Design Philosophy R/C Armory is a company committed to the production of high quality 1/8 and soon 1/6 scale radio controlled tank kits. Founded in 1996 and located in Ankeny, Iowa R/C Armory has produced kits for model tank enthusiasts around the world. Our first tank kit was the German King Tiger and since then kits for the Hunting Tiger, Tiger 1, and Sturm Tiger were developed. Currently work on a 1/6 scale Stug III kit is underway and should be finished sometime in 2008. Through the years R/C Armory has continued to invest in technology in order to produce the highest quality kits available anywhere. Detail plastic parts are injection molded, metal parts are die cast, laser cut, or produced on CNC machining centers, and hull parts are cut out using a CNC router system. Large scale tank models are complex machines and they require parts that are produced to tight tolerances in order for them to fit together and operate correctly. Our aluminum die cast track links are the finest produced anywhere in the world. In the beginning, a decision had to be made concerning what scale was to be used in designing the tank kits that R/C Armory was going to produce. After examining the tanks and listening to customer request the decision was made to go with the scale of 1/8 for the Tiger tanks and 1/6 scale for the smaller tanks like the Stug III. In the beginning the two main reasons for picking 1/8 scale were overall internal space and the desire to keep weight to a minimum for easier transportation. Later customers started to ask for tank kits in 1/6 scale so the decision was made to produce the smaller Stug III in that scale. A 1/6 scale Stug III is about the same size as a 1/8 scale Tiger therefore just as easy to transport. The need to make the tank as light as possible was another important design criteria. Due to the large size of the these tanks, it was very important to manage the weight because it could have easily gotten out of control. Whenever possible, lightweight construction techniques were used in the design of the tank. For example the PVC plastic hulls are less than half the weight of a similar hull made from aluminum but they are designed in a way to make them very strong and rigid structures. When complete with motors and batteries the King Tiger with aluminum tracks only weighs about 65 lbs. With all motors and batteries removed, the tank weighs 45 lbs. The latest development for R/C Armory has been the introduction of die cast aluminum track links for all of our tank kits. Initially to keep production costs low we used injection molded plastic track links on our tank kits produced between 1996 and 2003. Since then die cast tracks have been produced for the King Tiger, Hunting Tiger, Tiger 1, and Stug III kits.