Dusty Steppes

First of all I just received a Taigen T34/85 from Artistic Hobbies last night and I wanted to publicly thank Gene for the prompt service!

The paint job is excellent.
The transmission with black steel gears were lightly greased and run almost as quietly as the brass gears in my KV.
The tank has plenty of torque and did well in 5" grass including super-spins.
The bearings in the road wheels, idlers and final drives provide for an easy roller.
The unlimited 360 degree turret is really nice but I found out the hard way that you have to make sure all the wires are properly tucked in place. I was a little to hasty in putting the top hull on after installing the battery and ended up snagging a wire in the turret rotation gear. Five minutes with some solder and heat-shrink and I was back in business.

I don't like the clear bow mg barrel but that can be taken care of with a little bit of paint.
The turret coaxial mg LED is surface mounted. IMHO it would be better if it was slightly recessed with a smaller hole. I'm not sure if I want to use paint or some other method to make opening smaller.
The 1700mah battery is small. It provided about 15 min of run time in the grass. It might be possible to fit a larger battery by relocating the speaker slightly to one side. I'm not sure if the speaker is attached with screws or doubled sided tape. Maybe Erik can provide that info.
The infra-red sensor mount on the non-opening loader's hatch is a little disappointing. It might be prone to collecting dust when the sensor is not being used. I have a few ideas on how to address that.

Overall I would have to say that I am very pleased with this tank.
Kudos to Taigen for producing a very nice product!

TexasTank

Pictures!

Baliw

Well here's mine! I got it yesterday, also from ArtisticHobbies:



My initial impressions are: this is an awesome tank. It is heavy with all the metal components; my kids have a hard time lifting this thing. The paint job is very decent and the motors/gearboxes are fairly quiet. The wheels with the rubber tires are great. Recoil is good (I have the IR version), felt smoother than my other Taigen tanks; and I think they may have shortened/tightened the firing sequence so it goes faster (which is good because in both my Panther and Panzer IV if you release the firing stick too fast it tends to get stuck with the firing sound over and over). The turret with the 360 is great but in reality it was a rare thing that I do that anyway, I guess for storage and heat of the moment when you forget that's a great feature; I'm glad I have it, but it wouldn't have detracted from how nice this tank is.

Speaking of which, the wiring has been nicely tied down inside. The easy latch system is great (though mine came in broken... easily fixable with super glue but am not sure how strong that would be from now on; although, if it's just to secure the upper hull, it should suffice... the turret is heavy enough to weigh it down anyway). The accessories are nice, like the tow cables being metal/wire. Running the tank it felt like it was slower than my other ones (which is good) but the super spin is still there. In IR my son and I tend to just spin our tanks to point the gun instead of the slower turret turn because of super spin.

Now for the nitpicks and not-so-goods.

The white "cross" on top of the turret, while nice, I felt shouldn't have gone over the cuppola (?), making its face white: should have kept the whole thing green. Additionally, really wish there were decals (didn't come with any) to customize the tank further or distinguish it. For the IR, not having a hatch for where the connector is at is a disappointment. the biggest thing for me though is the battery. It's small and it's only 1700mah and while it has a nice space in the front to put it in, I felt they should have stuck with the 2000mah 6 subcell form factor so we can use our higher duration batteries with it. As of now, one would probably have to move both the MFU and the speaker (which is secured right tight in there) to make room. I suppose I don't mind doing this, but I tend to not touch the Taigens too much because they're RTR and I try to keep them that way.

Overall great tank, probably the best I have in the motorpool. I say probably because I consider reliability, fun factor, ease of maintenance as part of the package. Right now the tank really looks good, the T-34 is one of my favorite tanks looks wise, this Taigen performs well and acts more tanky than my other tanks.

Now to think of a name to give her....

Dusty Steppes

Mowed the yard so the grass is just above 1 inch, lubed up all the bearings, elevated the tank and ran the motors until the battery died. Dropped in a fresh 1700 mAh battery and took it for a spin in the yard. Ran it constantly for 25 minutes before it ran out of fuel. Happy to report this thing performs well on the grass, able to do super-spins and the suspension did not jam up with the grass clippings. Out of the four tanks I have this one runs the best.

I did test fit the 1700 battery on both sides of the speaker and it did not interfere with the turret rotation. I'm thinking of getting another battery and a y-adapter so I can run two 1700 batteries in parallel and hopefully that will increase the run time.

This thing is sweet!

Baliw

Hm. That's an idea I haven't thought of. Although that's still another form factor battery, can't interchange it with the batteries I already have.

Agreed, the tank is very nice, even with my quibbles.

Panther F

WEIGHT does make a difference!

Especially when the tank has wide tracks and road wheels to keep the tracks from folding due to tall grass. That is fantastic to hear some good news on a new tank! It's looking good for my SU build.

Of course, pictures are always nice guys!




Jeff

Baliw

Ok, more pics.

Panther F

Oh nice! Especially that first image showing the rear of the tank. This really trumps the WSN tank and of course blows the Heng Long out of the water. I know I have to get one of these to keep intact as a T34/85 as well as for my SU and T34/76 projects.

I guess I can tap into another bond for some $$$. If my wife finds out I am getting RTR's when I have so much to build here... well, I won't go there! LOL

I don't know anything about the Taigen. Does it sound like a T34? Does it have a squeeky track system along with the engine running/revving sounds?


Being all metal is starting to win me over as I once feared it was too much for a 1/16 tank. Thanks for the great pictures!





Jeff

TexasTank

VERY nice looking tank and report! Thanks!

Joel

Dusty Steppes

Sadly no. All their tanks are programmed with the same generic start up, engine running, engine shutdown, cannon, mg, turret rotation and gun elevation sounds.

While testing the smoothness of the running gear I did have the volume turned down and did notice there was a faint track clatter. Sadly it can't be heard when the volume is turned up.

I am currently scrounging for parts to build a test fixture for setting up Clark TK22 boards. I have cards for my KV and Tiger I. I just want to set them up with a test fixture to ensure everything works prior to installing them. If I'm happy with them I will probably upgrade this T34 and a Pz IV with TK22s.

Strato50

The Clark T-34 board turns this thing into a real beast.. and the 'new' round stock speaker is actually a good improvement over the square HL type. My T-34 roars with that thing.

Max-U52

How's the machine gun barrel? I've heard it's clear.

Imex-Erik

First, grats on the new tank! The T34 is quite a step up from the last ones
The speaker is attached by screws, you will have to unscrew the green plate from the bottom of the tank with 4 screws. You can then remove the green plastic piece and rearrange or remove what you wish. The IR version does have the working hatch removed, so far the response is 50/50 on that. I understand some do not like it, but we did have a lot of request to "change the hatch layout" for the IR versions. I will consider this for future tanks.
Thanks! I'm sure we can find some room in there We just wanted to secure the speaker a bit better this time so it was bolted down.
Just go ahead and get yourself one! You won't regret it at all, I promise. It really is worth the money by far.
Yes the barrel is clear, but a bit of paint can take care of that. As long as you don't paint the tip of the barrel then the LED light will still transfer through it.

Max-U52

Here's a better idea - Sharpie!! I know, it sounds too simple to be true, but black sharpie works really fantastic for gunmetal of any type. When I get home tonight I'll post a photo of an MP38 machine pistol I did in 1/16 and used sharpie instead of paint. You don't lose even the tiniest details like you can with paint, and you'll really be surprised how well this stuff works.

And even if you do accidently cover the tip of the barrel, a few light passes with a fine sanding stick will take care of it. In fact, here's a video of the gun I did with sharpie on my Jagdpanther:

[h=3]machine gun mod JP[/h]

Imex-Erik

I just watched! Great idea! When are you going to get a T34 btw? You have enough Tigers, now you need another Russian tank

MAUS45

Yes, I got my Taigen T-34/85 this past Friday, but was only able to take it out of the box yesterday evening as I had to many things going on Saturday and Sunday. I got the BB version as I wanted the hatches that would open. Will be adding a Clark or Tamiya electronics to it at a later date. I have the battery charging today and hope to run it tonight when I get home. Photos do not do justice to this tank. In person it is absolutly fantastic.The way the upper latches to the lower hull is way cool and easy to remove. The paint scheme is really nice as well. Was not sure about all metal, but now I am convinced. Thanks Gene at Artistic Hobbies for getting this tank to me so quick. Erik I think Taigen is headed in the right direction!!! Rudy

Imex-Erik

Ty my friend, enjoy your tank
I knew the T34 was going to be a big hit. As soon as I got my sample I knew it was time to spread the word.