several newbie questions

[salemsam]

I first want to thank all those that responded to my first thread and I.m leaning towards the 1/16 scale at this point. I tried doing a search for these questions but had no luck so I'm sorry if these are repeat questions.

1) I've found many tanks at on line sites, but they are "out of stock" - are the tanks and color produced as limited editions or will they be re-released at a later date? (example - VS pro Leapard A6 tank in winter camo - all out of stock)

2) It seems like 99% of the 1/16 scale are airsoft - are they just starting to introduce IR into that scale? are are they dumping the airsoft models on the market?

3) the 1/16 scale tanks all show a very high suggested retail price $300 +, but are listing as on sale for $120. Have the prices always been around the $120 level and they just inflated the suggest retail price to show a great deal or dumping them and going to IR?

4) Any recoomendations on where to lo0k? Most of the places I've found are in the UK or in China when it comes to 1/16.

5) ok if dumping - would it be possible to pick up a 1/16 airsoft at a clearence price and then use a 1/24 IR to upgrade or is this getting into a lot of more work than it's worth? ( kind of sounds like it)

Thanks again for all the help - hoping this will be my last questions until I purchase my tanks - then I'll post some pics of my armor

[Dietrich]

Hi Salemsam,
And welcome to the Forum........Personally, I would Definitely go for 1/16th scale. It is far more practical and usable than the 1/24th scale. The 1/16 actually performs well outside in the garden and depending on your Mods can be outstanding....the 1/24th is just too small.
The 1/16 has a much larger range of tanks and suppliers to choose from and the extras / upgrade parts are never ending......as the sign says in 'Mad Max 1' SPEED IS JUST A QUESTION OF MONEY, HOW FAST CAN YOU GO ? ..........so basically, on the upgrades you can spend as much or as little as you like. The internal 'free space' on the larger scale makes the tanks MUCH easier to work on or to add bits into.
The RRP of the tanks I think is mostly sales pitch....they started out at a price and they have gone up slightly over the years but so has the quality, the reliability and the number of extras. MAKE SURE that you shop around and compare prices AND SPECIFICATIONS.....DON'T JUST look at Ebay and presume that it is the cheapest and best because that is NOT always true.
Most of the 1/16th are airsoft and in the past 100% were airsoft....I/R was not originally offered by Heng Long and Mato etc. and it is a relatively recent addition to the range. To convert a Heng Long to I/R from airsoft is not difficult but it would probably be better to buy a tank that has the recoil motor fitted rather than the airsoft, but the conversion is easy anyway. With the Heng Long make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that the control board is an RX 18 There are STILL some of the older tanks out there and to my knowledge the earlier boards are NOT I/R compatible !!...This is what you need to have.......................

mfu4.jpg (39.74 KiB) Viewed 325 times

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As you can see the sockets are all labelled ( CN2 & CN3 at the top ) and it is I/R READY even if it is an AIRSOFT tank....which is important but It MUST be an RX18 board. I see on Ebay that you can still by the horrendous 'PanTiger' as it became known....basically it is a Tiger chassis with a panther body VERY BADLY stretched to fit....DO NOT buy one of those... The control board must almost be an antique by now...

The suppliers are definitely NOT dumping the airsoft it is the best selling version, as it is a great present for kids so that they can shoot things , like the target ,card board boxes, the cat etc

Any more questions add to the post and We will do our best to help you
Alb.

[Tankbear]

If you put your location it might be easier for suggetions on where to buy from. Also as Alb has mentioned don't always rely on ebay as the prices are vasly different.

Probably best once you've found something suitable is post a link and ask peoples opinions.

Ian.