Originally Posted by maillemaker

I'm pretty new to the hobby. Started last Christmas. I now have an HL Panzer III, Sherman, and two Jagdpanthers. One of the Jagdpanthers has metal tracks and drive/idle wheels and transmission.

I had a bad motor on the Sherman that had to be replaced by the seller. Sherman also had to have the Airsoft unit replaced.

The PIII is old-style, with the old T1000 or whatever ABC non-replaceable-crystal control set. Had no smoke and no sound. It's still one of my favorites and has given me the least trouble.

The Jagdpanthers are the crystal style. I've had problems with the airsoft on one of them and the headlight has gone out on another but this might be something I screwed up while rooting around inside.

The Sherman is the 2.4GHz style. I very much like having all controls on the remote and the trim adjustment. I'm pretty much sold on 2.4GHz.

I also very much like metal tracks and wheels and transmission. The plastic transmissions have built-in clutches to allow slippage of the clutch before stripping of the plastic gears. On lighter tanks like the PIII and the Sherman it almost never kicks in. On the heavier tank Jagdpanther it is slipping all the time on any kind of rough terrain.

But by the time you take a Heng Long tank and upgrade it to metal wheels, metal tracks and 2.4 Ghz, you're getting into Taigen price range already.

And the problem with the HL metal-upgraded tanks is neither the tracks nor the wheels come painted, so you'll be painting. I don't know if the metal-track/wheel Taigens come already painted or not. If so, it would be an even bigger incentive to go Taigen.

I like the HLs because it's easy to get in the door cheap. I can buy a $150 tank and not catch too much flak from the wife and then put $50+ upgrades in it along and along to stay under Wife Radar until I end up with a $300 tank. Whereas if I try and buy a $300 tank outright high command gets involved.

Steve