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Unimax
F.O.V. Battle Beam 1/24 RC Tanks
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F.O.V. 1/24 RC
MILITARY SERIES |
Unimax's Forces of
Valor range is a well known brand of plastic and
diecast military collectibles and their entry
into the 1/24 RC tank IR combat hobby is much
welcomed!
Not only does F.O.V. offer and plan to release
1/24 RC military vehicles not currently
available within the hobby, they have also shown
the way forward with the inclusion of
proportional control amongst the features
offered.
The Battle Beam series seems to be targeted
towards younger hobbyists,with mostly moulded on
detail items like tools and in the case of added
items which would have been prone to being
broken off easily, are made of soft rubber
plastic making Battle Beam tanks very durable
and suitable for children as young as eight.
F.O.V. will therefore be responsible for
introducing a lot of youngsters into the hobby,
which is great! Of course this new F.O.V. series
also holds big interest and appeal to adult
hobbyists, especially the many people who are
already avid 1/24 RC Tank enthusiasts and RC
Tank HQ's thanks go to F.O.V. for selecting us
to review this series for RC tankers around the
world.
Submitted for review are the first two tanks in
the series, a M4A3 small hatch Sherman and a
late production, steel wheeled Tiger 1 tank.
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PROPORTIONAL
CONTROL/TRANSMITTER |
F.O.V. Tanks
are VERY EASY for anyone to control. There are
two sticks on the controller, one for each
track. There are ten speeds on each stick, five
forward and five reverse speeds. I've
demonstrated in the video how the Tiger and
Sherman can accelerate smoothly through to top
speed, and, after reaching top speed, the tanks
are still easy to control.
Each stick also has a trim control which should
be kept set to neutral.
The transmitter also has buttons for left/right
turret movement, main gun firing and one button
that cycles the barrel up/down. The transmitter
requires a 9 volt battery.
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 F.O.V.
tanks are equipped with a safety clutch
which operates when the track encounters
too much resistance or hits a solid
object like a wall. This is a safety
measure to prevent damage to the
gearboxes. This means that F.O.V. tanks
are primarily made for indoor use on
clean surfaces like tightweave carpet.
Concrete is OK as seen in the video but
they aren't really suited to running on
grass, it can be done but the clutch
will 'click' when you turn on grass. |
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The sound effects
are impressive for this scale, all can be heard
in the video.
The Sherman and Tiger have individual sound
effects, consisting of:
*Engine starting sound.
*Engine running sound (both at rest and while
moving)
*Engine shut down sound
*Incoming explosion sound
*Main weapon firing sound
Sound is single volume at a fairly low level.
The sounds can be turned off/on by holding down
both turret rotation buttons on the controller
for five seconds.
These only operate
while the tank is moving. The Tiger's headlight
comes on in forward motion
while the Sherman has both head and tail lights
that come on depending on drive direction.
If left unattended
for two minutes, the tank's engine shut down
noise will be heard, after that, there is a two
minute window where any command on the
controller will 'wake up' the tank and the
engine starting sound will be heard, if not,
then it will be necessary to reset the tank
manually with the on/off switch underneath the
tank. The controller will also go into power
saving mode if unused after four minutes and
then requires a manual reset.
F.O.V. tanks are
available on 6 different frequencies so that 6
tanks can battle together at once. Transmitter
and receiver crystals are
removable/interchangeable between other F.O.V.
tanks.
It is possible to
program F.O.V. tanks to form into up to three
different teams. This means that members of the
same team will not be able to inflict damage,
'friendly fire' on each other.
To join 'team 1' hold down both the 'fire' and
gun elevation button on the controller for 5
seconds and a beeping sound will be heard,
repeat to join 'team 2' and again to join 'team
3', the beeping noise indicates which team
you've joined.
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Each tank comes with an infra-red
target which has a power indicator light
that flashes when hit, accompanied by an
explosion sound, this takes 2 AAA size
batteries. |
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The IR combat system
can score hits at a distance of up to 5 or 6
metres (15-18 feet) indoors. The IR beam emitter
is located in the tank's barrel whilst the
receiver target is the clear lens on top of the
turret.
*The tanks can fire shots at 2 second intervals.
*After being hit a tank can move but is
'invulnerable' to being hit for 5 seconds.
*After being hit for the 4th time, the tank's
power indicator light will flash as a
warning that next time you get hit, 'you're
dead'.
*When 'killed' after 5 hits, the tank will shut
down and automatically restart after 30
seconds.
Both tank's tracks
consist of individual 'click together' links. I
found them to be adequately strong and had no
problems with them coming apart nor any instance
of track 'throwing'.
The Tiger has sprung suspension arms and the
Sherman sprung Bogey arms.
The tanks require 6
AA sized batteries, rechargeable is best, and
depending on the capacity of batteries used, run
times of around an hour are possible.
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Aside from the IR
target, both tanks come with:
*Spare track links
*Spare IR target lens
*Turret mounted machine gun (rubber and
prone to warp)
*The Sherman has two 'one piece' stowage
/sand bag sets for the front and rear of
the tank. |
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Replacement parts
can be ordered from
www.radlinerc.com
F.O.V., and the
competition they bring to the hobby, as well as
all the new entry level hobbyists this series
will bring about, is very positive for everyone
involved.
F.O.V. have chosen to concentrate on the aspects
of durability combined with a very easy and
pleasant driving and gaming experience which is
sure to see this series become a success and
hopefully see a constant source of new 1/24
military vehicles from them! Look for them
in-store at about $80 USD, at that price, they
are a great deal with everything that's
included. Serious hobbyists will want to make
some cosmetic changes to improve modelling
accuracy, and that's part of what this hobby is
about. As well, some might want to disable the
safety clutch, a fairly easy modification,
undertaken of course at the accepted peril of
damaging the gearbox, it should enable the tank
to negotiate rougher ground better. |
