ssrc30

This is a short review of the unboxing and initial impressions of the Heng Long ZTZ-99 MBT. Overall, I am very impressed with this tank. I ordered it last Saturday and received it yesterday (Friday) afternoon. Mato did a good job of packaging it in a sturdy brown box. I would have liked to see a bit of extra padding put in the box to keep the tank from sliding around during shipping. Following are a few pictures of the tank, both in and out of its packaging.

As you can see, The ZTZ-99 comes in the typically colorful HL style box. On the inside, you will find a Battery, charger, box of orange bb's, smoke oil, 1 loose bag with parts sprue in it and a box with about half a dozen more parts sprues inside it. There will also be the manual and the tank. Everything is well packed in the foam box liner and nothing seemed to have been moved or damaged (more on that later).

Upon removing all the parts and examining them for obvious damage, I was pleased to see that Heng Long has steered away from the habit of adding the usual tank commander bust. I also noticed that all the additional parts are very well made of sturdy plastic and are very nicely painted. The only downside to the painted parts is with the pieces on the black sprue. When you cut them off the sprue, you will notice that the black paint was applied over green plastic which will require you to paint over these areas. There are also 2 tail lights that plug into some very delicate connections at the back of the tank. Be very careful with these as they will break.

Other points of note with the parts are with the smoke launchers. The pegs that these mount onto are very flimsy and will easily break, as what happened with me on 2 occasions. I advise cutting a small amount of plastic off these mounts until the launchers fit easily and then gluing with a good CA glue.

Details are very well looked after on this model and there is LOADS of room for detailing. All the little antennas and grab points that need to be assembled will keep you busy for a nice while before you run your tank.

Tracks are very well done, however I will recommend going to your local hardware store and getting a roll of Anti-Slip tape and cutting and sticking pieces to each of the tracks to give this monster better traction. This will take quite some time but you will be glad you did it.

Initial running of the ZTZ-99 was impressive. Start up is the typical Heng Long method of installing the battery, turning on the transmitter, turning on the tank and then pressing the "ignition" button on the transmitter. All features worked very well for the first 5 or 10 minutes that I ran her around my house. Recoil was very nice compared to older Heng Long tanks that I have used and the sound effects were decent. After running for a few minutes, I was disappointed that the tank suddenly started acting very erratically and would not perform according to the inputs I was giving it. I am currently waiting to hear back from Matomart regarding this problem.

Overall, this tank is WELL worth the price you will pay for it. Details, accessories and the huge size of this beast will make it a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. For those of you who are into modding your tanks, you will have no shortage of room to do so inside the huge hull of this ZTZ-99. If you are like me and just want a tank that you can take out to have fun with on the weekends and possibly convert for some IR battles, this is definitely the machine you will want to consider.

Rating for this review: 8/10. I took off 2 points because of the issue with the way my tank runs. Aside from the running problem, I couldn't ask for a better tank to own.

Steve

Update...

I checked the battery and it appears to be faulty, surely the cause of the poor running. Just ran the tank for a solid 15 minutes with no issues whatsoever.

Rating revised to 10/10 now that I can see how awesomely this tank performs.

Airbrushler

sometimes i think they should with all the tanks is have an extra inch or so on the barrel end they all seem to be at the edge of the foam

ssrc30

I agree but with this one it didn't seem to be much of an issue. The only issue I have with this tank is the running problems that I discuss in the review. I would also note that some of the parts are a VERY tight fit as well but they do go on with a little effort.

Panther G

Yeah i have already broken off most of the smoke launchers. The cradles for the fuel barrels are pretty weak also. broke them all off the first day.

YHR

We need to get that set up with a battle system You should bring it over and get a DBC3 hooked up to it.

ssrc30

Dan, I would love to set one up on this tank as soon as the funds allow it, likely in the next few weeks. How much are the units?

ssrc30

Started taping the tracks lastnight. Likely would have gotten the whole thing done but it was late and 5AM comes awfully quick around here. Should notice a huge improvement in traction once both sides are done. I think I counted 350+ pieces between the 2 sides that will need to be done.

Steve

YHR

PM sent

ssrc30

Got the track tape finished last night. Haven't run it yet but just trying to move the tank around on my table, it sticks to the table like glue.

Strato50

I hope that doesn't make it harder to turn! Thinking of running 'sticky' tracks on grass makes my chest hurt.. >

ssrc30

It may make a bit of a difference but I've seen this done to a Bulldog with great success so I will hope for similar results even though the Bulldog is much smaller than the ZTZ. I'll give it a run around the house tomorrow and see how it does.

philipat

Be interesting to see how the tape holds up to driving on the concrete.  I've used rubberized CA glue (CA tire glue) on the plastic tracks and it worked well.  Truck bedliner works well on metal tracks.  Both hold up to sidewalk driving.  Downside is that they don't go on flat like the tape.

Airbrushler

i would love to get one of these tanks so i can weather it up ...maybe one day

ssrc30

I'm quite interested to see how the tape changes the tanks climbing ability. I'm gonna charge the battery and build a nice steep ramp to test this out. Can't be any worse traction than it had before the tape. If tank drifting was a sport, I woulda won first place. As far as weathering goes, I'm gonna keep it to a minimum. The biggest changes I will make will be the addition of some burlap barrel netting and maybe a turret cover to go with it.

ssrc30

Here's a quick photo of the taped tracks. As you can see, the tape doesn't affect the shape of the tread at all so I don't assume that it will impact the movement of the tracks. Turning may take a bit of a beating, depending on what type of surface it happens to be turning on, but it shouldn't be too bad as this tank seems to turn on both tracks no matter how fast, or slow you happen to turn. I am mostly hoping for an improvement on climbing ability but I will take whatever I can get. The burlap barrel net isn't quite finished yet. I got the pieces cut last night but I just haven't trimmed them up yet. A spare piece rolled up nicely and actually fit in the side bin of the turret. Might just double that as a partial turret cover.

philipat

That looks great. matches the pads perfectly...great job!

ssrc30

Thank you. They aren't all that well done but the pieces were so small that it was hard to make them all the same lol. First run on tile floor was a success. Carpet may be a different story. I'll run it outside first to see how it handles grass.

ssrc30

Tested on grass today. The tank performed fantastically the whole time. Carpet poses a small challenge with turning. Tries to throw the left track when turning left. Aside from that, it performs better than expected. Downside is I broke off the machine gun while putting in the battery lol...

Steelcoffin

]Hi tanks lovers, If I can give you a little trick to give more resistance to your tracks, made a simple roar wheel on idle to thickness them to give more 'distance ' to run to your caterpillar , so, they will be more strait and you will be ok on carpet.