- 1/16th-1/15th Scale Tanks in B.A.T. -
THE "16th Tank Corps"

B.A.T. came into existence in the summer of 1992 as primarily a club for 1/16th and 1/15th scale R/C tanks. Even though many members have owned, and still own, other scales, it has been the 1/16-1/15th scales which have been at the core of the organization, historically, and is the focus of most of our regular meetings. At present we have a very mixed member roll in terms of scales and also geographical distribution and member classification. There are 36 Active and Associate members but no precise break-down according to scale preferences. But it is safe to say that the vast majority of members are primarily interested in the 1/16 tanks with 1/6 being the second most common scale followed by a smattering of other tanks in such scales as 1/8 and 1/10. It is true that what has been different about B.A.T. compared to the typical club is we have a long history of having members with larger scale tanks other then 1/16th. This will be addressed at some point in greater detail in the "About B.A.T." section.

Partly due to the fact that we have about a third of the club as Associate members who live either out-of-state or out of our immediate geographical area, we typically have only about 6-10 guys at our monthly meetings. Then there are some guys who may live locally but are only seen once a year at Battle Day, which is our big annual get-together for running the tanks and visiting the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation collection of combat armor. It is at this time that a guest can expect to see both the "16th Tank" and "6th Tank Corps" doing their thing. With the smaller tanks it is the deployment of the Tamiya Battle Unit-equipped 1/16th tanks around our WWII era Italian village for the purpose of doing battle. For 1/6 it is a chance to run the big tanks, of course, but also to assemble as many vehicles and figures as possible for the opportunity to photograph the dioramas.

As a small "unit" the B.A.T. "16th Corps" can only field a small number of tanks at a typical meeting, but we have the advantage of being able to quickly place our lightweight buildings on our small field as they are stored very close by. We do not have serious RCACN-type of competitions, but instead a rather loose series of what we call "skirmishes". However, we are a club where most members believe in capping the speed of the Tigers within RCACN limits. All this is to say that at this point in mid-2005 we are conducting what amounts to "Combat-Lite" but hope to pull more elements of serious regulation into our fighting as we go along. The reason why this is so will probably be addressed in "About B.A.T." at some future time.

We are always looking for new members so if this is of interest to you you may go to our "Membership Info" link to learn more. B.A.T. discourages the casual visitor to our meetings who may indeed have a sincere interest in armor and armor modeling, but is not serious about joining us for the purpose of building and running/fighting R/C model tanks. This is especially important as we are guests on private property and so all new members are vetted to some degree before being invited into B.A.T.

On the Product History page, there is a short introduction to the "hardware" we use. By no means is it complete. Some time exploring the enthusiasts' sites and forums as well as those sites of the many aftermarket suppliers will be needed to get a good picture of the scope of this hobby.