BattleDay

[Alucard]

Thank you Davjacva for the link, yeah, I like the seeing the people work the Tanks along the Battlefield.

[Davjacva]

That would have been so cool to see, are there any videos of the battles?

**** tons of them. Go to CUSTOMRCMODELS.COM. This is Willy Loewer's site and it's tough to navigate, but he has a lot of stuff there for tanks, trucks, and offroad stuff.

[Davjacva]

Yeah, that's back in 2010 when it sucked for a while. Jersey Bob is moderating. Pretty much you all over there and we're over here...go get 'em. It started getting even more stupid for a couple of years when a few wanted to dumb the battle system and play down.

[Ken_NJ]

I found this. Looks like it's the same.

[Alucard]

That would have been so cool to see, are there any videos of the battles?

[Davjacva]

This last one is from 2018, and now there's a ton a stuff on the field. More bridges were made, a train track with working trains that went 3/4 of the way around the field with a train yard at the other end. A couple doofy buildings and a castle got on the field.

[Davjacva]

This is a year later, and a lot more work has been done. The train tunnel on the other side is completed, a lot more buildings added, a separate village on the far side was created with the original farm houses, concrete roads were made in the town, and the green you see is sawdust to both simulate grass and to give the clay some body. At this time only real bushes were used as trees. Later on after Christmas sales, people would buy up all the small trees and then trim them and put them on the field. There were way over 500 trees at the end on the field. At this time we were also using two separate fog machines.

[Davjacva]

This is 3 months later...and a ton of work for the initial battleday in May, 2003. The other side wasn't completed yet, so it was only the one side of the river and a little bit over. 16 people showed up, and that was the average for the first year. Then in mid-2004 it got to about 37 and stayed there continuously. People quit and new people would fill the ranks.

[Davjacva]

This is a shot from the initial work on the battlefield. I was Valentine Day's weekend 2003. Here you can see all the railroad ties had to be drilled and staked into place. The fill-dirt had to be cleaned up, and it was a never-ending process, as there were rocks and all kinds of crap in it. Then it had to be tilled out. This view is looking West and it's the long-length (85') of the field. In the foreground, the lake is being constructed. The river is also being laid, and once it was completed, the calculations for the lake went right out the window as it over-filled when the river pump was shut off. This place was not heated or cooled, and it was hot as hell in the middle of summer and an icebox in the middle of winter.

[Davjacva]

[QUOTE=Albacore 569;n175765]What scale are those tanks & vehicles i the phots at? Guessing 1/16 or 1/24? You contributed greatly to the RC sub hobby too David. (You and Ellie). And still are!

I see those tank & think of the interesting and exciting scenes in the 'French town' around the bank in Kellys Heroes. The Sherman & those three doctored up T-34s to look like Tiger 1's... lol

Thank God the Tiger was so expensive and heavy and complex to produce, It weakness was only it couldn't be produced in such great numbers.

Thank you, David & Ellie, too.

Steve


Steve,
the tanks and everything else are 1/16 scale. Early on, we had cameras in some of the tanks, and we would watch them on a tv while facing away from the field and try to navigate just with the camera. Everything looked 1/1 on tv, so that was rewarding.
Jake

[Albacore 569]

What scale are those tanks & vehicles i the phots at? Guessing 1/16 or 1/24? You contributed greatly to the RC sub hobby too David. (You and Ellie). And still are!

I see those tank & think of the interesting and exciting scenes in the 'French town' around the bank in Kellys Heroes. The Sherman & those three doctored up T-34s to look like Tiger 1's... lol

Thank God the Tiger was so expensive and heavy and complex to produce, It weakness was only it couldn't be produced in such great numbers.

Thank you, David & Ellie, too.

Steve

[Ken_NJ]

Very very true, well said.

I knew he was into submarines early on when our club was formed in the late 70's. We first met at the Jersey Shore Boat Show at Asbury Park Convention Hall. I wish I pursued that portion of the hobby back then instead of much later. Would have had a great mentor, although I know another great mentor in the present. Elbow, elbow.

Another thing I missed early on was scuba diving. My first big scratch build project was the SS Miss Belmar, originally built in the 70's, which I got the plans for from a gent named Bob Nash. Sometime in the maybe 90's he was into scuba diving. Didn't click for me then, although he tried. Sometime after 2000 I got certified and went out on his party boat converted into a dive boat. I was hooked. Although have not been diving for a number of years, but would love to return to it.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Skip evolved his love of a hobby into a business and after a while he got burned out from it. Being the only one running the business was a big burden on himself.

But, during the decades his star burned bright, he introduced this side of the planet to a commercially available angle-keeper; reliable shaft and pushrod seals; two rather flimsy, but affordable r/c submarine kits; and a wealth of good, solid information published in many and varied publications. His participation in seminars and Q&A's were a source of inspiration and learning.

I can think of no single man on this continent that has done so much to advance the state of the art than that hard charging, that first-class gearhead, author, and driver, Skip Asay.

[Ken_NJ]

Skip evolved his love of a hobby into a business and after a while he got burned out from it. Being the only one running the business was a big burden on himself.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Thanks Davjacva for all your comments. I loved the one about the doll house the most. :)

A friend of mine bought an all metal R/C tank, yup that cost him quite a bundle. These things are sophisticated. I wish the RC submarine hobby would develop like the RC tank hobby did. <sigh>

Me too. Wasn't for a lack of trying though...

Now, in hindsight, I believe the formula for running a successful business is to engage in a service or product that is as far dissociated from your interests (hobby) as possible i.e., don't confuse-mix business with pleasure.

D&E Miniatures was a money-making business from the start, and remained so as long as we built displays of subjects Ellie and I had little interest in -- catering to the wants of the customer. However, our business broke even and at times lost money when I foolishly steered our activities towards r/c submarine products -- catering to those things that pleased me.

I suspect that the much more successful r/c tank manufacturers based their production and sales efforts on the recommendations of executives who are BA graduates; people who put market analysis and balance sheet numbers ahead of any personal preferences of type product they market.

David