First tank:
I've always wanted a Sturmtiger as it's the first vehicle I chose to build from scratch for paintball combat in 1/6th scale. I never wanted to spend the money as normally I end up replacing the electronics in Torro/Taigen tanks. Then one popped up on Motion RC's scratch and dent section the other day. It said it had a few missing/broken pieces (didn't find any), smoke fluid missing (I remove smokers from all my tanks anyway), a few scuffs/marks (found one on the front of the tank which the camera can't even see), wooden crate is damaged (hinge screws had pulled out), and had some kind of barrel movement issue (that it does have, but it still works). All of the other functions of the tank work great. I was concerned the mortar loading crane was going to be missing or damaged, but it was carefully packaged and intact. Price...$459...discounted to $359 including shipping. $100 off for a barrel issue I will can fix for much less than $100.
Second tank:
TonDE full metal Churchill.It said some misc plastic pieces and the barrel are missing (main barrel there, but the MG barrel is gone and couldn't find any missing pieces). It also said the front machine gun and some other plastic parts are broken. Fires and lights up, but does not move (found no other broken parts besides the MG and rebound the tank - it runs great). The "missing" MG gunner's hatch was in the bag of parts and had just popped out of place. It snapped right back in. Price...$389...discounted to $259 including shipping. $130 off for basically a broken MG barrel which I will replace with $.03 of fiber optic rod and maybe a small piece of brass tube I already have.
Overall experience:
For a savings of $230, I'd say it was a good haul. Order was placed on July 31st and both showed up this morning via Fedex to make it a three days from order to delivery. I don't think Motion's return folks actually test these things or verify what the customer said TBH. The Sturmtiger is heavy as hell, just the way I like it and it drives so smoothly. It does still suffer from poor low speed control as I haven't driving a Torro powered tank since their version one electronics. The V3 is still inferior to HL in that respect, but the engine sound is much better than the HL. Even if the Churchill barrel had been missing, I already own the files for a Churchill to 3D print the whole tank. I figured I could just print myself a new barrel or any missing parts. The all metal Churchill seems to run really well also. I put it in low power mode with the brake setting to low and it was great to drive. Slow speed control was very good. I haven't tested the IR functions yet.
For now they will be put in the queue to be made ready for battle.
Luckily the girlfriend was out of town when they showed up...
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