Man, what a great time it was! The drive was hell, but worth it to spend two days with our wacky tankers. Heh. Foremost, thanks for Frank and folks for putting it together and running the event. Location was great, weather was beautiful, and the food delicious. Not to mention having the opportunity to talk (and battle) tanks and pretty much any topic with a great group of knowledgable guys. I'll be at the Fall event for sure! For those people still building a tank and have not been to a tank event (battle, build session, tank expo), it is worth going to one. The things I learned by simply watching the tanks operate and poking around inside them greatly increased my understanding of what works and does not work. Also, every tanker was willing to talk about thier tank. I took away from ideas to use on my tanks. Something I wasn't prepared for is the fast pace of the battles. When your tank is getting shot at by two or three enemy tanks, it is difficult to remember who shot you how many times. Add in trying to remember names to tanks and the task becomes nearly impossible. I did the best I could but suspect there might be a couple hits given to the wrong people. It was also impressive that nearly every tank (especially the vets!) worked. While I was battling issues with the Strv and Spartan in home base, the other tankers just keep slinging paint at each other. It just shows that it takes time to get a tank working reliably. Unsurprisingly, it is like that in the model warship hobby as well. Heh. Speaking about the Strv and Spartan ... both of them ran and moved without much problems. The Strv had gun problems all weekend with air leaks, magazine feed, and a VERY annoying glitch that caused the gun to fire practically everytime the Strv moved under power. During the Sunday morning battle, by the time I got the tank from home base to the battle, the Strv would only have around 20 rounds left. Also, we found out that the green stock orings in the marker were practically melted with age. I would replace one, put air to the gun and find another leak, replace a couple more, and repeat the process until ultimately we replaced all 9 orings in the marker. The Spartan had a glitchy radio that forced the operator to stay within 15 feet of the tank. This was sometimes easier said than done since the darn thing moved at old Cromwell speed. When built in 2009 in a secret overseas location (Korea), the Spartan was geared to run with the Cromwell which has since slowed down its top speed. So a regearing of the Spartan is in order to slow it down if only to stop giving Frank heart attacks from roaring straight at him while he is on the arty. Heh.. In the meantime though, I did manage to make 6'ish supply runs during a battle with it. The drive system worked almost flawlessly excepting a track tension issue that had more to do with the use of cheap Korean made wood than a design problem. The Spartan is going to need a total rebuild to replace the low quality wood used in its construction. The round table (room?) discussions Saturday night was hilarious! I'll let the official report reveal what came out of it, but will say that we have clarified some speed ratings by "Will-Speed" and "Tyng-Speed" (equals three Will-Speeds). Actually, I'm not even sure if anything really came out of the discussions ... maybe we need some more. ;) I'll close with the statement that the weekend was a total success. Even if the "Stank" didn't hardly shoot anyone...er...other tanks, just being there and participating with everyone else was worth the time and money spent. :) Mike PS Excuse the spelling errors ... working on 3.5 hours sleep here!
-- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat
