Hi Dave -
I started a new thread for your topic and posted your original content below. Please don't hijack other threads. Feel free to start a new discussion when you are so inclined. >>> Want to try a 1/6th Jagdpanther!!! I'd love to see one those on the field. It's a great looking vehicle. >>> I'm on Long Island, and despite it's 5 million inhabitants, there >>> doesn't seem to be an organized R/C tank club to be found. I'm in PA outside of Philly. I think we have at least onen member in NJ. Anyway, there are a few of us closer to you than MD. Maybe we can find a place for a battle. >>> merely creating a historically accurate shell to house some paintball gun >>> toting vehicle Yeah, pretty much :) The wisdom for not forcing each vehicle to comform to its individual performance characteristics is that then everybody would build Abrams, Challenger 2, Type 90, and other modern tanks. By providing a level playing field (figuratively, of course) builders can produce whatever they want without fear of being handicapped. Plus, I can't imagine how difficult it would be to enforce those rules. The 'must be a production vehicle' rule prevents people from building sideways moving sci-fi vehciles. I didn't create the rules, but I think they are generally very good. They let people create the vehicles they enjoy and battle them in a fun environment. Yes, the high rate of fire is sometimes disconcerting. Considering the variety of marker firing mechanisms, though, it be difficult to mandate anything different. At least the markers must be operated in semi-auto mode. - Doug ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Steve, I'm Dave.D., and I just joined the group. Frank P. got me setup. I made initial contact thru your webpage...I figured I'd "piggyback" onto one of your replies that I read from my e-mail. Anyhow... I'm new to R/C tanks, and have a burning desire to build at least one... Want to try a 1/6th Jagdpanther!!! A concern is building something without a turret (which I imagine will take some of the complexity out of the build) versus the ammo loading of the marker issues that a lower profile vehicle such as the Jagdpanther poses. Targeting issues are another concern, a turret does give more flexibililty, but I'm still leaning towards the JP... Plus it helps that I LOVE the look of the Jagdpanther, but then, who doesn't!! Then, my brother puts his two cents in and says that I better build TWO vehicles, so I have "someone to play with", as my desire to do this R/C tank thing is much greater than his is (I have a third brother who sort of got this ball rolling by buying a slew of 1/16th Heng Long pieces of junk-I might have some luck getting him to build a nice 1/6th model)... So I was thinking to make future comabt kinda even, plus in keeping with the issues I just outlined, of make a SU-85 or SU-100 too. This would compliment my Russian heritage nicely as well. Grand dreams for sure!! I have several fears though... The worst one is going through all this effort in building a "metal monster" (did I just coin a term?) or two, and becoming bored with them from a lack of finding fellow combatants(yeah, Maryland is only six hours away...I know-and it would be a honor for sure!!), as I will outline below. That aforementioned third brother bought me a Heng Long Panther, that I've had for over a year, and have ran it only three times...It's lost it's luster, sadly. I have to think that a metal monster sporting a paintball marker is a serious upgrade over a BB shooting HL model. Plus the pride taken in building it yourself has to rate favorably into the equation... SO... I'm on Long Island, and despite it's 5 million inhabitants, there doesn't seem to be an organized R/C tank club to be found. I did find one other person but it was from a different site, and I haven't checked back to see if he responded to my initial reach out message. I'd be willing to put the effort in starting up a club, as I have always been pretty good at organizing things. So an issue becomes, will there be a relatively local fan base with whom to do battle with? With that said, I began contemplating certain issues regarding battle rules and guidelines... I aplaud your club's efforts to keep the tanks historically accurate, and not allowing any design that hasn't been put into production. A question that has been nagging me for some time is why doesn't the club pose restrictions on things like tank speed,both forward, and perhaps more importantly, in reverse. Turret traverse rates, and rates of fire would be other concerns I'd have... If you strive to make the vehicles LOOK genuine, why not follow through and make them act as close to historical norms as possible?? I imagine the answer would be that it would be too complicated to get everyone on the same page. I guess it's hard enough to get people to simply build a tank, as huge a process as that is, much less put governing restictions on what they build. I just find it interesting that you have tanks that go as fast in reverse as they do going forward, can fire salvos as fast as the paintball guns can pump them out, it's almost as if you're merely creating a historically accurate shell to house some paintball gun toting vehicle. Which then begs the question, why not let people build whatever they want?--why stress the historical accuracy when the look of the tank is the only thing historically accurate? I also imagine that it's the beauty of building a piece of history that's significant here, I guess I'm being abit of a devil's advocate. It makes me wonder if you could have two types of competitions, the all out shoot as fast as you can, speed around how ever, and all that, and the other where say, rate of fire rules are made, for a start. I imagine that a delaying device coupled with the firing mecahnism wouldn't be all that hard to accomplish... And maybe I'm missing something here, which is the reason for my e-mail, so that you can shed some light as to what I may be missing or have overlooked. I guess it can be argued that rates of fire don't really mean a thing if a strict ammo limit is established for each combatant, based on the tank's historical number. It's widely known how many shells each tank carried, if a combatant wants to blast his load in one big burst, that's his perogative... Like I said, I'm going by the relatively little that I've gathered from viewing some battle videos. Perhaps if I saw a combat in person, I would understand the reasons whay things are as they are. So, I know I've been rambling just a wee bit, but I think you get where I'm coming from. I guess I just wanted to hear from you guys as to how you tackled some of these issues. I have other questions concerning build issues (another e-mail perhaps), but I guess I have to make an informed decision as to whether I should begin building a tank in the first place. Part of me wants to get started yesterday, but the rational spec I have set aside in my brain says to proceed with some caution. So, in closing, if you can give some insights on; 1) What governs combat rule creation? 2) Are there any clubs, members, tank enthusiasts that you are aware of on Long Island? 3) Guidelines, helpful hints in getting a club off the ground.... I would be be greatly appreciative of your response. Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Dave D. -- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. 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