xcalbr2

Hello all from a future tanker!
I have been dabbling in planes and helis and have had a few cars in my day and am interested in getting into tanks.
I have been reading most of what I can find on them and have been led to believe Tamiaya is the best (?) albiet the most expensive.
Heng long is less expensive but requires alot of updates to make reliable and strong...
I do not have a huge amout of money to parlay on my hobbie so looking for some help.
I do like the tiger (heavy tank with wide tracks) and would like some advise on my purchase.
Anyone have a suggestion for a heavy tank other than the tiger? or different brand than Heng Long?
Again, I need to keep costs down so cant be some $1700.00 wonderful tank that I am sure I would want and salavate over.
I want something I can run outside, proportional, that can take a beating (gently of course) and not require repair every time I run it.
I can do my own repairs and upgrades so that is not the issue.
Does one have to use the supplied radio? Can they be had without radio? Best place to buy one or maybe a used one for sale somewhere?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Xcal > future tanker!!

Panther G

You would hardly need to spend 1700.00 dollars on a Tamiya Tiger. You can get them for less than 600.00 dollars at the AAF.

sevoblast

Welcome to our hobby! First off, a word of advice. Most health insurance policies will pay for the rehab for the tanking hobby. There is no known cure, but rehab will at least wean you from spending the food and rent money on tanks...at least in theory.

You can get a good Tamiya kit for as Panther G said in the $600 dollar range. Assuming you have nothing, you will then need a reasonably good radio, 2.4 gig is recommended, at least one battery for the tank, and a battery charger. All told, if you shop in a frugal manner, you can come out for roughly 700-750 dollars for all, and have a top of the line tank that will last you for years.

The Tamiya Tiger 1 is an excellent runner out of the box, aka OTB, and needs zero upgrades for normal running and use. The transmissions and tracks, and electronics, are fairly bullet proof, and if needs be over time, you can readily get spare parts.

The beauty of many of the available Tamiya kits is if you want to get fanatical about detail and time frame, you can modify the tanks with readily availble parts. For instance, while tanks tend to evolve in their production and service life times, the Tiger 1 is divided in to three models for the sake of simplicity, early, mid, and late. The changes involved various external details, which is what we are concerned with in the hobby. Changes were made to the road wheels, external air filters, commanders hatch and cupola, ventilation, mantlet for the main gun, and various smaller details. However, at the end of the war, it was common to see late Tiger 1 hulls with early or mid turrets, and early hulls with mid or late turrets, etc.

It boils down to what you want to do with your tank, and how far you want to go in detail, if any. The stock Tiger 1 from Tamiya is an early, but the detail is excellent, and the kit instructions are better than excellent. And if you have any questions, all you have to do is post here, and a herd of us will be there to help you. We are also here to help you with construciton details and painting, so do feel free to ask.

Only problem is there is no such thing as 'one tank', or in our case, 10 tanks. It also helps if your wife or lass gets interested in them. Mine did. We both attend group therapy every week. "Hello, we are Bob and Ye'lean'chka, and we are tankoholics.....".

HAL_HUSKER

+1 to Panther G and Sev...
I started with HL as wll as many of my colleagues in our Club, but finaly they undestand the reality of Tank Battles. And the reality is - Take Tamiya if you gonna fight with your opponents. +enjoy tank construction and sound!

Ern

Well said Servo and Hal. There's is also the question of what are you going to do with it? Do you plan on joining a club, IR battle, just drive it around, or does airsoft interest you? The Tamiya they speak of is the Full Option kit with the infrared battle system. I don't know if anyone has put an airsoft in a Tamiya, so HL or the smaller VSTank may be worth looking at.

Welcome to the addiction!

yellowshaker

My Feedback: (1)

Welcome aboard!!! What you are looking for is a tamiya because honestly, OTB, you will have a fine runner. As Sev said 750 should about cover al that you need to get the tank and all the hardware to run it. Of course, if you decide to start doing all the little detail work and upgrades, the sky is the limit. Good luck and keep us posted!!!

YHR

As always I will present the other side.

Nothing wrong with Tamiya, Over all a very good package, You however are not a newbie to RC. Fixing things and the simple maintenance these things require will be well with in your grasp and you have less to be afraid of then a guy who has never dabbled in RC.
Heng Long Panther is a solid tank, and it comes with a basic battling system right out of the box. Not Tamiya compatible. However You could have three Henglongs battling one another for the cost of one Tamiya.

Heng Long Sound is crap. However there are options that will make them sound BETTER then a Tamiya.

The downfall of Tamiya is the cost makes it prohibitive to experiment with. The tank is good enough out of the box to quell the need to improve anything. It is good enough to run as is. This is good and bad as it tends to stagnate the desire to improve. Darryl Turner and others are guys who have upped RC tanks to another level, but again it is the quest for something better then stock the drives the hobby to new heights. Start adding all these upgrade to a Tamiya and the cost goes up quickly

Because of Heng Long we have Elmod, DBC and a host of other cottage industries that cater to the Heng long upgrade market.

I have nothing against Tamiya or their standard IR battling system, but I am continually amazed by people who quickly discount Heng Long as a viable option into this hobby, and that is why I continually stand up for Heng long and everything their existance has done to grow this hobby.

Out of the box, you can have a lot of fun, even with the limited IR system. Taping off sensors, and lenses to further the range of the IR beam can have just as an effective effect on game play as the Tamiya electonics present. Why should a firefly with an upgraded 17 pounder have no advantage in a firefight. Tamiya standards and club rules give you no advantage. However a lens that can extend the range of the IR Beam would give you a realistic advantage over a standard Sherman.

So why not take the cheap Heng long IR system and think of mechanical things you can do to make up for the weaker electonics package. Optically extend the range on the Tigers, and shorten the range of the 75mm shermans. Even with five hits to destroy that all heng longs have these other ideas can more then make up for the shortfall of the electronics.

When I come to Danville I will bring a couple of IR range extenders that I would like to test and demo, just to open up the possibilities of something else. Even if it is not allowed in the field, at least people will see the possibilities a development like this might have on the fun factor. Why shouldn't my Sherman Firefly be able to pick off targets at a greater distance then a 75mm Sherman?. I hopefully will also be able to bring along the new sound system to demo to people. This system will hook up to a stock Heng long and produce sounds better then Tamiya. Nice thing is the same package can be fitted to a Tamiya, and used to enhance Tamiya's as well.

Bottom line

A stock Heng long with a DBC makes a good Tamiya compatible tank, and is a good starting point.

I would never say don't buy a Tamiya, because I feel they are a fair value for the money, but so are Heng Long.

If you like tanking , you will buy more then one, and chances are you will have both brands in your stable anyway

Dan

HAL_HUSKER

Dan,
could you also make some video, that we can also see the innovations?
We have many HengLong Tankers, that need to know how to make their tanks happier...

thecommander

Welcome Xcalbr,

Go with the Tamiya. You are obvioiusly not an novice RCer and the HL will only fustrate you. You can use one of your other radios for the tanks. You will just need a receiver (no battery or servos are used wit the Tamiya DMD & MF units) and maybe a 75 MHz crystal for ground use. If you can find a prebuilt new or used tank you can save a great deal of time and a fair amount of money. Just buy it from a reputable seller with a history in Tamiya tanks. Make sure it is "Full Option" so you can add the Tamiya IR battle system. Here is a link to my youtbe channel that may answer some of your questions and give you some ideas. Enjoy : http://www.youtube.com/user/thecommandernj?feature=mhum

Bob, NEAD CO

YHR

Yes sure. The sound system has just had the first protoype built, and primary testing looks very good.

For IR ranges a couple of options exist. I will take this into another post, as I am hi jacking the intent of this thread.

HAL_HUSKER

2 YHR,
sent to U pm.

xcalbr2

Fellow Tankers- thank you for all of your suggestions and comments.
Is there any good place to purchase a used tank - tamiya perhaps?
And what would I look for if looking at a used one ?
thank you all again,
xcal

cherokee_140

From this post I would think that a box stock Tamiya tank it WAY out of your budget. And a used Tamiya is going to be just as if not more expensive then the kit....and doG knows what has been done to it.

Running a tank is very different then flying a plane or running a car...it is not everyones cup of tea.

No matter what people say Heng Long tanks do not require screw twisting after each run....if they did would you hear so much about them?

I came from a background that sounds much like yours, I started RC in the mid 80's, raced cars, flew planes, gas, lipo...even sail boats. Been there done that.

IMHO going into something new and dropping (at the cheap side of the scale) $700 is just flat stupid unless you just have that kind of money to toss away....and if you are asking about used equipment I would guess that you do not.

Get your self a HL tank from a good supplier, you will pay a little more for them to make sure everything works on it but you will get a tank that you can see what the tank experence is all about.

Tanks are a very different type of RC then just about anything I have done, Sail boats and rock crawling are about the closest thing to tanking.