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I have tested this new tank thoroughly over a
period of 3 months during which time it has
performed faultlessly, indeed beyond what my
expectations are for a budget priced RTR RC tank
and I am more than happy to recommend the MATO
Sherman to RC Tank HQ readers.
TRACKS WHEELS
SUSPENSION GEARBOX
The VVSS suspension bogies are plastic
construction, with rubber road wheel tires, the
suspension arms of each bogie are joined so that
they both pivot on a central point rather than
operating independently. The idler wheels are
plastic and MATO's design means there is no
sideways play which can allow the idler to 'toe
in' which is quite common for some other 1/16 RC
tanks. The sprockets are plastic too, however
they haven't shown any wear from running so far.
The tracks consist of plastic links with a high
traction capability whilst the pins and
connectors/track guides are metal. None of the
pins have showed any sign of working their way
out and the track guides do a great job in
keeping the tracks from coming off. I haven't
thrown a track yet and I don't expect it will
ever happen with this tank.
The gearbox uses nylon gears, in a fully
enclosed housing and seems adequate for this
tank so far but no doubt metal upgrades will
become available sometime. |
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PROPORTIONAL CONTROL AND TRANSMITTER
The Mato Sherman comes
with a matching olive green transmitter unit, a
nice touch!
Whilst the operating range is listed as 15
meters in the instructions,I found the tank
could be successfully operated up to a distance
of 90 meters, wow!
I was able to discern four different forward and
reverse speeds as shown during the bench test in
the review video. Tank movement functions and
steering are all controlled with the right
joystick which also includes neutral turns at
variable speeds. Main gun elevation/lowering and
turret traverse are controlled with the left
stick.
There are three buttons on the controller and
two indicator lights, one to indicate the
transmitter is on and receiving power and the
other to indicate if the tank has been put 'in
gear' or not. After the tank is turned on and
the headlights are flashing, the tank can be put
'in gear' by pushing the left button after which
you'll hear the start up sound followed by the
idling sound and the lights will stay on. At
this point, the tank is ready to drive and can
also be shut down by pressing the button again.
The middle button fires the machine gun,
accompanied by sound and light (red LED)
effects. The right side button controls firing
of the main gun, when pressed there is a 3
second delay during which time a warning light
on the turret will come on, followed by a
mechanical recoil simulation involving the tank
moving back and forth. If you have the BB gun
turned on it will also fire at this time, the
switch is located inside the commanders hatch.
The transmitter uses 8 AA size batteries and the
removable TX crystal is at the front of the
controller, you can find the RX crystal inside
the tank battery compartment. The transmitter
also has functioning steering and throttle trim
adjusters, whilst the other trimmers are
cosmetic.
BB FIRING
The BB firing mechanism installed in the MATO
Sherman shoots as hard if not harder than any
other BB firing tank I've come across, to put it
mildly, this is no pop gun so please follow the
safety guidelines and laws of your country when
operating.
PRESENTATION AND
DETAILING
The MATO Sherman is a very cleanly assembled and
painted model showing excellent quality control.
There are none of the excess paint or glue blobs
commonly found on some other 1/16 RC tanks. It
will serve as a great modeling platform for
hobbyists who wish to further paint, accurize
and detail it, which is a big part of the hobby.
MATO have advertised this tank as 'upgrade
ready' so given Mato's track record with metal
upgrades, they're sure to have some great
add-ons for this tank coming up.
Of note is the split loaders hatch which can be
rotated, along with the machine gun, as well,
all four hatches are operable for crew
placement. The angle of the cable bracket on the
transmission cover is too square to enable easy
placement of the tow cable, look at
repositioning that or be careful not to break
the cable, (I did) when you try to fit the cable
into the bracket. The tank is smooth rather than
a cast texture and the commander's cupola and
periscope lenses have been left void, in both
cases modelers can add them if desired. The disc
at the base of the turret looks to be
superfluous so I'll look into removing that to
lower the turret.
CONCLUSION
The Mato Sherman is a much needed addition to
the Hobby and with their first tank MATO have
started out with a very good effort, hopefully
it will lead to many more tanks in the future
from them. I'll be doing some modeling on this
MATO Sherman myself, and will no doubt be
reviewing some upgrades in the future at which
stage I'll update my progress. |
