YHR

People are very impatient in general. Most manufacturers have learned that the best course of action is no news until product is in the box. So much can happen between concept and final execution in a product they suffer a backlash of discontent when customers have to wait. Normally Heng Long has been very good about this, not making any formal announcement until items are shipping.

I love Heng Long tanks warts and all, and this T-34 will be a welcome addition when it is ready.

ausf

There's a fine balance between creating buzz and overshooting expectations.

Probably the best large company in the business is Horizon Hobby in terms of products, development and service, but their glaring negative is premiering products.

I was at a WRAM show where the reps put their UM Spitfire in my hand. Showed it proudly to my sons, described the new technology in the servos and gave me the price. It was to be on the shelves in May, plenty of time for their July birthdays, it would be at the top of their lists. May, then June, July, August, September, I believe October too all came and went with updates for next month but no plane. It was an issue with servo manufacturing, but they missed an entire flying season and pissed off a lot of people unnecessarily. All would be unavoidable if only they didn't show/promote it.

It's one thing to premiere it at an industry show, so shop owners can see what's coming out, but the public shouldn't hear about it until it's ready.

I would have thought it would hit the shelves as soon as I started the Trumpeter conversion, that's the way it usually works for me, but I guess they need an added push, so here: " As far as I'm concerned, the HL T-34 will never see the light of day". Okay, it should be on the shelves Monday.

Panther G

I like it, and if I didn't already have 3 WSN T-34's i would definitely consider this model. It certainly looks close enough for my taste.

Patski

any developments on this one? dont seems available anywhere yet!

Panther F

That's because it hasn't been released yet.

Hang on!





Jeff

Code501

I saw a site on which you could pre-order one:

http://www.heng-long-panzer.de/Heng-Long-T-34-85/#178

It says the tank will be available somewhere in October...

FreakyDude

I will bet anybody here a coffee, I say it WON'T be available in October. Not being negative about the release either, The 2A6 isn't even going to be available in any kind of numbers until early September.

Patski

oh well....I hope i'll get it by Christmas!

modelbob71

Incomparing the HL T34 to the posted pics of the real tank, it appears that the idler is too far forward and the drive wheel is to far back. Looks like a
lot to try and correct this one

Panther F

I think it's more the ride height than anything. Just hope those wheels are not under scale as I might have to get one and see.


I WILL need a donor for my SU-100.





Jeff

Patski

meh.. all I want is to have a T-34 to run I know those are plastic RC made in china...nothing like Tamiya 1/35 models.. I just enjoy driving them!

DirtyBird69

Agreed.... I could care less about the 85 version, but give me a 76 and now were getting somewhere. Maybe we would get lucky and Torro would make a 76mm turret upgrade like they did with the KV-2 turret for the HL..

bowlman

Dirtybird you may have to order this to get your 76 turret .

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Trumpeter-1-...item4ab3f58e64

Jimmy

Airbrushler

actually that's a damn good deal for a 1/16 model

Captain Nemo12

Gentlemen,

I found this video on Youtube today, which shows the new HL T-34's suspension:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeLhOmZu6is It seems that HL has elevated the chassis height, the wheel size looks about right when examining the vehicle with the suspension lowered.

Airbrushler

i havn't seen what the suspension looks like up close but i'm sure if you put a shim in each spring it would reduce the height and make it more to the correct level
i'm sure it will be a relatively easy fix and i'm not really worried about it, i think everyone on this forum will beable to fix it

Strato50

I just wonder if they're compromising because the nature of the T-34's drive system seems to prefer a tight track. In full scale, with steel, the weight was good enough tension. Not so much with plastic tracks.

If the tank's riding too high, it won't be hard at all to lower it especially if HL sticks with their Tiger / Panzer 3 / Panther style of spiral-spring suspension arms. Just clock them up a bit.

I want this to be my next tank!

bigfiver69

My wife bought me a WSN t34 off ebay for my birthday last month, and I'm using the Trumpeter T34/76 1942 turret to convert it to an earlier model (I've always hated the shape of the 85 turret.)

I was going to wait for the Heng Long version, but I just don't have the patience.

ausf

I did the same thing on my Trump conversion by accidet that HL appears to have done. Too much travel in the swing arms. I was going to live with it since the entire suspension acts like a tensioner, but the WSN tracks were a bit too tight and I didn't want the extra strain on the drives or idler. I ended up just cutting off two turns of the coil springs to correct the height and it functions (and looks) scalelike now.

I suspect the same adjustment can be done to the HL with the addition of taking out a few track links too. The T-34 suspension needs a good amount of tension otherwise the track horns will skip over the round drive wheel. It's a balancing act to find the right medium of tension/height, my guess is HL didn't want to spend too much time on it. The people who really care about that stuff (us), can and will correct it, the buyers who are grabbing a cool toy for their kids will benefit from the raised suspension and probably don't care about the accuracy.

borealis

As it was clear (at least to me...) from the very first pictures of the tank, it was only a matter of suspension height. An easy fix, and when combined with metal tracks just set them tight and the whole system will act as a track tension auto-regulator.

Strato50

So these tanks are apparently on their way to retailers in North America!!

Who's going to have the first in-depth review thread???

Bagheera

Hey all

I got an e-mail from Mato Toys in China, the HL T-34 is now released. The T-34 is listed on there site. http://www.matotoys.cn/eng/Product.asp?ClassID=LS55

Johnny

HAL_HUSKER

The first one is going to be in Moscow in two weeks. I do have some photos of the toy inside. The standard version has zinc gear. MATO now works on new black metal tracks...

Black HL gear and HL metal tracks are available as the options.

MrQweeksdraw

Hobby Raw has both the standard and metal-upgraded versions. I ordered a metal version today - $274.98 plus $45.00 shipping. Yeehaw!!

Strato50

Yikes :|

I really really hope it's not a rare lemon