Originally Posted by
patmat
Feeling very Rip van Winkle here. Many years ago, I had plans for building a 1:16 Abrams when there weren't ANY. I even ran a Yahoo Groups site on modeling this vapor Abrams. I finally bailed on the idea and the site, handed the site over to someone else to manage, now it's gone...
Anyway, now I have the itch again, and lo/behold, there are many choices in 1:16... yay. But where to start? I'm sifting through the forum, seeing lots of info, but I'm not sure what the best choices are.
Looks like:
> Tamiya full option... nice, but I'm not quite ready to part with a grand;
> Heng Long "plastic", very upgradable;
> Heng Long "metal", but maybe the plastic HL + available aftermarket is better?
> Hooben... seems to look pretty good, not sure I get all the options, who they are, what the kit actually is... confused.
> Trumpeter static kit... maybe can be used as a top hat on a HL?
So what am I missing? And what's a good choice here for a full function 1:16 R/C Abrams, but not necessarily for battling?
Pat M
The Tamiya are excellent if you want detailing, great engineering and IR battle ready, but for what you are looking for its overkill. Heng Long can be upgraded easily to meet your stated needs and for far less money. HL only become expensive if you choose to use them in battling as new electronics are needed. I run my HL Abrams harder then the majority 99% of Tamiya owners would ever dare. The HL Abrams with metal suspension arms, metal road wheels/sprocket, steel gear boxes, upgraded motors, metal/rubber padded track, running at 9.6 volts will eat the Tamiyia Abrams alive in durability and fun of driving hard (that last statement is going to light a fire). Oh and should with all the listed improvements not cost much over $500. If you do break something the parts are cheaper and easier to come by.
Here are a some photos of a few of my upgraded HL Abrams having fun. You will notice that there are next to no photos posted in this forum of Tamyia Abrams being driven like this.
If you are in California there is going to be a tank trials course being put on by the San Diego Tank Club on Sept 1st. I am not a member, but will be attending and running these two Abrams on the trials course. So lets see some Tamiya Abrams owner come out and show what their Abrams can do.
Yes getting air time.
Hard power turns in soft sand.
Jumping a ditch. The landing was hard and nothing was broken