nexusys

kamaz2010, be patience... did you buy it from HobbyRaw?

I bought 1 part of the HL Leopard. 30 days just passed, Still not receive it. Nor email response from there. Thank god i only bought 1 small item.Never and never again.

The worst online shopping ever.

mcm308

I ordered the metal road wheels , sprockets and idlers from HobbyRaw last week. I got a China Post airmail track number I think the next day after I ordered so we will see how long they take to show up at my door. I haven't read anything about people not receiving product, just that it takes a while so I'm not so concerned about it.

YHR

I ordered some stuff from Hobby Raw and had no issues. My first choice................no, but if they have something I can't get from my favorite then I would order again.

nexusys

yes, they are the only store i can get spare part i wanted.

Guys, may i ask? HL Gear, can i change the motor to Brushless motor?

What i need on my tank is the motor power to keep moving.

is it necessasarry? what's the benefit?


Reason is, when i go through the sand, sand went through between the tracks and sprocket, stopping it to move forward. I had to reverse to get rid of the sands. Do you know what i mean?

Forgetful_Duck

Ok guys.. some sad news... I received my Leo 2 today from Ozarmour...

But thanks to Australia post and some less than satisfactory QC from henglong.... My tank is damaged...

Here's a summary...

1. The front screws for the upper half of the turret are all missing. Only found 1 screw floating around inside the packaging which suggests that the screws were never put in at the henglong factory. Also tried putting screws into those holes and they are ALL stripped out.
2. Turret was split open at the front when i openned the box. I think the reason was because during delivery, the box was dropped and the gun barrel hit the edge of the box which pushed the entire gun mechanism into the turret. AND becuase the turret was missing all the front screws on the underside, the turret was weakened and all the force went into the gun mount pivot... snapping a plastic tab inside. So the gun is jiggling about loosely when raising up and down.
4. The a blue cable from the 2.4ghz bind switch leading to the battery compartment has been squashed - broken. This is from factory when they assembled the tank together.
5. The negative wire that goes INTO the battery pack hasn't been soldered on properly so after plugging it in the tank to test it, the wire just fell out of the battery -___-
6. A cosmetic thing... the front headlights were completely painted over...like what's the go henglong?


Fortunately Mark at Ozarmour has made assurances that the tank left him in good working order. He'll be ordering for me any broken parts that need replacements. ETA 2 weeks. So far all the major damage is in the upper half of the turret casing. I've tested the tank using another battery and everything else works fine. The suspension is incredible smooth! Also seems henglong didn't glue the plastic barrel tip to the gun.. or its been knocked loose cause mine just comes off.

kamaz2010

Oh, but Leo came to me yesterday...
But it took ˝only˝ 15 days for it to clear customs, and it took the same amount of time for it to come to customs...
All in all, I´m glad that it`s on mine table looking mihgty mean.

Yes it was HobbyRaw, and they do ship via SAL.
But here is a question; I saw their shipping declaration and it says that they paid around 60$ (US) for SAL, but when I paid for it shipping was only 35$ (US)... So how is this possible? Don`t they have a loss every time they sell and ship things? o.O

Things that were off mine Leo are:
-back left shock absorber (those plastic fake ones that have no usage) was loose in the box (a quick fix)
-there are some screws missing on turret bottom (4 of them-don`t know where they are since they were not in the box)
-front of barrel is a smal plastic part (laser device-on real tank+barrel tip) and was loose in the box (quick fix also)
-some paint missing on each side of tank hull due to friction with styrofoam during shipping
other than that everything is as it should be...
So HobbyRaw gets a big thumbs up from me...

Forgetful_Duck

Kamaz2010, I just figured out why we are missing the 4 screws under the front part of the turret...

it's because they actually DON'T screw into anything behind it. I thought my holes were stripped! But upon closer inspection of the 2 halves, there are NO holes behind it. So those 4 are there for nothing...

nexusys

Oh Duck... what a mess!!! I would be so.frustrated if that happen to me. I feel sorry to you man... now there are some extra work for you. I woulda thought oz armour would replace the whole thing?? Rather than bits that were broken. Hurmmm good luck dude..wheni receivedmine, there are some stuff that i wasnt happy about.

The front light was painted over
The gun nozzle was lose.
Lower hull front slate armor joint went missing. And there is no replacement.

Duck. Keep thinking about upcoming upgrade and mods you're going to do with it.

Kamaz. Yours wasnt that bad huh. I heard a lot of peeps out there having problems when they received it.. we're maybe one of the lucky ones... perhaps.

Forgetful_Duck

Mark did offer a full refund as well, but posting it back would cost me $40...

So yeh. I'll rather get it fixed. It's actually not that bad. I've been working on it now for the past 2 and a bit hours and I've managed to super glue the plastic tab pack on. I used some selley's CA glue and a CA glue accelerator which makes the bound extra strong and instant. Also used shoe goo (clear hard rubbery gel) to reinforce the plastic as well. Shoe goo is aweosme stuff. We use it for RC car lexan bodies, super strong and slightly flexible. Only a few more screws to go, the tank should be fixed in 5 mins But yeh I'm gonna ask to just replace the upper turret anyway because its still broken and not sure how strong my fix will be in the long run.

kamaz2010

Well the screws I was missing are a few that go around turret ring and connect bottom to upper part of turret.
But Forgetful, I know its a lot of mods, there is Leopard 2a4, with vertical front plates...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._rectified.jpg

Yes I saw a several Leos around and some of them came really busted as if they used them for basketball. So, yes, we were lucky nexusys...

It took me several hours to put all little parts on Leo. Had to sand down all those small mold marks.
At first glance it seems that HL did a great job, there are some things missing, but they don`t make that much difference (like cast molded numbers for several parts).

Also I noticed a ˝small˝ problem on plastic tracks---it seems that those small metal pins are not pushed in as they should be, resulting in pin poping up and breaking tracks... Remedy for this is to push every pin in for about 0.5mm. But to be honest, those pins could be 1-2mm longer. Why did HL make them too small?

Oh, jeah, I notised one small switch in battery compartment---what is it for? Is it for pairing receiver and controller? o.O Since 2,4Ghz systems don`t have crystals to pair them.

Forgetful_Duck

Yeh the switch is for pairing if you are changing to another rx18 or replacing the controller.

By default they come paired anyway.

How is the airsoft cannon for everyone? My cannon is VERY weak. It shoots the BB bullet and it dribbles on the floor... My shooting range is not more than 1 to 3 meters.... and then bullet just rolls on the floor. Its HEAPS bad. My old 1/24 leo 2 also by heng long shoots HEAPS far. I think my airsoft gun / cannon was broken when the front got smashed in.

kamaz2010

Mine too. It seems that they done something to spring. I thougth it was fine, compare to mine airsoft L96 with +500fps.
I was thinking about fitting Cyma Desert eagle AEG mechanism in tank, but somehow it seems pointless to do this.
I could be wrong.

nexusys

Duck - if you ok to fix it then its good, i wont pay another $40 to ship back anyway...lol.

Kamaz - took me a while to put things together too.. i realized one set of the part gone missing. WE all should have 2 identical part of the side mirrors.. only had one. I had to buy it from Hobby Raw (arrive yesterday after a month... phew..)

Talking about tracks, i realized HL sprocket teeth are a bit too long. the length of the teeth should be level with the tracks metal bits. But HL teeth extended to be level with the rubber pads. Which is not right. Because its too long, it always hooked up the tracks causing it to stuck. it pulls the track down. I had to modified it by attach a screw to the hull side next to the sprocket to hold the tracks up to avoid the sprocket pulling the tracks down. - Unfortunately. my tank now can run smoothly. I also added a weight though.

I had a good bash this morning on the dusty land..... that added another weathering effect on me tank.. nice..

i personally dont use BB cannon on me tank.. dont know what and where to shoot at... so i dont really concern much.

kamaz2010

So that screw is something like this small wheel on Jagdpanther:
http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/...rus/002-21.jpg
I haven't done any tanking for now, since there is a little devil on test:
http://images.hobbytron.com/ZX-W3388-lg.jpg

Hl524

Impact tracks & tamiya oem tracks already out of stock!!! Anyone know where to buy? Thanx.

nexusys

Yes a bit like that look. Im using different screw.... i'll take a picture once i finish off my Smoke Grenade launcher... (hihihihi..)

aaa man.. that motorbike... i always wonder how it balance it self... i can imagine how addictive that RC can be,....


HI524 - Its hard to find, try searching for the Product ID number instead of the name. you might get lucky

Forgetful_Duck

The store i originally hit up just said to me their HK supplier doesn't have the tamiya tracks in stock. So getting a refund.

I'm no inquiring at a japanese store that doesn't have the part listed, but since they sell the tanks, its worth a try to see if they can get it in.

nexusys

That's false ads. How could they sell something they don't have?? Urrgh.. ah well.. yes worth trying asking. There sometime hidden somewhere.
The one i found on ebay was actually named Jason from Osaka japan. I saw 2 peeps watching the item. I found it and bought it right away with no guilt lol.....
Never thought the tracks is so hard to find.

mcm308

Did you try Artistic Hobbies for the tracks? They were on the website a couple weeks ago for 90 USD.

kamaz2010

Well it`s easy to understand: bike uses gyro effect by using weights in tires (front and back). Faster it gets-more stable it is. Meaning-you have to reach certain speed and it will drive itself. Now on this model(/type) front wheel is free to go left/right (as of some nitro bikes in 1/5 which have little servo that steers front wheel), and to steer the bike driver swivels left/right just like real pearson (even his head goes in opposite side from body when turning). It can also be driven into a solid wall without breaking.
At the beginning I was a little afraid that it would be hard as hell to drive it, but as I said before---it almost drives itself...
Only downside is a battery-it is only 600mAh (but you can drive around for about 10min. on it).
This movie tells it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmWBnOQga8I

I`ve found out why BB gun is so weak---gun barrel has two holes under manlet. Now unsually HL makes a hole few cm down barrel (cca 5cm) for air to rush in once BB passes by it to reduce back pressure. By drilling two holes this close to mechanism makes propellent pressure escape barrel and you all know the result... To remedy this you can use tape to seal them off. This can build that back pressure since Leos barrel is a bit longer in volume than hop-up mechanism cylinder. To remedy this you need to drill single hole but this can leave small metal ring inside barrel from drilling... And so on, and so on...
I`m gonna tape those holes and thats it for me...

nexusys

i wonder the stabilizer can be applied on Leo2 turret.... hurmm... i saw from one of Chinese video, theym modified HL turret stabilizer, perfectly stable and 1000x better than Tamiya stabilizer... very responsive

I might consider buying it 1 day.... ... 1day


Thought give some update, i bought Leo machine gun rom Germany.... (ebay) not as good as AFV and Tankzone. I'll say good enough... i coulda get it from AFV though...maybe next time.. i dont bother much...



also i built Leo smoke launcher from scratch... its alright... i dont have much resource to build it properly.... i guess its good enough.

Note the wire attached to smoke grenade





So it sorta complete.. i'm considering to get proper basket with photo etched... coming soon.. still considering

mcm308

My metal road wheels and sprockets from Hobbyraw departed Shanghai !!

Forgetful_Duck

I got my Tk22 yesterday from Ozarmour and spent a good few hours doing the conversion.

Set it up on a mode 2 spektrum dx7 transmitter.

By default you will need to mod some of the wires inside the upper turret for airsoft and up down elevation to work both ways.

1. I cut the red wire that runs from the airsoft cannon safety switch to the elevation motor right at the base of the elevation motor. This is because I want to use the full length of the wire later.
2. There are 2 smaller 3 pin plugs on the upper hull PCB below the big fat long plug. One actually only has 2 wires out of the 3 slots available (middle wire missing).
3. Take this plug (2 wires but 3 pin plug) and wire and gently use a sharp modeling blade to cut away the insulation of the RED wire (pin 3) to expose the bare wire underneath.
4. Take the RED wire which you cut earlier in step 1, and peel back some of the insulation. Attach this wire onto the RED wire in step 3.
Note the 2 red wires (one is slightly pink) joining together under the yellow tape. I didn't even solder it. I just split the strands of wire in half and criss-cross wrapped them to the other wire.

5. Basically your splicing the Airsoft motor's positive wire into the positive wire of the Coaxial machine gun LED, combining them together.
6. Next take the other 3 pin plug that has 3 wires, and using a small screw driver, DE-PIN the BLACK wire and the ANY 1 of the other 2 wires. SWAP the black wire and the other wire and reconnect into the plug.
Should look like this after the swap. Note the colours.
7. Need to now plug the airsoft recoil switch (small 2 pin plug) from the airsoft cannon into the tk22 CN3 port, on pins 3 and 4. May need to cut osme of the plastic off the 2pin plug to fit.

Reassemble the tank and you should have both up and down control on the gun elevation.
The Airsoft cannon will also fire when stick is pushed all the way up (or down depending on ur channel and reversing switch). Reload delay is approximately 5 seconds before airsoft can shoot again.

nexusys

Hey Duck, sounds like a good idea... do you have any photos of the modifications? easier for me to apply on mine too? (if you dont mind? )

also, is additional receiver mandatory? if so, what's recommended?

Let say i have the receiver, do i need controller as well? or can i use stock HL controller?




Clark website gave me false info.., they should stating "additional RECEIVER REQUIRED... not just "its easy as plug and play".. not really, you need to buy a receiver...

Forgetful_Duck

Edited and added photos.

Nexusys, You will need a third party 4 channel receiver. The cheapest thing to do is go on hobbyking.com and buy either a spektrum dx6i copy (orange) and a 6 channel receiver or buy a turnigy one from the same store. Choose either mode 1 or 2 is fine. Just need to plug the tk22 wires into the receiver differently depending on mode.

You will need to use your own Transmitter and Receiver. The henglong one is rubbish.

I'm using a spektrum dx7 and a 6 channel receiver. I fly helicopters too, so I have this stuff already.


Just an update

I've installed a some new gearboxes into my Leo 2. Using the Henglong Steel geared gear box. Mine came with the normal metal gearbox which is a soft zinc alloy, silver in colour. I found that the grease on the zinc alloy gears have noticeably become a lot darker in colour after only a few runs which mean they are wearing out super fast. Not to mention they are also SUPER LOUD. Hate it.

After installing the black steel gearboxes, I can happily report they are HEAPS quiet. Only a bit louder than plastic gears. They also feel a lot smoother as well!

Henglong really love to cut corners. I;ve foudn that on both gearboxes they didn't bother to even grease the brass bushings on the gear shafts. After disassembling the gear boxes I lubed them all up including the bushings with some tamiya ceramic grease. Then I greased all the road wheels as well, everything is normal plastic to plastic friction surfaced. It's not even a nylon bushing, just normal ABS to ABS plastic.

Tank runs real smooth now, no more squeaky noises.

I also replaced the turret rotation motor with a mini 4WD tamiya Atomic Tuned motor. 15000rpm

Noticebly faster, but can still be faster if I got a Hyper Dash motor. The problem is though the turret rotation gearbox is REALLY noisy... anyone notice the same thing? It has a different pitch sound when turning left and right. I think the gears are uneven and vibrating. At such High RPM, any slight imperfections will cause high frequency vibrations. It's so loud that it completely drowns out the awesome tk22 turret rotation sound.
Only way to fit it is to get Servo turret rotation.