Cat's Mid-Production Taigen Tank
 

Good Afternoon,

Tanks first got me into RC about 4 years ago. I am getting back to my roots. I was going to originally upgrade my Heng Long King Tiger but this became cost prohibitive fast, so I bought a tank that had the features I wanted (biggest thing was airsoft barrel recoil). I decided to get a Taigen Tiger 1 mid-production. I am very impressed with the model and have a removal-able hull with just a throw of a lever is great! Not to mention my two favorite features... track tensioning and ball bearing gear boxes with 390 motors.

To start I went ahead and installed a TK60 board that I had slated for the King Tiger. Right now it is only set up for 6 channel control but at some point I want to get it switched to 8 channel support. I am running this board off of a Tactic TTX850 controller. I had problems getting the stock Taigen barrel recoil system to work with the modified airsoft wiring. For some reason I was getting feed back through the negative wire on the back of the airsoft unit. After messing around and even trying to install a resistor I couldn't get it work properly. I cut my loses and just hooked up the servo to the "real recoil" port on the Clark, works like a dream now.

Plans for the future?
1. Clean-up the electronics install on the inside
2. Better speakers
3. Change the routing of the smoke system to go through the mufflers correctly and figuring out a way to install a smoke fluid port
4. General weathering
5. Additional details such as material strapped to the back and periscopes

Video of me testing the board is linked here:
https://i.imgur.com/680uh13.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/5sWkeDJ.jpg?2

https://i.imgur.com/0vscRVf.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/woUgyVb.jpg?1

Regards,
Cat

Looks Great!!!

Are you saying that the Taigen airsoft recoil servo is plug and play to the Clark real recoil port without any rewiring?

In my case it worked perfectly. All I had to do was put on a servo wire extension down to the Clark TK60 real recoil servo plug from the servo that is mounted on the airsoft unit. It works perfectly and is insync as shown in the video. I don't have any other clark boards though to verify other models. I would assume though that as long as the Clark board has a servo connector for real recoil it will work fine.

This is also the same for the IBU or any other system that supports servo recoil :)
Check this video which shows the breakdown of the turret. The servo is run off a stepdown board that triggers the servo when the recoil switch is triggered on the back of the airsoft unit. If you want you can desolder the wire from the recoil switch to the step down board and remove that board all together. Then run an extension down to the MB and you are good to go. I suggest a slip ring if you can, that way you are not worrying about turning and such.

I found a complete Tamiya weathering kit on Amazon. Time to make my new Tiger a bit older! If anyone has any tips let me know.

Attachment 2245435

I'll be watching close on this one!

Good deal, after going back and forth on a few tanks (with your help of course), I am happy I went with this tank. Best feature is the recoil barrel with air-soft function.

UPDATES:

Did some more detailing. Biggest thing IMO is the added periscopes that I got from shapeways, is a little addition but makes a big impact. Also did a bit of weathering (most noticeable is on the tools and around the hubs on the wheels) while adding a stowage box on the back. The pigments worked well but I also got some washes to try as well for some more impact.

https://i.imgur.com/yoSvcxL.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/ir0i73I.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/SPxaJcC.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/mlC964o.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/dnyPAV4.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/avl2re3.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/hLhelC4.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/w9WH37i.jpg?1

Nice work. Shapeways source? Do they have the periscopes for the driver and RTO hatches, too?

The kit comes with a bunch of periscopes, I did install the larger periscopes for the driver and bow gunner, I just didn't document it. Those periscopes though had to be trimed down to fit within the metal Taigen hatches. I'll be honest I am not sure what you mean by RTO :confused:. I had a few left over after I was done.

Link is here...
https://www.shapeways.com/product/76NYE5MJW/1-16-tiger-periscopes?optionId=62805311&li=ostatus

RTO = radio telephone operator

That was the primary function of the individual that sat in that seat. "Bow gunner" was one of his additional duties.

Good to know about the periscope source. Thanks!