1/8 Scale HL Abrams

[HERMAN BIX]

Interested in what you think of it once you get it.

As would we all

[Jib]

So it took sitting on hold for 25 minutes but I finally got a hold of the delivery company, and it’s not being delivered this coming Monday, but this coming Thursday, the 19th.

Still happy I was finally able to talk to a state side human being who scheduled a date and time window for when they would be delivering it. So yes the package is real, it’s on its way, and I didn’t piss 10K into the wind for nothing. Will make a nice early Christmas present, I hope.

[Jib]

Finally came!

Was getting worried, they missed the delivery window with no call, had to track down the local warehouse and they said it was the last delivery of the day. So, didn’t get to do anything with it other than open the box and poke around with what I could reach.

Man, the size of this thing is crazy. I’ve never seen an RC tank in person in any scale of their than 1/16 and below.

From what I can tell it is pretty much just a scaled up version of their 1/16, with a few bells and whistles. A lot (not all) of the hatches on the chassis actually open. All of the handles I have seen are actually handles, not molded raised bits like on the 1/16.

On the turret, the dog house doors open, the commanders cupola rotates (although there seems to be a bit it won’t rotate past, I’ll have to look at that later), and on the mantlet the little flap is hinged and separate, unlike the 1/16 model. The CITV does not appear to rotate (why go through the trouble of making the cupola rotate but no the CITV). The boxes on the sides of the turret do not open.

It came with a charger with zero instructions and almost everything on it is written in Chinese. I guess I just leave it plugged in until the LED turns green?

It’s supposed to shoot 9mm Airsoft, which at first seemed really cool to me, but I have found that 9mm Airsoft pellets seem extremely hard to find. Might go to a local Airsoft shop and see if they have any suggestions.

It’s bolted to the box via the tow eyelets on the tank, so they must be able to stand up to doing some actual towing.

The mud flaps are actual rubber flaps, not molded hard plastic like the 1/16.

That’s all I’ve got for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll try to charge it up and drive it out of the box.

[tankme]

Wow...it is big. I like that production number...0006. Seems like you are part of a very elite crowd of owners. Maybe only 5 other people own one and one of those is probably a demonstrator at the HL office. Glad it arrived in one piece. I love the Abrams and one day I will own one in 1/6th scale, but I haven't found any 3D printer files that are worth printing in that scale...yet.

[Jib]

Elite, or foolish? My wife told me I’m not allowed to tell any of our friends or family how much it’s costs, haha

[Jib]

So I did end up getting out of the box, drove it around the driveway a bit. It’s big and it’s fast, going to have to be very careful around little ones.

https://youtu.be/xvq1lbCoAeQ

[tankme]

Looks pretty fast. Probably not too fast though. Have fun!

[Jib]

Took it out and put it through its paces today, here’s a video

https://youtu.be/idkExZznhoI?si=f_aQJvCYsAURbKeW

[Ecam]

That thing is fast! I can see 1/8 Abrams racing in the near future once a few more are sold.

[Jib]

I finally got around to clocking the speed. The model’s top speed averages around 4.94 MPH, 1/8 scale speed would be 5.27 MPH. Not quite there but pretty close.

For a comparison a vanilla 1/16 HL Abrams moves at 1.52 MPH and with the red 390s moves at 2.38 MPH

Made some platforms to drive the tank up on so I can reach the screws underneath easier to take it apart. 7 foot wheel chair ramp comes tomorrow.