High chaps
Maybe I can put a few of you out of your misery, as my shiny new M16 halftrack arrived this week courtesy of Tankzone (great service as ever, Kin is a real diamond geezer!), and I must say I am VERY impressed

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The chassis is all metal, as is most of the halftrack suspension unit, with REAL rubber rims and NOT "painted on rims" as on most Heng Long tanks (this model is made by Torro), fitted to the road wheels, whilst the tyers on the two front wheels are also real rubber. The tracks are made of thick rubber and are perfectly pre-tensioned, so no chance of throwing a track unless you do something really silly

. Speed control via the five channel unit is fully proportional, so no worries about those slow speed manouvres, whilst the set up regards steering/control of the gun turret is the same as on a Tamiya r/c tank (i.e. left stick - forwards/backwards & right stick - left/right), whilst steering is via the front wheels, and is very reponsive - generally nice model to drive

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The gun turret itself deserves a mention, full marks to Torro for this one, as its a real triumph of 1/16 scale enginering - boasting a very quick traverse, and a very smooth elevation/depression of the four .50 cal guns. Credit also for the best paint job I have ever seen to come out of a factory - with just enough weathering applied to make the vehicle looked "lived in", whilst the two supplied crew are also excellent. Fully moveable feet/torso/arms/hands & heads - one is even smoking a ciggy butt - a nice little touch of humour I thought

, and also very well painted. As always there is room for some fine detailing, but overall a very well detailed and impressive model straight from the box

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Power wise you have a choice, either x8 AA batteries or x1 9.6v battery (handy if you are a Sturmtiger owner already perhaps

), which go in the bottom of the M16 at the rear of the hull. The on/off switch is in front of the gun turret - which on mine will be simply covered up by a box of small arms

, clever or what

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Function wise, this is what you get:
Functional halftrack suspension system
Functional gun turret
LED muzzle flash effect on all .50 cal guns
Working front & rear lights
Granted you don`t get engine sounds/smoke, but considering the limited amount of internal volume that Torro had to play with, I don`t think they`ve done a bad compromise here at all with this model

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Am I biased you may ask

, am I f

K

, all I can say is GO GET ONE, CLERMONT HERE I COME

.
Hope that helps, T.T.F.N. chaps

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