NF Model M4 Sherman, six variations

[rb67mustang]

Next project.....trying to form about 2 to 3 platoons of M4A3E8 tanks for the next "FURY 2" movie; hahah! These arrived this afternoon :-)

OMG, if I bought that stack of RC tanks; it would end my almost 40 years of marriage!!!

[DavidN]

Members in our club have accumulated 22 of these in just 2 weeks. One member from the SD club got 1. We will probably have an Easy8 event soon; heheh!

[DavidN]

If anyone has more than one NF tank (I'm looking at you, David!) have you tried to bind a second tank to a controller? Just curious. (I experimented trying to bind a NF tank to a HL controller. Didn't work.)

Nope! I tried to start the two tanks using the controller from the other. No start!

[SoCalBobS]

Ah well. Guess we have to mark each controller and bring them all if we want to use our tanks.

[DavidN]

This morning, I opened the 3rd tank to check the cross binding. And they crossed over. So please disregard my #23 post; heheh!

[SoCalBobS]

That makes more sense. The manual describes binding, and the board is so similar to HL’s.

[SoCalBobS]

Empirical confirmation: I got my second NF M4A3(105) Sherman and bound it to my first controller.

Observation: for both tanks I received, the tank battery was either totally depleted (it had been left plugged in as delivered) or nearly flat (enough to turn the lights on but would turn off after start up). In both cases, putting it on the supplied USB charger brought it up to enough charge to put on a smart balancing charger. Thereafter they run fine.

[cleong]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sgtankies/permalink/27463012289986724/

I received my NF M4A3E8 and like SoCalBobS had a dead battery that wouldn't charge up on my charger in LiPo mode due to low voltage so I had to jump it alive on NiMH charging mode with fire extinguisher at the ready.

I won't bait anyone to go on that link so:

My initial impression of NF Model’s (Hercules Hobby) first effort, which is extremely commendable. Their parent company’s expertise has translated to this model and without either having built or owned a Tamiya Sherman or an Andy’s M4A3 I could imagine that NF has taken the best from both sides, because I could imagine it is an interesting hybrid of both. The electronics are interesting as there’s a lot of features and very fine controls of the turret traverse and steering. On the IR front, it has a smaller-than-standard IR emitter so its performance remains to be seen. However it probably has a disadvantage because there is a lag when firing as the whole IR/airsoft system requires a 1-2 second sequence to prime before firing. Reload times seem to be around 3-4 seconds.

1. Its nice to find that NF hasn't borrowed generic HL sounds or Tamiya's M4 which has a radial engine
2. NF one ups Tamiya with opening hull hatches and periscope guards that Tamiya “forgets” to provide
3. Top of the turret is similarly well equipped with the searchlight and 30 caliber. Tamiya has never supplied a 30 caliber with either their Sherman or Pershing..
4. Both accessory guns are cast in metal and with enough detail - note the barrel’s perforations. Also the ammo - this is all very nicely finished out of the factory
5. The plastic details are generally a grade above HL and 90% match Tamiya’s fine detail
6. There are metal drive sprockets and ball bearing equipped wheels. However there seems to be un-scale exposed screw heads. Also note that the metal tracks are single, not double-pin types. I may try stock Tamiya plastic Sherman tracks as I’m generally not a fan of metal tracks.
7. The factory has done a great job of prepainting the pioneer tools with the correct colour separation.
8. Another detail where NF one ups Tamiya is the commander’s cupola which has proper inset clear vision glass!
9. NF cuts a corner at the HVSS suspension and (probably) uses a simple coil spring inside the faux HVSS housing. Tamiya uses the prototypical spring - quite impressive considering that the original design came from the 1970s.
10. The track tensioner looks a little rudimentary being an idler mounted on slots in the hull but let's see how it will hold up.