal tracks, sprockets, idlers, gearbox; basic airsoft version;I think 4th generation gold label 5.3; sold by toucan) as a diversion (more on that below) from my current big project involving 1/35 and RC, and though it's much nicer than what I had years ago, I detest the stock radio and horribly twitchy control. Sound is okay, didn't try the smoker (no interest and will probably remove), haven't tried the BBs yet. But I can't get past the transition from slow to rocket speeds. I put the plastic tracks back on for indoor use and the tank can actually drift Fast and Furious style on the smooth marble floors in the basement. And the radio is expectedly lousy. I'm used to fairly high end aircraft radios (been using Hitec Aurora 9 for years and used Spektrum DX7 before that; bought a Hitec Flash 8 specifically for my 1/35 project). I'm not used to driving with my right hand and want to switch modes so turret is on my right and drive function on left (I think it's my aircraft training, I just think of forward and left/right as throttle/rudder on the left).
Anyway, I realize I can do all of that with the current crop of aftermarket boards: Elmod, Clark, IBU, Open Panzer. The range of price and features is pretty wide. It's pretty useless to ask which board is best, I realize it depends on the user's needs/wants. So here are mine:
-Sound flexibility and quality is extremely important to me. Here's the weird thing: in the past few months I have gotten totally hooked on Girls und Panzer, of all things (I know, don't groan!). I'm sure most of you have heard of it, but for those who haven't, it's a Japanese anime series based on a world where high school girls do battle in WWII era tanks as a sport, and no one gets killed or seriously hurt. It's a pretty ridiculous concept and much of it is pretty silly, but I like many of the characters and the tank battles are great fun. (some of the physics are absurd: there is tank drifting involved) And, I think the music is awesome. Lots of marches, many actual ones from the era, and a lot of soundtrack inspired by 60s WWII movies. I'd like to install sound files of entire 3 minute pieces onto the card and be able to play them at a flick of a switch. (side note: This is actually the main reason why I'm even getting into this scale. I own 1/12 scale Figma figures of all the main characters and even bought a 1/12 scale Panzer IVD from the same line. It's motorized and I'm turning it into basic RC function with a "play-scale" interior for the figures. Two of the figures are from a school that only uses German tanks and the King Tiger was bought for them and so they could torment the PzIVD which is from the rival school and contains the main characters. The girls are almost a perfect fit for the KT, since they are a small 1/12 scale.)
-I want it to be as plug and play as possible given my components. (I'm sure everyone always says this!) I don't mind soldering a wire or three, but not circuit boards or anything too small. My skills are average at best and soldering battery plugs to 12 or 14 ga wires for planes is what I'm used to. (I've been forced to improve for my 1/35 project but still feel inadequate)
-Ease of programming. Prefer using a PC but don't want it to be too complicated or require a programming degree. Not sure I like the idea of using a Sony remote...
-MUST MOVE LIKE A REAL TANK!! Whatever control board can make it lumber as slowly and "heavily" as a real King Tiger as possible. I realize a lot of the "Tokyo drift" problem must be the gearing on the stock zinc gearbox, but that slow to fast transition has to be the HL MFU. I purchased the Mato 5:1 steel gearbox which is supposed to be a drop-in fit and hope this will help, but the radio and board will be critical in making the beast move realistically.
-No intent to do IR battling. I might use the airsoft once in a while, but probably not often. I'd like to do a barrel recoil mod someday, but depends how complicated it is.
-Don't care about smoker and will remove my unit entirely.
-My 8 channel Hitec is probably overkill but I'd like to map all the major functions (main gunfire; machine gun; lights; startup/shutdown sound; soundtrack files) to separate switches.
-I don't mind spending upward of $150 (i.e. not looking for cheapest board possible), but would prefer not to overpay for features I may not need.
Those are my main needs/disinclinations. Thanks for any and all ideas. Sorry for the super long post! Oh, and here's a pic of Erika and Maho in the King Tiger for those of you GuP fans. I plan on repainting in basic Dunkelgelb with minimal weathering like in the show.
