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From: Frank Pittelli <frank-at-rctankcombat.com>
Subject: Re: DEFCON 2 for January 1 [TANKS]
Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 21:51:56 -0500
Reply-To: tanks-at-rctankcombat.com

Joe Sommer wrote:
> A rag-tag collection of Maryland Attack Group (MAG)
> personnel arrived at Tri-Pact HQ for a special holiday
> "Build Session" (BS) on Saturday, January 1.  As usual,
> nothing got built and the BS soon degenerated into
> ankle-deep B*** S*** mostly about the superiority of
> Tri-Pact RC tank technology and Ravens football.

Actually, Dr. Sommer, you're recon information about "The Gathering" 
couldn't be farther from the truth (although the photos were 
surprisingly accurate :-)

Much work was accomplished on Jan 1 because John no longer had to worry 
about last minute holidy shoppers and Will definitely didn't have to 
worry about last minute hopes for a Raven's Super Bowl this year.  With 
those key distractors out of the way, we got down to some serious work.

John put together his Comet chassis and roadwheels for the first fit 
(the caster wheels and bearings he found are perfect for the tank), 
gathered all of the parts needed for the tranny (now standard Tri-Pact 
design) and complated his cardboard/wood template for the hull (which 
will be used as the basis for a fiberglass hull).

Will has been retrofitting his Panther (T017) from the ground up, with a 
new welded chassis (painted a beautiful shade of candy apple red - heck, 
it was on sale) and new EV-X motors.  He should have no trouble making 
it operational for the Spring.

Chris, the new owner of T005, came by today and worked on 
trouble-shooting a problem with the rotate from the last battle. After 
confirming that the rotate ESC wasn't doing anything, he learned how to 
make a replacement MAG speed control to be used until he can find a 
replacement ESC.

Over the holidays, I was able to put the finishing touches on the base, 
rotate and elevate system for Navarone One.  The rotate uses one of the 
large geared motors from Surplus Center and the elevate is a home-made 
geared motor and linkage.  It was generally agreed that the 40" long gun 
(modeled on a 16" naval gun) sitting on top of 20" diameter x 10" tall 
barbett looks and sounds pretty menacing when it slowly rotates and 
elevates into position.  I'll snap some photos next week and maybe even 
a short movie for it's web site debut.  All that remains is to hook up 
the trigger actuator, install a magazine and give it a proper paint job.

All in all, a great weekend of building.

        Frank P.