Thats the thing that I am most confused by, there a few different routes to go and each route take x,y,z parts, but the other route takes a, b, c parts. Its overwhelming for someone new to rc tanks.

What I am wanting to find is the most affordable and simple way to covert the the two different brands of tanks over where we can battle with each other every now and again. We would like to do it with stock radio systems and as little money as possible. We aren't doing any big battles with lots of people, there aren't any tank clubs around here or anything, just want to go a step beyond taping ballons to the back of the tanks and shooting them off with airsoft.

can you just buy one of these systems and mount the IR Emitter on the barrel like this guy did?

http://mitosal.com/Electronics.html