Rebellion, you hit the nail on the head. I hold Tamiya up high in the clouds, far superior to HL. The problem is, I really don't drive HLs, in reality, my KV should be called an Asiatam. Now that I have a Panzer III and a KV built out in similiar fashion, I'm tryng to figure out where they measure now. I know the electronics are not up to par, but less than $300 fixes that. The more I read about Tamiya, the more upgrades I hear about being considered mandatory and the lists tend to get long. I think it's safe to say HL and Tamiya upper hulls are molded very well, if not exact copies, so now I'm looking suspiciously at the lower hulls and suspension systems. Servo's suspension is nice and enough to end the debate in my head, but then he tosses in that it's 3rd party. Then the question arises whether it could bolt into the asiatam. How interesting this development is. I am curious now as to what the best $1000 battle ready tank is, radio and receiver not included. Has Asiatam made it possible to build an equal tank for the same or lower cost than a Tamiya?

Yes Servo, the return rollers do appear to be attached to plastic only, but the don't feel like it as there is no give. I have always scratched my head over that decision and can't logically with it. The only thing it does is place the bolts flush with the interior wall so the electronics tray can slide by.

Well, answering this question of Tamiya or not seems to be getting bigger, not smaller in my head. I always thought it was clear as black vs white. I think I will hold off on a Panther G until Asiatam rolls their shiny hull out and then do a detailed comparison. I would really like it Servo if you could help me part out what is considered a competition Tamiya Panther and maybe work with me to plan out an Asiatam Panther up to specs. We can figure out what upgrades are swappable between the two. I do not mind dropping $1k into an Asiatam Panther if the end result is better or equal to a $1k Tamiya only because I have not owned a Tamiya yet and I already have 2 $500 HL/Asiatams. If anyone has a competition ready Tamiya KV, we could do the experiment with that model since I already own it and just need to work on the electronics side.

This is not an attempt to compare HL vs Tamiya guys. This is my attempt to build the best $1,000 tank. Like in paintball, you buy the stock gun, then upgrade every part in it. If the upgrades are the same in quality as the upgrades to the Tamiya, then it's time to start asking where the best starting point is.