Tamiya German King Tiger (Production Turret) - 48203 (Radio Controlled Model Review)

  Released by Tamiya on May 30, 2001, the 1/35 R/C German King Tiger (Production Turret)(#48203) came with a radio system.

  The model is driven by 2 motors, managed by an electronic unit MC-01.

  The German King Tiger tank first appeared towards the end of the 2nd World War in 1944. The heavy armored design has 150 mm front plates and 80 mm side plates, with 700 horsepower Maybach HL 230 - P 30 engine. The first 50 prototypes came with a turret designed by Porsche, but the mass production type came equipped with an improved turret designed by Henschel and a powerful gun which can penetrate 150 mm thick armor plate at 2000 m. Approximately 440 King Tiger tanks were produced from the summer of 1944 to March 1945. The German army intensively used it in the battle of the Ardennes in December 1944 and it was a major threat to the advancing Allied Army towards the end of the war.

  This model comes with metal bushings, that after a short while, when dust and grit get into them, can actually wear into the metal drive shafts that spin in them - we recommend these should be replaced by a full set of steel shielded ball bearings ASAP.

Rating: 4 RCScrapyard

My First National

   When I first started in RC, way back in the late 1980s, I would turn up to the weekly club meeting, with my Tamiya Boomerang, Acoms transmitter, two sets of crystals, a couple of 7.2v batteries, a charger and a tool box with a wheel spanner and a few spares.
   It was three five minute qualifying rounds and a final, and every month we would have a trophy meeting. The trophies were donated by a two of the older semi professional guys who basically ran the club and over the years had collected what must have been hundreds of trophies and had no space for them anymore. The lure of a trophy always brought out the "not as enthusiastic types" and the small church function room was always packed on those nights.
   About a year in, my collection of B final trophies was beginning to clutter my room, and my dad bought me the new Tamiya Manta Ray. That was the big turning point in my RC career.
   From then on it was A finals all the way. Then one day in the summer of 1992 the club organisers (the semi pro guys) asked me if I would like to go to a BIG national meeting way down south in Malvern. I asked my dad and with a bit of prompting he said "why not".
   When we got to that meeting we found there were around a hundred competitors, with ten groups of ten. I was in group "H". a two of my friends went down with us and they were in group "I" so were on just before me.

Bearing Seals

   If you were to ask anyone with a modicum of experience in RC, they will tell you that the best modification you can make to a basic RC model, is to add a set of ball bearings.

   Quite a few of the entrance level models at the time this article was written, come with plastic and sintered brass ring type bearings. If these bearings are installed in the model and coated with grease as advised in the car manual, dust and grit can be caught in that grease and be dragged into the bearing where it can abrade the shaft that spins in it and it won't be long before it becomes a very sloppy fit, causing all kinds of problems.

   But what should you look for when buying bearings? There are a number of types of seal used on ball bearings, and there is much debate concerning which is the best for RC.