1/6 Paintball Combat Tanks

[showa]

After my intro I was asked to post some pics... Here is my Brummbar Paintball Tank next to a 21st Century Stewart for comparison....
I'll have to get better pictures, not happy with these...

[Saxondog]

Their is a group in Virginia that does the paintball battles. http://rctankcombat.com/links.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Perhaps you are familiar with this group. I have a static Tiger VI in 1/6 scale but it has been shelved. Hopefully the paintball system for 1/16 scale will be available soon.

Is your Brummbar a F.O.A. KIT? Did you purchase from Steel Dragons? I am curious as to the quality of their products? Please post some more detailed pics so we can all get a good look. Do you know PZWEST(Harold) he does some very fine work with the Sherman's.and 1/6 scale vehicles,excellent skills and a nice fellow as well. Ice monkey and Johnf have some large scale tanks and a few others. So happy to have another large scale modeller on the forum.
Sax

[[ICE]monkey]

very nice brummbar

[showa]

Thank you for the compliments. The Brumm was scratch built by John Pittelli from rctankcombat.com... I had the pleasure of battling with them before bringing it home to Las Vegas...It is on it's second or third itteration. The thing is built from wood/fiberglass, and weighs about 120 pounds ready to battle..... It uses a PS2 wireless controller to operate and has two 350W geared scooter motors... the gearing gives plenty of torque and allows me to do an entire one hour long battle without changing batteries...

There is a Plastic Panzers 1/6 scale Grant/Lee still on the shelf waiting it's turn. That hull and turret is made from similar plastic that you find big garbage cans made from....I plan on a similar control system with Dewalt 18V right angle drill motors over volted to 24V... Should keep weight down and enable use of smaller (lighter) batteries. Paint gun will be the sponson mount and turret will either be paint hopper or electronics housing...There are some nice white plastic detail pieces that came with the kit... I did not order it with the wheels and tracks as I plan on doing a treadmill (known as TTS) based track system...

I'll work on better pictures and I have to say that these tanks are generaly what I call "10 foot" models... They look good from a little distance with just enough detail to identify the tank... Precise details tend to get blown off in a battle.... And may let paint inside where you don't want it...

Also have a 21st Century Humvee on the bench now that I am redoing electronics on to be used as a supply vehicle.....

[showa]

Oh, in case anyone is wondering, the price to build paintball combat tanks is only limited by how good a scavenger you are and how good your (or a friends) building skills are... These things average between $700- $1,000 USD ready to fight.... They could be cheaper if you have mad skills at all the above.....

I don't know PZWEST(Harold) but would like to get to meet with anyone in my area who are into these Beasts...

[Saxondog]

Seems you have the large scale battle tanks well in hand,I have spent some time today reviewing the RC TANK COMBAT site and I am impressed with their growth and all the added information and links. It did appeal to me at one time but the travel and cost of the hobby is more than my hobby budget could support. It would be helpful to see the internal machinery of your tank and how the gun is set up. The drive system you are using would also be of interest as my Tiger is static but could use a reasonable system If I do in fact keep it.

The hobby seems to of grown in the last year? Perhaps you can video the next battle your involved in as that would be interesting to see. I hope you are enjoying the forum and I look forward to seeing more of your fine tanks, Saxondog

[showa]

I'll get more/better pics of the tank and the internals... The sport (?) seems to be growing some but I'm afraid the economy is keeping all of it from it's true potential... The videos on the combat site are the best for battle footage... I have a Go Pro Hero camera but haven't used it yet... Looking forward to it...

Problem with battling for me now is there is only one other tank, a Sherman, nearby that doesn't have an operational gun yet but goes like stink in the desert... I keep plugging away and try to get more people interested in battling... I figure if I get enough people to drive the supply vehicle and/or run an artillary piece in a battle, someone will build another tank and join in on the fun...

I enjoy seeing the detailed builds and the techniques used for more accurate tanks built here... One of the biggest items researched is the tracks.. Ones that work in scale are fantastic looking but might not last under the abuse of combat. Another big consideration is the cost to build the tracks.... If a cheap, rugged and scale track comes about, I'm sure it would be embraced... After all, these combat tanks gotta look good just cruising around too...

[Saxondog]

This is the delay with my Tiger,damaged sprockets in shipping, Nylon moulded tracks which I repaired using the Turret spares but the pitch does not fit the sprockets just right. To replace the sprockets and tracks the cost is 850 plus shipping. So I have shelved it,also even though I am well know in the local hobby circuit I am the only tanker. Here the RC DRIFT RACING is the hot thing with the local shop hosting racing with a very nice parking lot track with raised stands for the drivers and a well laid out track on a very smooth black asphalt paved lot. But no tanks,just mine.

But then their are no cars shooting paintball either,so I do have that market cornered. Sax

[showa]

Here's some pics of the internals... Hope you enjoy... I use two of the pictured batteries for 24v power and a small 12v battery for the electronics..... The speed controls are two cheap scooter controllers adapted by Frank Pattelli of RCtankcombat fame.... The gun firing mechanism is a 12v car door lock actuator... The radio used is a Play Station 2 wireless controller...









The motors are mounted on a modified door hinge that allows easy adjustment of chain tension... The motors have a gear reduction built in...

[rdr]

I'm not sure what size paintballs you guys are using, but recently there has been a smaller sized paintball introduced. The normal paintball is .688", the smaller ball is .500" and there is also a slightly smaller one around .400".