RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Got too excited the other day and started a build thread without introducing myself first. How rude!

My name's Dan, and I'm just getting started on my first big tank; my wife suggested I get into a hobby to help deal with some recent illness and work-related stress. I used to build 1/72 scale armour and aeroplanes when I was a kid, so this seemed like the logical progression.

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It's been a long time since I've done anything like this, so I'm sure I'm biting off more than I can chew with such an ambitious project. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that, though!

I feel like I've already learned a lot from browsing the boards here and seeing the skills on display, now I just need to put it all into practice. Wish me luck!

Hi DAN, Welcome to the Forum,
The secret to a build is learning to pace yourself,
If you are to do a good job then it will take weeks and they turn into months and in common with a lot of other members I have a Tank that just keeps getting updated,
So offer up a big thank you to an understanding Partner and try to discover how friendly your bank manager is, You will need him/her.
I find that researching, in your case the T34 adds a great deal to the build, but be careful you don't get in to deep,
I now have the biography of the crews of some of my builds, Still at least I havn't started sending birthday cards to their grand children,
Shaun.

G'day mate, welcome in from the G.C.
I guess you are a Knights fan

I will be watching in on your build, the '76/34 is my favorite Soviet tank, but having an '85 on the go now, all I can do is watch.
Same as you I did the 1/72 and 1/76 scale wargame scales way back when, I have surmised that as we get older(eyesight reduces) scale gets bigger !

Hi Dan, and welcome aboard from Detroit!

Being where you are, I think the best advice I can give you is to acquaint yourself with a very, very cool guy named Kevin Grannum, who is RC Tanks Australia. He makes a lot of electronics stuff for us, but he's also quite an RC Tanker and he knows more about IR tech than anyone else I've ever met. The RCTA forum is a very good site as well, with a lot of cool guys that will be very glad to welcome a new Aussie to the hobby. This is the link to RCTA

http://rctanksaustralia.com/shop/

and you also have couple very cool vendors there for parts, like Oz Armor, and there's at least one more I can't think of at the moment, but I'll bet Herman is familiar with all the best places that are also close to hand.

So welcome to the Darkside, my new friend. I can't wait to see what you do with that T-34. Did you know there's a very cool bedspring armor kit in our scale for that tank? I'd have to dig a bit to come up with a link, but it sure does look cool.

Spectacular intro, Dan Love the box, mate! I'll look forward to some of that dry, insouciant humour Aussies are noted for, and hope this place is a stress-reliever for you. By the way, has anyone ever mounted tank, or armoured car on top of a raminator setup? It would look nicely bizarre...

Cheers for the warm welcome guys. I did have a look around at a few different forums during my research period, and the community and atmosphere is definitely the best I've seen. Glad to be a part of it now!

jarndice wrote: I find that researching, in your case the T34 adds a great deal to the build, but be careful you don't get in to deep,
I now have the biography of the crews of some of my builds, Still at least I havn't started sending birthday cards to their grand children,
Shaun.

I cut myself off when I was literally counting bolts; I knew I had to take a step back and decide to go for authenticity over accuracy.

HERMAN BIX wrote:I guess you are a Knights fan

I'm originally from Sydney, so...

Besides, old mate Tinky just filed for bankruptcy; I don't know what the Knights and Jets are going to be doing these days.

HERMAN BIX wrote:Same as you I did the 1/72 and 1/76 scale wargame scales way back when, I have surmised that as we get older(eyesight reduces) scale gets bigger !

That's what I thought at first too, but seeing some of the precision engineering by the likes of hotte and Frank seems to indicate the opposite!

Welcome Raminator. You may find that this hobby can draw you in so much that going to work is boring as hell when you have a project at home waiting to be worked on.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone here for being so welcoming and helpful. I don't know what I'd have done without the help and advice I've received over the last few weeks, and I really appreciate it!

Hi Raminator,
Welcome to the forums from another newbie (me):)

Just couldnt help seeing u have the same taigen lower hull as me. How did you find its quality? I was quite sadly surprised myself. Gears had a sprocket so out of shape it almost cant run and one of the arms misshaped so the roadwheel cant carry track properly.. Maybe i was just unlucky.

Anyway, welcome and look forward to see ur build.

Best
Claus

Sorry to hear that, Claus. Sounds like you've been super unlucky; mine seems pretty good, the whole assembly is very solid and the gears all mesh nicely. The only thing I've noticed is that the suspension swing arms pivot at a slight camber from the hull, almost like they're twisting. I think it's more to do with the fact that the axles (the screws into the body) are quite short than any quality issue.

Did you get yours from rctank.de?