Hello fellow large scale armor buffs. Welcome to the AGW online newsletter of January 1998. Yes it is a brand new year. Siiiigh. That's another story! I hope all of you had the very best holiday and the very best year awaits us all.

The newsletter this month will begin with a brief coverage of the annual BAT tank run which occurred in October.

The annual run put on by Rich Upton, Gene Gaeta, Fred Dorn (special thanks to Freddie for arranging the site!) was a load of fun and I didn't even run anything. I have block about running my models in sand and the meet took place in a sand volleyball court. The event took place on Saturday October 25 at 12:00 at the Marine Corps Mobilization Station/ Reserve Facility in Hayward California.

The layout was made to simulate a close proximity axis-allied installation pair. A clever idea the BAT guys had was to not just build a plethora of buildings, barricades, bridges and tank traps but they also came up with a system using a very clever system of hoses and chalk powder to simulate explosions and land mines. The participants would run their vehicles, all 1/15- 1/16 scale Tamiya, Bandai and related scratch builts, to take the enemy ground not knowing were the mines lay……………………………………………….

…and if they ran over one they had to stop in their tracks………… and dead they lay until the next skirmish began

Several skirmishes and thrown tracks later everyone would reactivate their little war chariots and the battle would begin anew. The Allies prevailed!

Left a Sherman ( is that a MAX-TRACKS turret conversion?) escapes a deadly double surprise: a mine AND and 88 barely visible in the smoke

Right the combatants ready their units for the next mission! The dragon's teeth await the hapless commander

Fred DORN( camo shirt, hat) on the left among is substantial collection of beee-u-tiful 1/15 and 1/16 scale armor. Fred is a master.

The weather was great I ate hotdogs, burgers, chips and drank more soda than I have in quite a while. I hope to get the cobwebs off my 1/16 scale stuff for next year. I have no excuse! It was a fine day and fine folks. Many thanks to all those attendees who came from all over including Lou Chiu and son and MANY others.

.

……….in my backyard?

I wanted to tell this tale because there was a thread in rec.models.scale about the tank used in movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. About 7 years ago I got a call from Rich Upton regarding a call he got from a fellow by the name of Rigowitz(sp) who found the model; yup one of the original if not the model used in the movie……at a scrapyard over in Richmond, California……… So over we went to see this wonder and sure enough there it was. …. Here are the only two photos of it that I know of thanks to Rich Upton. When I visited the scrapyard the fellow who ran the place said I cold have it for an equivalent weight of steel … like an old engine block. Did I want it? Ehhh I said what the heck will do with it I asked myself. I have enough stuff I told myself… I felt guilty that I add more junk to my collection and hardly ever, no never throw anything away. Later the fellow said just take don't worry about the equivalent weight in steel. "I'll even get the worker here who brought home the right side plate to bring it back!" Hmmmmmmmm said I……………… To the right is the right hand view of the 'model', the tracks are piled up alongside. The model had no suspension but just rollers along the bottom of the sponsons in order to keep the tracks moving. You could see that it was well made… no doubt cost a small fortune. There was still substantial detail left on top of the model, stowage, parts, that funny little insignia…….

The story was that ILM brought the model over after the production was complete to scrap it. It was supposed to be crushed so I 'spose the scrap yard wasn't really supposed to do what they did but all's well that ends well because as far as I know it was all crushed in the end as nobody wanted it.

In fact here I am ( photo was dated APR 90) saying Hmmmmmmmm. Do I want this or not? The right front end of the sponson is bent just as it was when it fell of the cliff in the movie; supposedly filmed somewhere in Marin. I don't know about you but I have a heck of a time refusing a potentially interesting piece of ...Umm stuff.

But this time for better or worse I said no. Now only if I can apply that discipline to other facets of my life!

Did I do the right thing? I think so.

What follows is a description of the R/C armory product which is creating such a stir. The product is the coolest thing to come along in years. I hope they do very well as they deserve. The photos are those I took at the BAT run covered above. Read on…….

I am pleased to announce the formation of a company called R/C Armory, which is committed to the production of large 1/8 scale R/C tank kits. The first series of tank kits will be based on the German Tiger tanks, Tiger 11, Tiger I and Hunting Tiger. The first kit is the Tiger 11 with the Henschel turret. It is available for shipment in limited quantities at this time. Depending on the success of our first series of tanks others will then be designed based on the Russian T34 and American Sherman tank families. I hope you will find this information interesting, and I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Three and a half years of engineering, mold making, fixture making, and research went into the creation of our first kit. Our Tiger II kit was designed from the beginning for production. The kit contains nearly 50 different injection molded parts, 5 different resin cast parts, 6 different machined aluminum parts and a hull and turret constructed with precision fixtures. Part totals for the kit are over 160 injection molded plastic parts, 210 injection molded track links, 30 CNC machined aluminum parts, 7 resin cast parts, and over 200 miscellaneous hardware items. Using modem production processes ensures interchangeable high quality parts. With help from the US Amy Patton Museum and hundreds of hours of research through reference material the details of the tank were recreated. Almost all of the dimensions used to develop the kit were taken from the Tiger II on display at the Patton Museum. Using the actual tank for dimensions avoided the chance of reproducing the dimensional errors found in some of the reference material or on the smaller scale kits.

The parts for the drive train are made up of injection molded plastic where low stress levels are involved and machined aluminum or steel where higher stresses are found. Track links, road wheels, idler wheels, and the hub of the drive sprocket are injection molded from very tough polystyrene. The suspension arms, idler arms, track pins, road wheel shafts, drive sprocket shaft, and drive sprocket tooth rings are aluminum or steel. Each track is powered by an industrial quality 1/30 HP electric gearmotor. Power is transferred to tracks first through a 1/4-pitch chain then to the final drive reduction gears located in the housing, which supports the drive sprocket. The kit can be purchased without motors if the customer wants to design their own drive system.

The hull and turret are constructed from lightweight 1/4 PVC plastic sheet. The lightweight characteristic of this plastic comes from its high-density foam core, making it much lighter than solid PVC. The plastic is cut using precision templates and the pieces are positioned, then glued together in production fixtures. This ensures that every hull and turret are of correct dimensions and that all components are correctly located and aligned. All PVC parts on the tank come cut out and glued together. This process produces a plastic hull that is very similar to the original all welded hull. Only simple hand trimming and sanding around the joints is required to finish the hull and turret.

The turret rotates on a 12" ring ball bearing and comes installed on the inside of the deck plate. The large bearing allows for smooth low friction rotation of the turret.

The turret is belt driven and is powered by an electric gearmotor. With the turret removed, all parts in the hull can be installed through the center of the turret bearing. The turret also features a pivot for gun elevation and a frame, which extends down into the hull for mounting servos or other electronics. The kit can be purchased without the turret drive system if the customer wants to design their own.

In the beginning, a decision had to be made concerning what scale was to be used in designing the tank kits that R/C Armory was going to produce. After examining many tanks, which could potentially become kits and the materials that we wanted to use, the decision was made to go with the scale of 1/8. Two main reasons for picking 1/8 scale were overall internal space and the desire to use plastic for the track links. With a 1/8 scale tank, there is 95% more internal volume than in a 1/10 scale tank. Therefore, there is more room for motors, electronics, batteries, and all other mechanical parts in both the hull and turret. To keep production costs low, we wanted to use injection molded plastic track links on our tanks. In order for the plastic tracks to be strong and durable, there needed to be adequate material around the holes for the track pins. If there was too little material, the plastic would not be strong enough and the tracks would fail. In 1/10 scale, there is so little material around the pins that the tracks would have to be made out of metal. This would double or even triple the manufacturing cost of the tracks. However, in 1/8 scale, there is 95% more material in a track link than in 1/10 scale. Because of this, plastic could be used to produce inexpensive, yet strong track links.

The need to make the tank as light as possible was an important design criteria. Unless you are building forklifts or cranes, weight always has detrimental effect on a powered vehicle. Due to the large size of the 1/8 scale tank, it was very important to manage the weight because it could have easily gotten out of control. Whenever possible, lightweight construction techniques were used in the design of the tank. The lightweight PVC plastic used in the hull bends fairly easily in sheet form but when it is glued together to form the box like hull, it creates a very rigid assembly. When complete with gearmotors and three 6 volt lead acid batteries, the King Tiger weighs 49 lb. With all motors and batteries removed, the tank weighs 33 lb. With a full charge in the batteries, the tank can run continuously for more than an hour on normal ground conditions.

The averaged experienced modeler should be able to assemble the King Tiger kit in about 125 hours. Expect to spend an additional 25 hours to reproduce the zimmerit covering (material included with the basic kit) and painting. Plans for a wooden two- wheel cart are also included with the kit, and when used greatly simplify transporting the tank. Only basic hand tools are required to assemble the tank. Items such as paint, batteries, battery charger, radio equipment (4 channel) and speed controllers are not included with the kit. The retail price for basic King Tiger kit is $1,500.00. The motorized drive system is an additional $425.00, and the turret drive is an additional $125.00.

For additional information contact the following.

R/C Armory

P.O. Box 934

Ankeny, Iowa 50021

Phone (515) 964-5830

The thing I like about this WEB newsletter is I only have to do it once in a while! But it is fun! Any it can look snazzier than the old printed kind I used to do. And since I don't get any money for doing it it frees me from all grief in asking all of you for material!!

All kidding aside I welcome input from anyone who has an idea , current or past project they want to share with the rest of us. I am broadening the scope of this site to encompass any scale I just don't do much in scale smaller or larger than 1:10 so I can't do much for coverage. I do realize there is a certain degree of commonality among model tanks whatever the scale so information published as specific to any one scale is useful to all. If you wish to contribute please send me an email describing your idea and when/if we include your work will discuss media and format.

I expect that Rich Upton and I may be collaborating on this site or one like it as he now grows weary of the cycle of writing, publishing and distributing the RR as I did the old AGW newsletter before him. He still plans to continue but less frequent and a leaner publication.

I plan to cut back further on my building and concentrate on more fundamental aspects of my life( but I'LL NEVER give up R/C Armor again!) while maintaining this site. It is enjoyable and the feedback from all you visitors is wonderful. Rather makes it all worthwhile actually.

If you haven't already done so please don't forget to sign the AGW Guestbook referenced at the bottom of the main page.

Till the next time keep your tracks on!

-jerry