RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi y'all thanks for having a great place for information and resources!

I'm Ben from Southern California, my interest in RC tanks has been since I was little. My dad owned a hobby shop while I was growing up and he had a Tamiya Flakpanzer Gepard (still has it) which I always was wanting to play with.

A few years ago I pulled it out from the garage with the intent to restore it and am finally getting around to doing so.

I also just finished building my first RC tank which is the Tamiya M4 Sherman. I've been to a few of the local club tank battles in the past and I have a feeling I will be getting more tanks soon.

Thanks again!

Welcome along Mr Califrag, hell of a provenance that is!
Be fantastic to see the generational preservation of the Gepard.
Pictures of the process when you can, & merry Christmas to you and yours from the Gold Coast of Australia out of New Zealand.

Hi and welcome aboard

Welcome from Ontario, Canada!
Born and raised on Tamiyas?! Lucky!

Mike.

No kidding: it's tough having to settle for Tamiya RC tanks, whew! When you start at the top, what's left? Please do show us photos if it's O.K. with you. And I am curious: what and where was your family's hobby shop. I live in L.A. for a bit, and might have seen it or even drooled outside the windows. (I was working on a Ph.D. at the time, a time of "voluntary poverty.")

Welcome to the forum from Texas. Hopefully you can get the Gepard up and running again.

HERMAN BIX wrote: ↑Sun Dec 21, 2025 7:14 am Welcome along Mr Califrag, hell of a provenance that is!
Be fantastic to see the generational preservation of the Gepard.
Pictures of the process when you can, & merry Christmas to you and yours from the Gold Coast of Australia out of New Zealand.

Thanks! I will include a couple pics here and may start a separate thread for the Gepard restore completely. Merry Christmas to you all as well!

Here's my M4 Sherman I built from new kit :

Stormbringer wrote: ↑Sun Dec 21, 2025 1:09 pm Hi and welcome aboard

Thank you!

ColemanCollector wrote: ↑Sun Dec 21, 2025 3:14 pm Welcome from Ontario, Canada!
Born and raised on Tamiyas?! Lucky!

Mike.

I didn't realize at the time how spoiled I really was at the time but have come to appreciate what I have. We used to build "robots" (static) out of old Bruiser parts!! My first real RC car was the Tamiya Fire Dragon

Herr Dr. Professor wrote: ↑Sun Dec 21, 2025 4:12 pm No kidding: it's tough having to settle for Tamiya RC tanks, whew! When you start at the top, what's left? Please do show us photos if it's O.K. with you. And I am curious: what and where was your family's hobby shop. I live in L.A. for a bit, and might have seen it or even drooled outside the windows. (I was working on a Ph.D. at the time, a time of "voluntary poverty.")

HA! Well I do see there are a LOT of really nice other tank kit manufacturers out there -- Those MATO tanks look reaally nice! Attached I have a photo of my dad's old shop, it was called John's Hobbies and Crafts in Long Beach, off South Street. He closed around mid-90's during the recessions at the time.
I'm the kid with the back to the camera in this pic, the other kid was a customer's son who needed some repair on his car

tankme wrote: ↑Sun Dec 21, 2025 6:26 pm Welcome to the forum from Texas. Hopefully you can get the Gepard up and running again.

Thanks! I've gone through the manual to check all the missing parts and mostly it's just cosmetic details missing or broken. All the "guts" are there.

Welcome to the forum Califrag

Just WOW what a blast from the past with that pic including the advert card for the "New" Super Shot!!! My first RC build was a Frog when they first came out way back THEN!

Of course the "mining supplies" is intriguing as well.

Merry Happy & Happy Merry

My first RC was a Fast Attack Vehicle, followed by a Hotshot which was so upgraded it was barely an anything shot in the end!!
Mine had Associated RC10 parts including an independent front shock set up using the Rc10 shocks and custom mounts, had 7 cells, and a Reedy Red Dot motor that ran on the Reedy in a spray can upper to start each race.

Ahh the good ole days

Hello and welcome from Argyll and Bute. Thank you for the photos of the Gepard. The Tamiya Sherman could be something to let my Tigers play with. You most definitely should restore the Gepard. I have just upgraded and modernised a Tamiya Leopard, and added a Haya Gepard to the collection.
My first RC was The Tamiya Bigwig, which I still have. Mostly original, but needed a new front end from the re-release.